Viacom Inc. (VIA, VIAB) Chief Executive Philippe Dauman said Wednesday that it's "probable" that the upfront season will drag on longer this year as advertisers move cautiously amid the economic recession, but he said the outlook continues to improve.

"The tone is much better than it was a couple months ago," Dauman said at an investor conference hosted by Sanford C. Bernstein.

The annual upfront season, when TV networks showcase their new programming lineups for the fall and lock down advance deals with advertisers, recently concluded in New York. In their presentations, network executives tried to counter gloomy assessments of ad markets as analysts predicted a year-over-year decline in ad spending at the upfronts of 10% to 25%.

At the same time, network executives stressed that upfront dealmaking will likely continue late into the summer and that they would be confident in their prospects if advertisers wait until the season gets underway to try their hand in the so-called scatter market. That sentiment partly reflects strategic posturing as ad buyers lobby for lower prices and sellers project a willingness to wait them out.

Dauman said that some ad categories, like fast food restaurants, remain strong and that pricing "has held up well."

"I think we're at a point in time where there has been stabilization," he said. "We've seen it now for a number of weeks going back to March, where the deterioration we saw at the end of last year and the beginning of this year stopped."

Shares of Viacom traded recently at $23.66, down 36 cents.

-By Nat Worden, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5216; nat.worden@dowjones.com