Another Dismal Year for the Upfronts
It just seems like good ol’ broadcast TV just can’t catch a break these days. Once again, another year has passed and the Upfronts are upon us and they are looking as dismal as ever:
“I don’t think there’s any network chief who can get up there and say they had a successful year,” said an ad buyer, who asked to go unnamed.
In terms of total primetime viewers, ABC is down nearly 13 percent this year, NBC is down almost 11 percent and CBS is down more than 7 percent, according to Nielsen.
Fox is up slightly but even its ratings juggernaut, “American Idol,” has shown weakness recently. News Corp. owns Fox and The Post.
Some of the declines can be attributed to the rise of digital video recorders, or DVRs.
The current live ratings used to negotiate ad rates don’t include any DVR playback, although the major networks and advertisers are trying to address that issue.
We love how they say “some” of the losses can be attributed to the rise of DVRs. How about we attribute “some” of the losses to the internets, video games and bittorrent pirates? That would punch up this story and lift it from the cilched and depressing ad-buyers-upset-at-Upfronts story.
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