Despite increasing ratings, cable networks remain tensed for a beating in the advertising upfronts, the annual event during which networks offer up their commercial inventory for sale to media buyers.

For years broadcasters were rewarded for declining viewership by ever-increasing ad prices in the form of cost per thousand viewers (CPM). Afterward, in cable, where ratings are growing, ad dollars grew even faster.

This year, however, with a slow economy compelling corporations to cut ad spending, the broadcasters took it on the chin, swallowing price cuts of 5% to 6% from last year's historic upfront.

Now it's the cable networks' turn.

Despite the seemingly good news that cable networks posted second-quarter increases of 9.6% in household delivery; 8.1% in household ratings; and 8.3% in share, in the topsy-turvy world of media buying, cable networks ? which took in a record $5 billion in last year's upfront ? are likely to take a bigger hit than broadcasters.

But nobody's certain about anything. Joe Mandese, editor of ?Media Buyer's Daily,? published by Brill Media Holdings, a sister company to CableWorld parent Media Central, says that ?it's a little confusing, since it's the first buyer's market in a long time. People are a little unsettled.? Mandese expects cable CPMs to be down a few more percentage points than broadcast networks' numbers, probably in the high single to low double-digits.

Upfronts are the roller derbies of marketing events, with all sorts of jockeying and posturing taking place before the first deal is made official and the real race is. And as of last week, outside of a few early packages, relatively few deals had been made.