End in sight for slow upfront

July 31, 2009 Seventy-four days after the last of the broadcast networks took the wraps off its fall programming lineup, the Sisyphean 2009-10 upfront finally is creeping to a close, with executives on both sides of the table indicating that business could finish up by the beginning of next week. After seven weeks of trying to roll the pricing boulder up the steep grade of a stronger-than-anticipated television marketplace, media buyers are nearing the summit. Buyers began making the ascent in late June, but the gravity of clients' demands for double-digit CPM rollbacks met with push-back from network ad sales executives, and time and again talks were sent crashing back down the slope.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.