The upfronts are over, and now everyone is just waiting to see how NBC will act before they start buying advertising.
Broadcast’s new King of the Hill has been in the basement for years, and therefore collecting significantly less ad cash than its rivals ABC, CBS and Fox (NBCUniversal boss Steve Burke has publicly cited a $500 million-$1 billion gap in profits with the other nets).
Analysts and executives are bracing for a major price hike from the newly confident Peacock as it attempts to make up lost ground and set prices in the same ballpark as the other networks.
The industry is also waiting to see how NBCUniversal’s new push to sell advertising across its broadcast and cable properties in themed packaging could affect rates. New ad sales boss Linda Yaccarino has been aggressively pushing Madison Avenue to look at buying inventory in these packages, and earlier this year NBCU split their ad sales teams into four buckets: Entertainment, Live Programming, Lifestyle, and Digital Video.
And Variety reported Wednesday that none of the new series unveiled at last week’s upfronts is generating the kind of buzz that identifies it as sure-fire hit that advertisers must act on to avoid being shut out.
Read More: Variety
Brief Take: NBC is finding itself in the unusual position of holding the power in the upfront market. How aggressively they decide to push their prices—and how much “packaged” sales they rack up, could dictate the direction of the upfront market for years to come.
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