Gambelli added that clients were “cautious about the economy.”
“They’re a little reluctant to commit quickly. Everything is being rethought right now,” the ad sales chief said, adding that the company was expecting a second-half recovery.
“With the writers strike, you may see a loss of GRPs, which I don’t think anybody anticipated. So that may mean clients might not get their money down where they want it. I think all that’s being taken into consideration right now.”
Why the fall schedule is falling later
In addition to negotiations, the strike also drastically affected Fox’s fall schedule, with the company delaying its fall lineup for the second year in a row.
“Rather than announce a schedule today that we might not be able to meet this fall, we will hold back until we have a better handle on what programming will be available to us,” Dan Harrison, evp of program planning and content strategy, told reporters in May.
The company finally announced its reality and animation-heavy schedule in early July.
