Playbooks · TV budgeting
Price prime-time inventory with the correct uplift
This job turns a base off-prime CPP into one blended price for a deal that spans prime and off-prime slots. The output is the number that goes into the client rate confirmation and the budget allocation by daypart.
What you need first
- Base off-prime CPP for the target audience, from the current rate card
- Prime-time uplift factor for the same audience, from the channel's uplift grid
- Total GRP target for the deal, from the media plan
- Prime/off-prime GRP split, from the schedule or daypart mix agreed with the buyer
- Any volume or agency discount, from the negotiated terms sheet
The procedure
- Pull the base off-prime CPP for the target audience from the rate card
- Pull the prime-time uplift factor for that audience from the channel's uplift grid
- Apply the uplift to the base CPP to get the prime CPP
- Split the total GRP target into prime and off-prime GRPs per the schedule
- Multiply each GRP tranche by its own CPP to get prime spend and off-prime spend
- Sum the two tranches to get gross spend, then apply the volume discount to get net price
- Divide net price by total GRPs to get the blended CPP for the deal
Worked through with numbers
Base off-prime CPP is €850 (W25-54, current rate card). Prime uplift is 35%, so prime CPP = 850 x 1.35 = €1,147.50. Total target is 600 GRPs, split 220 prime / 380 off-prime per the schedule. Prime spend = 220 x 1,147.50 = €252,450. Off-prime spend = 380 x 850 = €323,000. Gross = 252,450 + 323,000 = €575,450. Agency volume discount is 8%: 575,450 x 0.92 = €529,414 net. Blended CPP = 529,414 / 600 = €882.36. Read it as: since off-prime carries more GRPs than prime in this split, the blended CPP sits closer to the €850 floor than to the €1,147.50 prime rate.
Where it goes wrong
- Apply the uplift to the blended CPP instead of the base off-prime CPP before splitting, which compounds the premium across the whole schedule instead of just the prime tranche
- Apply the volume discount to each tranche's rate instead of to gross spend, which changes the discount base and understates net price when the split is uneven
- Carry over last cycle's uplift factor instead of pulling the current grid, since channels revise prime uplift seasonally and on renegotiation
- Assume the spend split mirrors the GRP split, when a heavier prime CPP means the same GRP ratio produces a different spend ratio
How to know it is right
Confirm the blended CPP falls strictly between the off-prime CPP and the prime CPP, and lands closer to whichever tranche carries the larger GRP share.
Terms used