This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how macroeconomic factors like higher inflation and supply chain challenges will play a role in this year’s annual TV advertising upfront negotiations.

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There isn’t a clear consensus among TV network and agency executives as to how exactly these factors will affect this year’s upfront negotiations. Some advertisers may look to rein their upfront commitments, while others may seek an opportunity to exploit a period of potentially tempered overall demand or may feel a pressure to lock up inventory while demand is diluted to avoid a rate hike when more ad dollars hit the market. If anything, the situation could even out where this year’s upfront does not ramp up like last year to be even more in sellers’ favor but does not revert into resembling a buyer’s market like in 2020 and settles somewhere between the two.

“What we’re seeing right now are budgets are, depending on the client, fairly flat. Some are down. We don’t see a ton up,” said Stacey Stewart, U.S. chief marketplace officer at UM Worldwide.

Read more on Digiday.