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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.

It’s a sales pitch that’s been working for A+E Networks, a private New York company owned by Hearst and Disney (DIS) that operates a portfolio of cable channels, including History, Lifetime, and A&E. (A+E is the name of the company; A&E is the name of the channel.) According to data from SNL Kagan, ad revenue at A&E grew from $366 million in 2008 to $477 million in 2012. During that same period, ad revenue at History grew from $310 million to $499 million. A+E Networks generates roughly $1.2 billion of profit on $3.6 billion of annual revenue, according to a network source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the company’s finances.

Ad buyers know that over the past year, few companies have done a better job of capturing the fragmented attention of TV viewers. A+E has thrived thanks in part to a slate of reality shows that focus on lifestyles far removed from the office-tied lives of the white-collar, urban strivers who make TV. A+E executives brag that their channels air 18 of the top 50 entertainment shows among adults on ad-supported cable. The current lineup includes Ice Road Truckers (about arctic truck drivers operating in remote, dangerous conditions), Ax Men (logging crews), Swamp People (Cajun alligator hunters), Pawn Stars (Las Vegas pawnshop owners), and American Hoggers (feral pig exterminators in Texas). History recently aired the fifth season of Top Shot, a reality competition in which contestants shoot rifles, handguns, and grenade launchers.

Cablevision: About 3 million households can be targeted. DirecTV: About 12 million households can be targeted. Dish Network: About 8 million households can be targeted.

THE CHALLENGES No standardization: It's complicated and time consuming to run an addressable campaign across multiple operators because the technology can vary by company. Cablevision uses Visible World technology, for example, while Comcast uses BlackArrow. Marketers need to collect potential reach from each operator, determine the optimum frequency and then combine it all. DirecTV and Dish Networks are working to simplify the process by combining their sales efforts for addressable TV advertising for political campaigns. Rollout: Cable operators need to deploy technology on a market-by-market basis to enable addressability. Satellite operators and Cablevision can change the technology at one master facility. Inventory: Adding more addressable-enabled inventory requires networks to work with operators to slice up inventory. For example, NBC Universal and Comcast are partnering to make NBC-controlled inventory addressable-enabled on Comcast VOD.

IS IT RIGHT FOR MY BRAND? For brands selling products used by a broad audience, like toilet paper, there's still value in mass marketing. But if you're targeting a very specific consumer, addressable may be a good option. Ask yourself: Are there enough addressable-enabled households that match your target to make it worthwhile? Are there other options that can more efficiently deliver? In general, addressable is most exciting for marketers that don't normally advertise on TV due to budget constraints or because there's no efficient way to reach their niche audience,

Unfortunately for any would-be reformers, that annoyance is no license to quit putting on a show. "Anyone absent from the lineup will be noticed," he said. "They serve as a networking opportunity, are buzz-worthy and help develop more trustworthy relationships with the organization."

While networks try to outdo each other with celebrity appearance and stadium-worthy musical performances, only 4% called the presence of talent "extremely influential" on their decision to attend, their perception of a network or their ultimate investment. Some 42% rated talent "somewhat influential," while 38% called it "not very influential."

Research and data has become an important part of the mix at the upfronts, where networks and web publishers were eager to call out stats favoring their stories. But numbers can be manipulated any way the networks like, Mr. Flood said, and 72% of media buyers and advertisers found the research provided at the presentations only somewhat relevant to their decision making.

While big media conglomerates often emphasize the potential of their entire portfolio during negotiations, media buyers and advertisers care more about the power of individual networks, according to the research. Digital video was the hot topic this year, and on that front media executives agreed with sellers, with 75% saying they expected to increase spending in digital video over the next 12 months, compared to just 1% saying they expected to cut it.

The actual dollar amount going into the digital space is still small compared to TV, Mr. Cohen said. But there's no question money is coming out of broadcast TV, with 26% of respondents saying they plan to decrease the amount they spend on the Big Four networks. In comparison, 35% of those surveyed plan to spend more in cable TV this year.

In what's perhaps a bit of an anticlimax, buyers ultimately rated price as the most important factor. Some 82% of TV decision-makers and 76% of digital decision-makers said attractive pricing is the thing most likely to convince them to spend more. So, networks be warned: It doesn't matter if you have Jay-Z or Kanye West performing if your ads aren't an attractive value.

Creative, via Cossette New York, carries a whimsical, nostalgic message about how Schwinn bikes are a way to step out of the rat race, slow down and smell the bitumen.

The print and TV ads hearken back to Schwinn's heyday, when kids played in the real -- instead of virtual -- world, and bikes could double as Abrams tanks, except for the little handlebar bell, which, in fact, is the central image in the campaign.

Andy Coccari, CMO of Dorel's Cycling Sports Group division, tells Marketing Daily that the ad push is focused on women 25 to 54 because, "while purchase decision and ability to really connect with family aren't feelings exclusive to women, women are the chief purchasing officer of the family."

Ads will appear in pubs like Family Fun, Parenting, Shape and Working Mother. The TV spot, starting this week, runs for the rest of the year on national cable TV. Digital strategies include display, search and social media.

In the TV spot a young woman rides her Schwinn down a street. When she passes a young boy in his yard, glued to his DS game, she rings her bell. Magically, the video game is gone and he's playing on a tire swing. Then, on a city street, she passes a man yelling into his cell phone.

He says dealers will get point-of-sale materials and local market support, and subsidized co-op advertising.

Schwinn competes most directly with brands like Electra, Jamis, and Globe, per Coccari. "It's a saturated segment of the bicycle market, but Schwinn is number one, with 85% awareness in the U.S.," he says.

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."