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to network ad prices
Myers: 5% primetime dip, with daytime off 12.5%
By Elizabeth White
NBC may have gotten the television upfront rolling when it discounted its prices in June, but it also set a trend of nearly across-the-board CPM decreases for the industry.
That’s according to the latest Myers Report, which estimates the average CPM changes from the 2000 upfront for each of the major networks, dayparts, and TV media.
The broadcast network primetime CPMs declined an average of 5 percent, daytime CPMs dropped 12.5 percent, late night slipped 1.5 percent, and the morning and evening news decreased an average of 2 and 8 percent, respectively.
For cable and syndication, the story was even worse.
Cable network CPMs dropped an average of 20 percent, and syndication CPMs declined an average of 12 percent.
That’s because cable and syndication had to lower their prices even more to compete with the bargains being offered by broadcast networks, explains Jack Myers, chief economist and CEO of the Myers Reports.
"There’s less demand for daytime, which is the same reason for syndication’s decline," says Myers. "Advertisers move up from syndication and daytime to primetime when prices get soft."
But the upfront news wasn’t all bad. Some of the more-established cable networks were able to attract new advertisers with lower CPM rates.
"[Some networks] attracted new advertisers that may not have been willing to pay the higher rates but were willing to pay the discounted rates. CNN got some auto, and A&E and Discovery got some packaged goods," says Myers.
And two broadcast networks, CBS and the WB, managed to eke out CPM increases from last year.
For the WB, its average 4 percent CPM increase over last year was the result of a limited inventory and the strong performance of its schedule among the desirable adult 18-34 demographic last year.
"The WB has a younger demographic, good performance of its schedule last year, high expectations of its new schedule by advertisers, and a limited inventory," says Myers.
But for CBS, its average of a 1 percent increase over last year was made possible by its controversial strategy of scaling back inventory to hold pricing from 2000.
Most media analysts think that CBS will pay dearly for this strategy in the scatter market because it will be stuck with excess inventory in a still-weak economy.
"They’ll have to go into the market and pull the CPMs down, unless the scatter market materializes," says Myers.
"There will be a small scatter market in the fourth quarter, which will make CBS’s strategy seem like not such a bad idea. But for the first and second quarters, there’s no hope."
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Network CPM
Estimate |
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CPM Gain or Loss vs. 2000 (%) |
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Broadcast Networks |
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Prime |
-5.0 |
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CBS-TV |
+1.0 |
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Fox-TV |
-2.0 |
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NBC-TV |
-6.0 |
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ABC-TV |
-8.0 |
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WB |
+4.0 |
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UPN |
-4.0 |
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Daytime |
-12.5 |
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Late Night |
-1.5 |
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Evening News |
-8.0 |
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Morning News |
-2.0 |
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Cable Networks |
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Broad-Based Networks |
-20.0 |
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Major Niche Networks |
-12.5 |
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MTV |
-7.0 |
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Third-Tier Networks |
-17.0 |
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News |
-16.0 |
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Syndication |
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High Tier |
-7.0 |
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Mid Tier |
-11.0 |
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Low Tier |
-18.0 |
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| Source:
The Myers Reports
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September 4, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Elizabeth White is a staff writer for Media Life.
