UPFRONT PRICES SOAR FOR CHILDREN'S TV PROGRAMMING
Rate Increases Spike as High as 20% Above Last Year
By Wayne Friedman and Jon Lafayette

The TV upfront market for children's programming is off to a bullish start, with advertising prices soaring 15% to 20% and more over a year ago.
Viacom chief Mel Karmazin boasted of 'very strong double-digit pricing increases.' Nickelodeon's SpongeBob-SquarePants, above, is part of Viacom's programming.

Tech categories
The chief reason for the rise in prices is skyrocketing advertising demand in the entertainment categories, including children-targeted DVD and video sales, electronics and video games. Those categories typically pay higher ad rates than other categories because they change media schedules almost daily and children's TV programmers charge higher prices for such flexibility.

Nickelodeon, the Cartoon Network and other networks have been grabbing these hefty price increases, according to media executives. Overall, children's advertising revenue has grown 5% to 10% over the $750 million in national children's TV advertising of a year ago, according to media-buying executives.

Artículo completo en Ad Age.com