NBCUniversal has wrapped up its upfront ad sales, according to people familiar with the situation.
With a broad array of broadcast, cable and digital assets, NBCU's strategy was to bundle them together to create large packages for advertisers. That strategy helped lead to longer negotiation and will make it more difficult to figure out how much in ad commitment its various units generated.
But these sources indicated that prime time for the NBC broadcast network got price increases on a CPM basis of 7% to 8%, just under broadcast leader CBS. With NFL football and Olympics, the network's volume increased to $2 billion to $2.1 billion from about $1.8 billion a year ago.
Some of NBCU's cable networks, including USA and Bravo got price increases in line with the market leaders. A big part of USA's schedule will be the off-net episodes of Modern Family, for which NBCU was seeking prices in line with top rated show such as TBS' Big Bang Theory.
The CW, Fox, and CBS all reportedly finished their upfront sales a week ago. It was not immediately clear whether ABC has competed its upfront sales.
Many cable network groups are also finished with their upfronts, including Viacom, Turner, Fox and Discovery.
