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CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" is the most expensive entertainment program on broadcast, averaging $344,827. It's consistently the highest-rated comedy, with the one-hour season premiere this week watched by an average of 17.2 million people.

But the priciest scripted series is actually on cable, with AMC's "Walking Dead" costing advertisers upwards of $400,000 for a package of spots.

There are several cable programs that challenge broadcast as the most expensive in which to buy commercial time, including ESPN's "Monday Night Football," which costs about $400,000. But it's difficult to compare many cable ad packages to those of broadcast because cable often includes multiple airings and repeats of a show.

Ad Age's survey is compiled using data from as many as seven media-buying agencies. (See our 2013 TV ad pricing chart here.) The resulting prices should be viewed as directional indicators and are not the actual price that every advertiser pays for a 30-second spot. The numbers are based on a range of agency estimates that can vary depending on the amount of inventory purchased from a network, the inclusion of any nontraditional advertising such as product placements, and the relationship an advertiser and media-buying agency has with a network. Most TV advertising is typically purchased as part of larger negotiations, not on a one-off basis.

Another newcomer is ABC's "Scandal" at No. 9 for broadcast with an average of $217,546. Of those returning shows, 21 have seen the cost for ad time decrease, while another 20 have seen increases and 14 have remained relatively steady.

ABC's "Modern Family" saw a meaningful decline in pricing, down 15% to $239,650 from last season and dropping one spot to No. 7 from No. 6 last year.

For more traditional buying plans, Nielsen partnered with Pointlogic to create Nielsen Media Impact, an updated version of Nielsen's agency planning system used by 15,000 agency planners worldwide. Total audience ratings will be sent directly into agency planning systems through the Nielsen Media Impact planning tool, which is currently being tested by several global agencies to simulate plans and campaigns.

Agencies can select from more than 100 characteristics in Nielsen's TV panel, which is expanding in January from 20,000 to 40,000 households. This will allow planners to create audience target segments and pick GRPs (gross ratings points) by timeframe. Nielsen Media Impact will marry those segments with Nielsen's total audience data, allowing it to create and simulate a plan across all platforms, including broadcast, cable, streaming, Internet, mobile and print.

"It allows you to make share-shifted changes to make a schedule around what you want to buy" and run comparison reports to see how the two plans look side by side, said Abcarian. "You can then export this entire plan and load it straight into buying and programmatic systems."