With upfront negotiations more than halfway done, buyers and sellers are saying that volume and prices for ads in nearly all programming other than sports are heading down for the first time in a non-recessionary year.
In the upfronts, prices have almost always gone up on a cost-per-thousand viewers (CPM) basis. This year, though, lower ratings, cord-cutting and economic worries have produced a perfect storm for buyers, who have long believed that ads in broadcast primetime are overpriced.
