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Major networks refute predictions of cable ad group
The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau's latest salvo in this year's battle for advertising dollars is a study charging the four main broadcast networks will owe $109 million to advertisers in makegoods for July and August. But networks debunked the study and media buyers voiced major skepticism.
CAB maintains ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox will deliver far lower audiences than promised to advertisers and thus will have to provide free spots to compensate. The trade group hopes the study will result in increased advertiser skepticism about broadcast TV, and more dollars for cable, especially in the summer when the broadcast networks' fare tends toward reruns.
Make-goods refer to the practice of providing free ad time if ads fail to reach the number of viewers a network guarantees an advertiser based on Nielsen ratings.
Broadcast executives, having just lived through an upfront selling period that yielded si billion less than a year ago for the fall-to-summer TV season, were quick to puncture holes in CAB's number crunching and disagreed with the contention that the final two summer months will leave networks struggling to keep advertisers...