Recession, strike make for grueling selling season.(The Upfront)

Advertising Age, May, 2008 by Steinberg, Brian

Byline: BRIAN STEINBERG

To say the nation's big broadcast networks have their work cut out for them this year would be an understatement.

ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW tried last week to persuade marketers to commit something close to $9 billion to their coming prime-time schedules-even though their program development was gutted by the writers strike and remains threatened by a potential actors strike and current shows are watched less and less by an audience increasingly comfortable with digital media. And then there's that pesky faltering economy to worry about.

All that means advertisers are likely to take their time before putting their money down in this year's round of haggling.

"I don't expect there to be any kind of stampede...

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