UPN Network Sweetens Pot for Its Major Advertisers

Some of the UPN television network’s biggest advertisers will receive a package of “value-added promotions” in exchange for buying traditional air time at a premium for the upcoming season, a source said Friday.

The promotions, which could run the range from product placements to show sponsorships, are part of a recent deal between UPN and the media-buying arm of ad agency Omnicom Group Inc., according to a source familiar with the situation.

Omnicom “paid extra for the air time in exchange for value-added promotions. They paid extra in order to get this,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The deal applies to six of Omnicom’s most important clients, according to the Wall Street Journal: McDonald’s Corp., Cingular Wireless, Gillette Co., Sony Corp.’s PlayStation, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance and Vivendi Universal’s Universal Pictures.

Omnicom has tentatively agreed to buy an estimated $30 million of television time on UPN during the coming season, but it wants a little extra for having made such a big commitment, the Journal said.

“The Hughleys,” a family sitcom, is among the UPN shows for which product placement deals are being negotiated, the newspaper said.

Sony, Universal, Cingular, Gillette and State Farm confirmed the talks, according to the Journal.

A spokesman for McDonald’s said the company is “always looking for unique and innovative ways to reach our consumers,” but declined to provide specifics of the deal. UPN declined to comment, the report said.

According to the report, UPN hired Endeavor Agency, a Hollywood talent agency, several months ago to help promote its fall shows, and the firm approached Omnicom executives about the ad agency’s clients gaining access to UPN programs.

State Farm, which has bought air time on UPN for the first time, is negotiating a product placement within “The Hughleys,” a sitcom about an African American suburban family starring comic D.L. Hughley, the report said.

According to industry executives, another part of the pact still being negotiated calls for McDonald’s to be scripted into “The Hughleys,” the report said. The newspaper, citing those executives, said McDonald’s and Omnicom executives are expected to meet with the producers of “The Hughleys” to work out details.