According to this article at The Wall Street Journal, the major networks are trying to get as much of their advertising inventory sold ahead of the fall season. And who is doing the best? Would you believe that General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC network is doing pretty good in terms of its ad sales? I know that might be difficult to comprehend, considering the network's ratings erosion. Believe it or not, though, NBC has achieved a record when it comes to upfront ad sales. It apparently is the first network ever to move just about the sum total of its ad inventory during the springtime.

NBC has generated approximately $1.9 billion in upfront revenues. I think this is impressive, especially given the competition of Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, CBS (NYSE: CBS), News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox, and The CW, which is a partnership between Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and CBS. However, there is an interesting detail in the article that goes beyond the headline and does explain NBC's success to a certain degree. The dynamics of the upfront have been affected by a reduction in inventory that will be available once the season gets started. Because of this, these ads, the so-called scatter market, are more expensive. So, ad buyers have a natural incentive to take out as much upfront inventory as possible.

There's a great article over at The New York Times. It's about all the changes happening at the broadcast networks concerning the traditional upfront model -- the practice of presenting to advertisers around the month of May a new portfolio of programming to be commenced in the fall season and the subsequent booking of ad dollars for said programming. That's how the process has worked -- CBS (NYSE: CBS), General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC, Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox, and Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) and Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) CW show their wares now so that they can sell commercial inventory well ahead of the season premieres.

Well, according to the article, you can thank -- or blame -- the writer's strike for the dismantling of this quaint mechanism. I chose to thank the strike, because I think change is good in this case. You see, the broadcasters want to move to a 52-week season -- i.e., they want to debut new shows on a year-round basis instead of all at once, thus neutralizing the need for big upfront promotions. Actually, I should point out that there were probably other factors that helped this decision along -- most of them centering around costs and expenses. The expensive pilot-development process just isn't where it's at anymore. In fact, I wrote about this new paradigm back in April when NBC's co-chairman Ben Silverman was embracing it -- he's actually going for a 65-week season!

Do you remember the old Fox show Beverly Hills, 90210, the one that featured Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry? The CW, a joint venture between CBS (NYSE: CBS) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), certainly hopes you do. According to The Hollywood Reporter, an updated spinoff version is in the works by CBS Paramount Network TV.

The late, great TV producer Aaron Spelling gave us the original show back at the beginning of the 90s, and it was one of the programs that really defined and made News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)'s Fox network famous. I do remember the hype and excitement that surrounded the series and its stars; I also remember the controversies with Doherty, and the nepotism with the hiring of Spelling's daughter, Tori. All in all, it was an interesting project. If The CW can capture the magic of this old idea, then it will prove that mining library product is an efficient way of bringing in the ratings.

It'll be cool to see how a new set of 90210 brats utilize modern digital devices like YouTube, eBay, text messaging, etc. And it will be interesting to see how this new version fares; I'm sure there are plenty of blogs deriding this notion. But, like I said, this is all about making proper use of intellectual assets. CBS is the owner of Spelling Television's assets, and it would do well to mine whatever it can to compete against Disney (NYSE: DIS)'s ABC, General Electric (NYSE: GE)'s NBC, and Fox.

Disclosure: Steven Mallas owns Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

So, I was checking out headlines on The Hollywood Reporter's website when I came across an article that discussed CBS (NYSE: CBS) CEO Leslie Moonves and his comments regarding pilots and the TV development process in general; these comments were made during CBS' earnings call. Moonves believes that developing a network series is more expensive than it needs to be, and he was quoted in the piece as describing the generation of multimillion dollar pilots as "vastly overrated." He said that the writers' strike actually saved CBS about $70 million. And, he seems to question the correlation between expensive sums thrown into the development of a series and the odds of success.

All I can say is -- thank you! Finally, the religion is starting to spread (I hope). It's not popular to state this, but I just don't think media companies such as Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), Viacom (NYSE: VIA) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) need to bid up the compensation of talent to be effective at assembling a valuable library of entertainment product. Let's face it -- we've always known that big salaries for stars and/or an expensive development process never guaranteed a good return on invested capital on an entertainment project -- there are just too many variables, too many vagaries involved in the acceptance or rejection of a project by the public at large. I truly hope that CBS, Fox, ABC, General Electric (NYSE: GE)'s NBC, and the CW start to cut development costs as aggressively as possible following the lessons learned from the writers' strike.

I'm not holding my breath, however. I know that whatever lessons have been learned will be forgotten soon enough. Shareholders in media companies need to pressure their CEOs into reducing costs spent on the creation of entertainment. Execs like Moonves should have had the guts to call pilots overrated a long time ago; I don't think a writers' strike was necessary to bring this issue to the forefront. Please, don't forget your current sentiment -- a lot of shareholders are counting on you.

Disclosure: I own shares in Disney and General Electric.

In early 1995, 2 "netlets" went on the air -- The WB and UPN. Despite some truly inventive and stellar programming offerings: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Felicity, Gilmore Girls, Homeboys From Outer Space ... errr, scratch that last one ... the stations were never able to truly compete with their larger rivals. Last year, in an effort at synergy, the pair decided to join forces as The CW, which is a combined venture of CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) and Warner Brothers Entertainment, a division of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX).

While the network has retained some reliable aging standbys, including Smallville and America's Next Top Model, it hasn't enjoyed a breakout, critically lauded hit just yet. Last year's merger allowed for very few new shows, and those that hit the airwaves were short-lived. (Remember Runaway with Donnie "He'll always be a New Kid in my book" Wahlberg?)

But this season, critics are thinking the little-network-that-could may have struck gold in the most unlikely of places ... hell. Reaper, which premiered last night in the 9:00 Eastern/8:00 Central time slot, follows the story of a 21-year-old slacker whose soul has been sold to the devil.

As I noted last week, these are exciting days for television viewers as season and series finales are being fired at us every night. Meanwhile, every day, a major network unveils its scheduling plans for the upcoming fall season. As Maggie noted over at TiFaux.com, "It's like Christmas, only you don't get to open your presents for four months."

General Electric Co.'s (NYSE: GE) NBC was first to report yesterday, and there weren't many surprises. Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE: DIS) ABC is in focus today, with only a handful of shows still on the bubble.

My stress level begins to build tomorrow when CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) makes its upfront decisions known to the world. At issue for me personally is How I Met Your Mother. This ratings-challenged Monday-night comedy that, while it isn't the best thing on television, is unique, quirky, and smart. The five core characters are all strangely likable, from ultra-modern Canadian woman Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) to suspect Lothario Barney Stinson (the incomparable Neil Patrick Harris). Last night's season (hopefully not series!) finale wrapped up some plots, but left the future wide open. I only hope we get to see more of the gang next year and beyond -- especially since the audience (and the central character) has yet to meet the titular mother!