Reuters: J. Walter Thompson CEO Sees TV Spend Plummeting

Bob Jeffrey, chief of J. Walter Thompson, the largest U.S. agency by revenues, said that network television buying may decrease radically in the next five years, perhaps by as much as half. Jeffrey was in Cannes at the time he made the comments, where liquor is flowing freely in the wake of the advertising festival. His agency, along with most other big firms, suffered an embarrassment when the major TV networks called the agencies' bluffs again and held out for large CPM increases, despite falling ratings. Jeffrey did say there was at least one tangible thing his agency was doing to counter the deep grooves pushing budgets to television: hiring creatives with backgrounds in online and other types of more diverse experiences.