| NEWS 04.08.09 11:19 AM |
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In the News: Geographers Map Hotbeds of Cultural Events, Upfronts Happening Earlier
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Geography Lessons for Cultural Events: A recent study of which neighborhoods receive the most buzz breaks down where film, television, music, art, and fashion events are happening in Los Angeles and New York. Professors at Columbia University and the University of Southern California conducted the research by mining pictures from events caught by Getty Images. The results show that even so-called hip neighborhoods like Los Angeles’ Silver Lake or New York’s Lower East Side can’t get out of the shadow of iconic locations such as the Sunset Strip or Times Square. [NYT]
Upfronts Well Under Way: Cable networks are holding upfront presentations further in advance. Telemundo, Discovery Networks, Nickelodeon, and ABC Family have already met with media buyers about the upcoming television year, and many think the channels are following the lead of NBC. The peacock network got a lot of attention last year for downsizing its presentation into a series of meetings and holding them more than a month ahead of the long established Upfront Week for the big four. This year’s upfront will be similarly structured but won’t take place as far in advance, bowing in New York May 4. [Adweek]
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General Motors, Segway, Upfronts, Upfront Week, NBC, 20th Century Fox, Wolverine |
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| NEWS 01.30.09 12:09 PM |
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This Year's Upfront Week Falls Into Place, Starts at Super Bowl
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 | The 2008 Fox upfront party
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
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FROM NEW YORK
The economy and the television industry may not be in the most stable position at the start of 2009, but The Hollywood Reporter noted that this year's upfront sales pitches—slated for May 18 through 21 in New York—won't look much different from the pared down, more businesslike presentations seen during the 2008 Upfront Week.
NBC still plans to forgo its old presentation at Radio City Music Hall for intimate "in-front" meetings with advertisers in April, and there definitely won’t be a return of last year’s carnival-like “NBC Experience” at Rockefeller Plaza.
The network actually plans to get an early jump on advertiser wooing at this Sunday’s Super Bowl. "They would never show you programming," a media buyer told The Hollywood Reporter, referring to past sporting events where networks entertained buyers. "I think the NBC plan is smart because they have a larger percentage of clients at the Super Bowl than they would at the upfront."
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Upfront Week, Upfronts, CBS, NBC, The CW, ABC, Super Bowl |
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| NEWS 07.22.08 5:39 PM |
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NBC Keeping Ahead of Schedule with 2009 "Infront"
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During yesterday’s Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles, NBC confirmed its plans to bring back this year’s “infront” presentation for advertisers in 2009. NBC canceled its usual upfront after the writers strike, instead opting to meet with advertisers in a series of meetings in April.
Departure from tradition seemed to work for the network, according to co-chair of NBC Entertainment Marc Graboff, who spoke about the decision with reporters. NBC's “infront” shifted the conversation with advertisers from traditional commercial space to the growing trend of product placement and brand integration. The events landed NBC exclusive advertising partners like General Motors for new fall shows more than a month before the other networks even met with advertisers.
The network did not announce whether it would stage another “NBC Experience” or anything comparable during the traditional upfront week in 2009. —Michael O'Connell
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Upfront Week, Upfronts, NBC Universal, NBC |
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| FROM THE EDITORS 05.19.08 10:20 AM |
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TV's Rejiggered Upfront Week Was Still a Slew of Open Bars
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 | | Maroon 5 at the CW party |
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FROM NEW YORK
Upfront Week was back—and slightly different—in New York last week, where major television networks pitched their fall lineups to media buyers and advertising execs. Given the writers strike, several networks opted to pare down their presence this year, cutting after-parties and reformatting their presentation process (hello, NBC).
As in years past, Manhattan was abuzz with a deluge of TV stars in town, dozens of open-bar parties, and a whole lot of schmoozing. And where there were holes, others were quick to fill the gap. Once ABC announced it was pulling its after-party this year, for example, the CW jumped in and hosted a presentation and a show by Maroon 5 at the Tent at Lincoln Center, ABC's previous stomping ground. CBS, too, canceled its infamous Tavern on the Green after-party, but the Cartoon Network swooped in with its first-ever Adult Swim party the same night, where Kanye West sang for hundreds of TV execs.
To get an insider's view on how the week had changed—or hadn't—we asked three local media buyers from three agencies to check in with us daily, giving us the lowdown on what they liked, what was cool, and what was lame. Their diaries from the week are here, and all of our Upfront Week coverage is here.
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Upfronts, Upfront Week |
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| NEWS 02.15.08 2:23 PM |
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CBS, NBC, Fox, and Others Confirm Upfront Presentations
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FROM NEW YORK
CBS led the charge of upfront-related news yesterday, announcing the network will once again host a presentation for advertisers on May 14 at Carnegie Hall—quelling months of speculation that the major networks would forgo the fancy (and costly) presentations and parties altogether. That said, CBS declined to comment on whether or not it will return to Tavern on the Green for its annual lavish after-party, though Variety reported that Tavern's sales office confirmed the space has been reserved for the afternoon and evening of May 14, adding "It's hard to believe CBS wouldn't offer advertisers some form of food and drink."
Reuters is reporting that because of the WGA strike, development plans for the 2008-2009 television season are much-delayed: "The usefulness of the presentations—where the networks parade out stars or their own executives for skits and dance numbers—[has become] the subject of the sharpest criticism."
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Upfronts, Upfront Week, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW, NBC Universal |
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| NEWS 01.24.08 6:03 PM |
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NBC, CBS "Reassessing" Upfronts
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 | Fox's 2007 upfront party
Photo: Mark Yumkas |
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Rumors of the WGA strike affecting the TV industry's upfront sales presentations are climaxing today, with CBS Corporation C.E.O. Leslie Moonves telling Advertising Age, “I think we’re all reassessing.” And those reassessments could lead to drastic changes in the week of parties and sales pitches that send media buyers and reporters fluttering around New York each spring.
Moonves's comments come on the heels of NBC Universal C.E.O. Jeff Zucker’s interview with Reuters on Friday, in which he said, "When people say the upfront, there are two things: one is the dog-and-pony show at Radio City, and the second is the way we sell the inventory. The way that we sell the inventory in an upfront selling period is not going to change. Whether we still need to do the dog-and-pony show is completely under review here, and you can look for an announcement on that from us very soon."
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Upfronts, Upfront Week |
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| GUEST QUESTIONS 05.31.07 7:30 PM |
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A Media Buyer Gives Her Take on Upfront Week
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 | | Our Upfront Week mole posing with Justin Chambers of Grey's Anatomy at the ABC after-party. |
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FROM NEW YORK
We gathered lots of
media buyers’ impressions of Upfront Week, and as a whole, they tell a hectic, fun,
sometimes contradictory story of the television networks’ annual sales pitches.
For more consistent (yet just as subjective) view, we asked a supervisor at a
major media buying firm to share her thoughts, day by day. Here's her take.
Monday
3 p.m., NBC
presentation, Radio City Music Hall
It was fair. No one was really buzzing about the shows
except Journeyman. They didn’t touch
on their extensions like late-night and morning programming too much, and I
think everyone was kind of grateful for that. They cut to the chase with the presentation.
5 p.m., NBC
after-party, the Rink at Rockefeller Center
All the talent was at the party. [The casts] of Friday Night Lights, The
Office, Heroes, and new shows
like Journeyman and Life. The party was like it’s always
been: It’s really nice because it’s at Rockefeller Center, and it’s never too
crowded. When I walked in, four people from The
Office were just standing there.
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Upfront Week, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW |
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| GUEST QUESTIONS 05.31.07 6:33 PM |
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Media Buyers Like Shrimp, Debate Whose Is Best
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 | ABC opened its upfront with an Ugly Betty musical number.
ABC/Donna Svennevik |
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FROM NEW YORK
Every May, a swarm of media buyers, ad execs,
talent, and other assorted television-industry types hits New York for Upfront
Week, the broadcast networks’ yearly presentations of their fall schedules. In
the hope of snagging millions in advertising dollars, the usually hard-sell
presentations are star-studded, and often stat-studded. And the parties that
follow are staged to wow, with plenty of photo ops with network talent,
mountains of shrimp, and free-flowing booze. While both attendees and the press
noted some fiscal restraint on the part of the networks this year, the
broadcasters weren’t exactly serving Saltines and cold cuts. After all, Advertising Age called Upfront Week a
“$9 billion annual event that is the financial pivot of the prime-time TV
business.”
NBC kicked off the week at Radio City Music Hall, promising
to “skip the song and dance” and get people out in under an hour and a half
(they did). CBS showed its wares at Carnegie Hall, with help from CSI: Miami star David Caruso, who was
happy to make fun of his on-screen persona. Pushing the multiplatform angle,
the net also aired a YouTube video of Caruso’s over-the-top one-liners on CSI and had ad sales president JoAnn
Ross address the crowd as an avatar. At Avery Fisher Hall, ABC staged a boffo
opening musical number starring the cast of Ugly
Betty and wrapped the presentation by giving away a plasma-screen TV (a
tie-in to the net’s upcoming show National
Bingo Night) and filling the theater with a thunderous marching band. Fox
kept it short and sweet, enlisting Keifer Sutherland to pretape a presentation
addressing Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori as 24’s Jack Bauer. (“Keep it to an hour. ... You’re on the clock, Mr.
President.”) In possibly a record for any upfront presentation, that’s all the
network took. (Perhaps it was a mea culpa: Last year’s clocked in at an
agonizing three hours.) Among the other networks vying for attention and ad
buys were Telemundo, Univision, the CW, ESPN, and Broadband Enterprises.
So how did they do? Did the networks get their money’s
worth? Well, our opinions don’t really matter, so we sought out the ones that
do: those of the attendees who slosh through the overcrowded week each year.
(“If you cut my finger off,” one high-level ad buyer said, “you can count the
rings of how many upfronts I’ve been to.”) Here’s what they had to say,
sometimes on the record, sometimes under the cover of anonymity, and sometimes
as they spoke to another guest, not realizing we were listening.
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Upfront Week, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW, ESPN |
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