Once again, TV networks are leaning on sports to goose ad dollars.
As the five broadcast networks meet Madison Avenue this week in the annual pitch for their share of the $74 billion spent each year on TV ads, CBS is most likely to secure the biggest increase, one Wall Street analyst predicts — because it will introduce Thursday-night NFL football.
“There’s going to be more sports inventory and more football inventory,” Topeka Capital’s David Miller told The Post.
Miller expects CBS to take the biggest slice of ad dollars during its annual pitch, known as the upfronts, booking $2.55 billion. CBS will be able to push the cost of reaching a thousand people (CPM) by 7 percent, Miller said, while increasing its share of the total spend by about 2 percent.
Overall, Madison Avenue is expected to spend around 1.9 percent more on broadcast TV upfront spending, said Miller, increasing the dollar amount to $9.21 billion.
NBC and Fox disclosed their fall plans to Madison Avenue on Monday, with ABC making its pitch on Tuesday and CBS on Wednesday.
Miller also forecast:
- ABC is the only other network to eke out a volume increase, up 0.5 percent to $2.35 billion, with CPM costs rising 6 percent. That’s likely because it held back inventory during last year’s upfront.
- Fox, meanwhile, will command a 5 percent CPM uptick and see volume flat at $1.81 billion. Fox has fewer hours to sell than other networks.
- NBC will end the season on top of the heap with 18- to 49-year-old viewers, and could win a 3 percent increase in CPM. However, it will also see volume down 5 percent to $2.01 billion.
- Mini-broadcast network CW, owned by CBS and Time Warner, will be a loser this season, seeing its pricing decline by 1.5 percent and its volume off by 2.2 percent, with its total haul at $490 million.