NICKELODEON GIVING FREE ADS TO SPONSORS

With Nielsen ratings indicating that Nickelodeon’s kids audience has fallen 15-20 percent in recent months, the Viacom-owned channel has wasted no time giving advertisers “make goods” for its failure to deliver guaranteed audience levels, MediaPost said on its website today (Monday). Moreover, the channel is providing advertisers on-air inventory in the third quarter, the most desirable time of the year for many of them, particularly toy manufacturers who rely on the holiday period for a substantial portion of their annual revenue. Some analysts interviewed by the trade publication pointed out that Nickelodeon may have had a large amount of unsold inventory on hand in the fourth quarter this year due to slower sales during the “upfront” period at the beginning of the season. The downside is that its inventory is now nearly depleted for the remainder of the year, leaving in short supply ad availabilities in the “scatter market,” which usually command higher prices than those in the upfront period.