Q1 Local+National

Week-to-Week Pacing Changes

This week, Q1 Core pace fell by a tenth of a point, but March alone picked up 0.4 points.

March's growth was seen across quite a few categories: ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox nets all grew, as did the Midwest, Northeast, and South Atlantic regions, and all DMA groups.

Forecast Updates

I'm thrilled to report a small March upswing that has led me to raise my forecast by half a point for the month. Given that the growth was spread across multiple affiliations, regions, and market sizes, this clearly isn't just late March Madness sales, something many of our CBS customers have mentioned. It suggests there's both a general late-booking trend across all stations and the typical end-of-the-quarter surprise business we often see. Whatever the reason, we'll take it.

We're in that slow period before the start of the next quarter, when there's a lot of negotiating happening but not a lot of business actually booking. This is absolutely normal: between now and April 1st, stations typically write nearly 40% of their Q2 business. While activity is a little heavier in the back half of the month, the billing trajectory is fairly steady across the entire month — so buckle up for a lot of orders headed your way.

Here are my forecasts for the week:

Q1 vs. 2025:

• -4.0% for January – flat to last week

• +3.0% for February – down 0.7 points from last week

• -4.7% for March – up 0.5 points from last week

• -2.0% for the quarter – down 0.1 points from last week

2026 vs. 2025:

• Q2: -6.8%

• Q3: -8.5%

• Q4: -11.7%

• 2026: -7.0%