know | Future

In a game of chicken with media landscape changing implications, advertisers and the networks are double daring each other to flinch as reported by an AdAge report on this year’s network upfront.  The wrangling between the agencies and marketers versus the networks: the former want to use only live viewership as the ratings standard, the latter are holding out for the new Nielsen Live Plus numbers which include PVR viewers as far out as seven days from original airdate.  There is almost universal agreement that the agencies are holding the cards on this one and will ultimately prevail.  The networks are definitely showing the behavior of a sunset industry by attempting to squeeze an ever higher price for an ever decreasing audience.  The differential between live and live plus hardly merit this kind of battle as the numbers are still low, but it proves that even the networks have seen the writing on the wall.