The upfront advertising market got rolling Thursday night as Fox cut deals with many of the major agencies, according to multiple sources in the market.
The sources said Fox got price increases on the low end of double digits. They said that during negotiations, Fox was primarily interested in getting advertisers into its new show X Factor, which will debut in the fall, and it being able to use digital inventory when programs are viewed on Fox.com and Hulu.com as make goods in cases where broadcast ratings fall short of guaranteed levels.
Fox moved first in last year's upfront as well. Fox tends to go early for factors including the network's younger skew and the fact that it programs fewer hours than its broadcast competitors, as well as the fact it was the highest rated network among adults 18 to 49 last season. All of that puts more pressure on movie studios and automakers looking to reach those targets.
Market sources said that media agencies had registered budgets with many broadcast and cable networks, but it was unlikely that deals were done with other broadcasters. Cable was likely to continue to register next week before getting deals done.
Going in to the upfront, the advertising market was expected to be strong, with some analysts saying that spending could top $9 billion.
Fox declined to comment for this story.
