According to the Wall Street Journal, the estimated $9.3bn (£5.7bn) for the autumn prime-time season represents a 13% increase on last year. The upfront season is when major advertisers buy advance prime-time advertising space from the major television networks, including NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC, before the season gets under way.
According to the reports, NBC has $3bn in commitments and has sold all of its available upfront airtime, making it the big winner in the upfronts. NBC hit shows include 'ER' and 'The West Wing', which recently lost its creator and executive producer Aaron Sorkin.
CBS, owned by Viacom and home to programmes including 'Survivor' and '60 Minutes', has secured about $2.2bn in upfront commitments. Walt Disney's ABC has around $1.7bn, with an autumn schedule including 'NYPD Blue' and the legal drama 'The Practice'.
Earlier this week, NBC chief demanded that CBS take a lie detector test after CBS boss Les Moonves claimed his network was the most profitable.
NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker derided the claims as "one of the more laughable claims of the year". He joked that Moonves should take a lie detector test on the NBC reality show 'Meet My Folks'.
Fox was saying it had done well among the youth audience while ABC was lagging behind its rivals. Fox had done will with 'American Idol 2', the final of which drew in more than 33m viewers last night.
The benefit of the upfront season to advertisers is that they can buy airtime on shows such as the Fox hit '24' at a lower price than mid-way through the season. And if a programme they have bought airtime on gets cancelled mid-way through the season, as around 80% of new programmes do, advertisers are not obliged to buy ads on the replacement programme.
Reports say that fast food advertisers have been big spenders in the upfronts, along with the DIY retail chains Home Depot and Lowe's.
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