With less buzz and ratings that have lost their shine for Housewives and Lost, ABC has reportedly been slow to secure upfront advertising deals.

But according to TV Week, the network has now started to see some movement. It's still in a very strong position, being second place in household ratings and the 18–49 demographic, but has made things worse by a dispute it started with advertisers over whether viewers with digital recorders counted in the ratings.

The site also reported that ABC was rumored to be wanting an increase of between 4 and 6 percent in the cost of commercial time when networks such as Fox were seeing an increase of 2 to 3 percent.

Cable ad sales executive told CEN that ABC's tactics could drive advertisers to cable. "If ABC had succeeded with DVR viewing, it could have spurred huge growth for cable," said an executive. Another said they hope ABC does succeed with higher rates "because that could make some clients and agencies place more money in cable as an alternative."

But Walt Disney Co. chief financial officer Tom Staggs told Reuters he was confident the network would achieve good sales in the long run. "Overall we see continuing good signs pretty much across the board in our businesses," he said. "Upfronts [advance ad sales] has been very slow to develop this year. It looks like advertisers are holding back more dollars than they had for instance last year. We will see a greater amount of total dollars in scatter [spot ad sales] this year."

The original articles can be found at TV Week and CEN.

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