Despite trying times in the industry, Great American Media CEO Bill Abbott believes his faith in building a cable network is being rewarded.

Last year, total-viewer ratings for Abbott’s Great American Family rose 76%, one of the biggest reported jumps for any network. In the first quarter, revenue rose 21% from Q1 2023, per the network, indicating demand for the family-friendly formula that the former Hallmark Channel head has brought to his new business. 

Abbott is hoping for more of the same as this year’s upfront unfolds.

In conversations with advertisers, key talking points will be the quality of Great American Media’s content, the audience the channel is bringing in, the familiar talent on screen and the channel’s growth story.

Great American Family will put 50% more original content on the channel, including about 20 movies, Abbott said.

Also Read: Great American Family Sets New Christmas Movie With Rhiannon Fish

“I think we’re delivering on what we set out to do when we started this. It seems like a long time ago, but it really isn’t. In linear, we’re competing with networks and beating networks that have been around for 20, 30 years,” Abbott said. "It’s fulfilling to see such support from the advertising community.”

The channel could use more support from the measurement business.

“We believe VideoAmp and their methodology is far superior than what Nielsen’s done,” Abbott said. Even Nielsen’s big-data methodology underweights some of the distributors that carry Great American Family in smaller counties, he said. “We’re having conversations around currency and how we approach the upfront.”

Great American Family has been delivering its pitch in one-on-one meetings with media buyers and clients. Its sizzle reel shows off the network’s talent, including newcomer Mario Lopez. Lopez introducing the network to buyers gives it added credibility. 

“We’ve got a really strong stable of actors who are behind us and committed to what we're doing,” Abbott said.

Signing talent like Lopez and Carlos and Alexa PenaVega have helped Great American Media bring more diversity to its programming. 

Lopez and his wife, Courtney Lopez, will appear in My Grown-Up Christmas Wish, which will be part of Great American Christmas 2024. The PenaVegas will star in the Great American Pure Flix movie Mr. Manhattan, which debuts May 24.

“Brand safety is important to advertisers, and our length of tune and C3 numbers are very, very strong,” said Kristen Roberts, chief revenue officer and executive VP of programming at Great American Media. “Our franchises like Great American Christmas are really big.”

Great American Family will be running its third Great American Rescue Bowl opposite the Super Bowl.

“Viewers love it and our advertisers love it,” Roberts said.

Last year, the Rescue Bowl resulted in more than 4,000 animals being adopted. “One of the most viewed pieces of content on PureFlix was a 2½-minute segment of the Great American Rescue Bowl that we broke out separately," Abbott said. “We want to lean into that more and more.” 

Abbott started up Great American Media in 2021 amid the pandemic and was launching a cable network at a time when cord-cutting was eroding pay-TV viewers and making streaming more attractive to advertisers.

“There have been easier environments to navigate, but all told we’re doing exceptionally well,” Abbott said.

Building a cable network was the right strategy, he said. “It’s hard to grow a brand and ratings and an appetite for your platforms in a world that is extremely crowded and where content creators are prolific,” he said. “This has certainly not been for the faint of heart, but we are in a good place and we’re getting to a better place.” 

Despite the erosion, Great American Family said it still has close to 70 million homes. “The linear model is a great way to build a brand and enter the mind of the viewer in a way we couldn’t do if we didn’t have a linear network,” Abbott said.

Demand for Family-Friendly Fare

He’s also sure there’s still an underserved demand for family-oriented content. 

“There will always be a segment of the population that just wants to be able to not have to fast forward through something or feel uncomfortable when they’re watching with their kids,” he said. “That segment has been a steadfast rock to build around for many years and I don’t think that’s changing.”

Some of the pressure on the company was relieved when Great American Family merged with Sony’s Pure Flix, in a deal that gave Sony Pictures Television a 49% stake in the business.

"That was a game-changer,” Abbott said.

Sony is a solid source of content and Pure Flix gives Great American Media a foothold in the streaming business and helps it clarify the sometimes tricky line between being family-friendly and presenting religious programming.

“The streaming business allows us to present so much more variety and to be in a number of areas that are more faith-focused, while on the linear side, we’re more focused on creating an experience that isn’t at all uncomfortable,” Abbott said.

“Great American Family is Great American Family for a reason, and Pure Flix, with its heritage in the faith-based space, has a little bit of a different audience and different take on faith and family,” he said. “But at the end of the day, certainly we want to represent faith in a positive light on all services. It’s just a question of degrees and how to attract the broadcast possible audience in linear.”

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.

Times have certainly changed but for years CBS, now part of Paramount Global, took to the grand stage at Carnegie Hall each May to show media buyers and advertisers what millions of viewers would be watching during the television season.

With practice, the network got good at it. Buyers dutifully showed up for the star-studded presentations. Bands like The Who would play. Clients enjoyed hors d'oeuvre and alcohol afterward. And, most years, the upfront market system resulted in higher and higher prices paid for commercials on broadcast television, the most powerful mass medium for selling goods and services.

For at least 20 years, agency executives like David Verklin of Carat would predict the excesses of the upfront presentation — and the late-night, cold-pizza fueled negotiations that followed — were no longer necessary and would vanish. The upfronts hung on. Sellers had leverage and sold most of TV's $70 billion worth advertising between Memorial Day and the start of the new season in the Fall.

Now, Paramount’s decision to abandon its Carnegie Hall presentation is the latest sign that broadcast is losing primacy in the television world. Like other media companies, Paramount is focusing on its streaming services — Paramount Plus and Pluto TV — both of which are at least partly ad-supported.

Paramount will be holding smaller, more intimate get-togethers for media buyers and clients leading up to the upfront market. The powers-that-be have finally decided that that million-dollar upfront extravaganzas have become costly dinosaurs in a new digital age of streaming. Linear ad sales are expected to decline, Carnegie Hall or no Carnegie Hall. CBS may generate less ad revenue this way but, in the grand scheme of things, broadcast matters less than it used to, so the party’s over.

Back in the Beginning

ABC was first to hold an upfront in 1962, with the timing of the new season tied to the release of new model-year automobiles. Up until the pandemic, it had presentations at Lincoln Center. NBC’s venue of choice has been Radio City Music Hall. NBCU has announced it will be back at the famous theatre in May 2023. Recent upfront presentations have pitched whole portfolios — including streaming and cable services, as well as broadcast.

The impressive venues rented for broadcast’s upfront week were designed to underscore the Hollywood magic only the major broadcasters could reliably bring to the small screen.

But broadcast’s hold on audiences wasn't permanent, nor was its place as the home of the best programming. As audiences were drawn to the choice offered by cable, cable ad reps urged advertisers to put a fraction of their clients’ budgets into cable — the 10% solution. Then cable networks like USA, TNT, FX and AMC began to assault the networks with Monk, The Closer, The Shield and Mad Men, premium shows worthy of premium ad prices.

Eventually, ESPN, Turner and Discovery elbowed their way into upfront week. But, much to the chagrin of cable execs like David Zaslav, who is now CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, cable ad prices (with some exceptions) never quite reached parity with broadcast network commercials on a cost-per-thousand CPM basis.

Then came the NewFronts for digital content, and Hulu and YouTube were in the mix. As more and more viewers turned to streaming and more streaming services sold advertising, the market shifted further from the broadcasters. 

In a peculiar brand of economic jujitsu, the broadcast networks have been able to raise prices based on the scarcity of ratings points they managed to generate. Supply and demand, as they say.

At this point, Paramount Global — owner of CBS, the most traditional of the broadcast networks — is saying it’s time to do something new, or at least different. Something maybe less expensive. Will the other big media companies, all cash-strapped as their streaming businesses burn money, follow? 

Back in the day, extravagant parties were important because they attracted the legendary cadre of 25-year-old media planners, who some believed really made the decisions about which shows and networks would get bought by big agencies before more senior executives started negotiating. (Some senior agency execs preferred spending upfront week in Park City, Utah.)

Now, more and more decisions are being made based on data, predictive algorithms and programmatic technology. It’s hard to buy one of those programs a drink, let alone impress them by letting them take pictures with the cast of a sitcom few will watch.

Maybe it’s nostalgia talking, but TV used to work. There were shows everyone watched. They were easy to find. They were free. You just had to sit through a few commercials — and some of those you could sing along to.

TV worked for advertisers too, until those digital charlatans started pointing to data, dubious though it was, that clicks, site visits and other nonsense translated to sales and bean counters started moving ad dollars online. Hard evidence that TV commercials work, and are worth even more advertisers than have been paying for them, seems to have come too late.

Perhaps Paramount is wrong and, like NBC decades ago, will stop trying to reinvent the wheel and come crawling back in the future.

Until then, goodbye Carnegie Hall. Farewell Ben Benson’s. Fox’s legendary Jon Nesvig was no Willy Loman. Selling TV seemed to be the best, easiest job in the world, leaving plenty of time for golf. As you get into the ad business, Netflix, you don’t know what you’re missing. ■

Paramount Global, parent of CBS, said it will abandon the network’s traditional upfront extravaganza at Carnegie Hall next year.

Instead, the company will be hosting a series of "high-impact, intimate gatherings in April for each of our major agency partners and their clients," said John Halley, the new head of ad sales at Paramount. 

Halley succeeded Jo Ann Ross, who presided over dozens of upfronts at Carnegie Hall. The company returned to Carnegie Hall this year after COVID-19 wiped out in-person upfront events in 2020 and 2021.

Viacom, which merged with CBS to create Paramount, stopped having big upfront events several years earlier, opting for smaller, agency-focused events. 

Last week, NBCUniversal announced it would have this year's upfront at Radio City Music Hall, where the company has been staging its presentation for years.

With the ad market expected to be weak going into 2023, viewing shifting away from traditional broadcast and cable networks toward streaming and the industry shifting to more tech and data-driven marketing, it’s not entirely surprising that the traditional upfront approach is under pressure. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish recently told an investor conference he expected fourth-quarter ad revenues to be weaker than expected.

The star-studded upfront extravaganzas cost millions -- an expense that has become questionable at a time when media companies are tightening belts and laying off staff.

But the upfront has remained the place where national television players have sold the majority of their inventory for years.

In a memo to staff, Halley explained his rationale for moving in a new direction.

"This continues to be a transformative period for our industry, and at Paramount, we know that new realities call for new approaches," Halley said. "The same principle goes for our 2023 Upfront presentation. As media investment becomes more complex, the event needs to evolve to meet this moment.

"Our targeted approach is intended to encourage conversation with our most trusted partners — to hear directly from the agencies and advertisers we serve and who form the bedrock of our business," he said. "We also have a fantastic story to tell about the power of our popular portfolio and enhanced offerings, and the earlier timing will increase share of voice, in a more fitting setting for deeper engagement." ■

The 2022 NewFronts will be held the week of May 2, with the first four days planned as in-person events, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) said Thursday.

All five days of NewFront presentations will be streamed for remote viewing. 

For the past two years, the NewFronts, where digital video companies share their programming plans with media buyers and advertiser — have been virtual online events because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The upfronts, held by the big broadcast and cable networks later in May, have also been held virtually the past two years. The Walt Disney Co. said it plans an in-person event this year, although it won’t be held in a large theater as in past years in order to create a more interactive experience.

The IAB will hold its podcast upfront the week of May 10-12. Those will take place virtually. ■

HBO Max Wednesday revealed the official trailer for its much-anticipated special, Friends: The Reunion during its virtual upfront presentation.

The special, which debuts on the streaming service May 27, reunites the six stars of the iconic 1990s series -- Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer -- for a real-life, unscripted celebration of the show. The Friends comedy series ran on NBC from 1994-2004.

Friends executive producers Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane serve as executive producers of Friends: The Reunion along with Ben Winston.

Also Read: TNT, TBS to Show Max Originals in Low-Ad 'Front Row' Windows 

TBS has partnered with Tiffany Haddish to offer a weekly Friday-night package of movies with diverse and inclusive themes, the network announced during WarnerMedia's upfront presentation Wednesday. 

Friday Night Vibes, hosted by Haddish, will debut June 18 and will feature comedy, action and culturally significant films that are inclusive of diverse voices, said the network. The movie block will launch with boxing-themed action films Creed and Creed 2.

Read Also: TNT, TBS To Show Max Originals in Low-Ad 'Front Row' Windows

Along with the movies, Friday Night Vibes will feature celebrity interviews and musical performances, with Haddish guiding viewers through special behind-the-scenes moments and authentic conversation. Friday Night Vibes will be executive produced by Reginald Hudlin, Phil Gurin and Byron Phillips.

In other WarnerMedia upfront news, WarnerMedia has renewed TBS’ competition series Wipeout and comedy series Chad, as well as truTV’s Fast Foodies.

• TNT will debut the fifth season of Animal Kingdom on July 11 while TBS premieres the third season of Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail on July 13.

• TruTV will debut the ninth season of Impractical Jokers on July 8, a week after the network debuts two specials based on the comedy series — Impractical Jokers Awards Show and Impractical Jokers: The Movie. The network will also premiere Backyard Bar Wars beginning July 8.

Read Also: Batman, Superman Series Coming to HBO Max and Cartoon Network

Freeform president Tara Duncan has been tapped to oversee Disney General Entertainment's Onyx Collective, a new Hulu-based content brand that will feature original content from creators of color and underrepresented voices. 

The brand, announced Tuesday during Disney’s virtual upfront presentation, will officially launch with the acquired documentary, Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised), which launches on July 2. 

Onyx will also feature documentary series The 1619 Project, based The New York Times Magazine and journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones's project of the same name. Lionsgate, Roger Ross Williams and Oprah Winfrey will produce the project, which examines the legacy of slavery in America and how it shaped nearly all aspects of society. 

Read Also: Jimmy Kimmel Threatens Baby Yoda at Disney Upfront 

In addition, all non-Marvel titles produced by Ryan Coogler’s Proximity production company will also appear within the Onyx Collective brand. 

“We’re building a home where creators of color are inspired, empowered and have unparalleled access to reach audiences around the world,” said Duncan, who will continue to serve as Freeform president. “This artist-first approach will make Onyx Collective synonymous with entertaining, brave and bold ideas told from a distinct point of view. I’m humbled by the opportunity and all of the possibilities.”

Also at the upfront, ABC announced the launch of Women of the Movement anthology series which will debut with the story of Mamie Till-Mobley, who in 1955 risked her life to find justice after her son Emmet was brutally murdered in the Jim Crow South. 

Read Also: ABC Shares 2021-22 Fall Schedule 

Univision said that ahead of its May upfront presentation, it will hold an event for advertisers that will introduce the company’s new management and its new direction to advertisers.

The new event--set for March 24-- will be titled “A New Vision at Univision.” Univision was acquired by a group headed by former Viacom CFO Wade Davis.

The event will be a coming out party for Davis and Donna Speciale, the former Turner ad sales head named president of advertising sales and marketing for Univision earlier this year.

Also Read: Univision’s Donna Speciale Hires Two Ex-Turner Execs

Univision said the event will provide an update on the company’s ongoing transformation and lay out its vision for clients as it sets a new go-to-market strategy and develops advanced advertising capabilities.

The new event will be followed by Univision’s more traditional upfront presentation on May 18. 

Also Read: Univision’s PrendeTV to Launch With Key Sponsors

This year’s presentation will be conducted virtually. The traditional in-person upfront presentations were disrupted last year by the coronavirus outbreak and networks are having virtual events again this year.

“Univision is focused on aggressively evolving our ad sales strategy to better serve our clients and we are excited to share with them our recent progress and layout the new vision for Univision during our March 24 event, ahead of the annual upfront on May 18," said Speciale.

A+E Networks is planning to hold a virtual event for media buyers showing off 1,500 hours of fresh original content that’s ready to go at a time when COVID-19 has curtailed TV production.

At its 30-minute upfront-like showcases running Oct. 27-29, talent including Tim Allen, Laurence Fishburne, Morgan Freeman, Salt-N-Pepa, Wendy Williams and Robin Roberts will tout series and movies coming to A&E Network, History and Lifetime.

The pandemic disrupted the spring upfronts, forcing most networks to pitch advertisers via Zoom. With new programming available now, A+E figures it might as well present it now.

“Our business is 52 weeks a year and that’s why it is critical for content providers to have an enormous cache of immediately available, premium content,” said Peter Olsen, president of ad sales at A+E Networks.

“We are so fortunate to have a programming team that delivers a continuous pipeline of exciting projects across our distinctive brands,” said Olsen. “We continue to provide brand clarity to our audiences and advertisers along with partnership opportunities and sales solutions that work. And we are truly seeing the fruits of our labor.”

In addition to programming, A+E will be talking about its corporate social responsibility efforts.

History Channel will continue to invest in its veterans initiative including Mission to Honor, its program to preserve community sites and landmarks called Save Our History and History at Home, which provides resources to schools.

Lifetime is expanding its Broader Focus initiative promoting women in creative jobs. It also supports Stop Violence Against Women and Stop Breast Cancer for Life initiative.

A&E highlights people impacting communities through its Voices Magnified campaign and works with organizations including National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Funny thing about the upfronts. Broadcast networks have long put on elaborate shows to tell advertisers and media buyers about the shows people will be watching in the fall, a process many have found ridiculous and tried to change. Yet it took a pandemic to disrupt the traditional May upfront week of presentations and parties.

While some networks decided to replace their live upfront presentations with fancy versions of Zoom calls, Comcast’s NBCUniversal looked for a more ambitious alternative.

According to Josh Feldman, NBCU’s executive VP of marketing and advertising creative, about 35 seconds into a brainstorming session in mid-March, NBCU senior VP Steven Rummer said “it would be really cool if somehow we could pull off a reunion of 30 Rock and have the task [be] they need to put on some sort of upfront event, since they are such inside baseball to our company and our industry.”

RELATED: Affiliates Balk at Airing NBC’s ‘30 Rock’ Special

30 Rock, which went off the air in 2013, was a sitcom about a comedy show on a dysfunctional television network acquired by a cable company, not too dissimilar from NBC and Comcast. Tina Fey, a creator of the show, starred as producer Liz Lemon.

Feldman called up Linda Yaccarino, NBCU’s chairman for ad sales and partnerships, with the idea and the next morning they were in front of NBCU CEO Jeff Shell. “Within two weeks or so, we were pitching the idea to Tina Fey and Robert Carlock,” another of the show’s executive producers, he said. “And lo and beyond, they actually said yes to it.”

Fey: ‘It Made Sense’

“When NBC asked if we could write a reunion episode to pinch-hit for the upfronts this year, it made sense to us. Our show was about NBC and about people who love television, and at the same time, made jokes about and celebrated the industry for a long time,” said Fey, who spoke at an NBCU Creative Summit for advertisers on Thursday.

TV production has been shut down by the virus, complicating the making of the show.

“One of the big challenges of telling our story was that we couldn't have any of our characters in the same space,” Carlock said. “It was a question of coming up with a framework where everyone was in a place where they wanted something, even five years later, because it's always the question in any episode. We had to figure out, what would our characters want and how could they get it, or think they are getting it, in a Zoom reality?”

RELATED: Primetime Ratings: ‘30 Rock’ Special Doesn't Do Much on NBC

“It required a lot of planning,” added Oz Rodriguez, the film unit director of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, who directed the 30 Rock special. “Everything with production during this time, everything is a little harder, so you just have to plan. There were weeks and weeks of planning trying to figure out how to do this. It was like a regular production as far as scheduling, talent and scenes, but everything was a little harder as far as the prep. 

“Zoom is such a big part of everyone's life right now. It had to be a part of this story, but we didn’t just want to be in Zoom world for the duration of the episode,” Rodriguez said. “We wanted to be able to step outside. The first scene feels amazing to watch because it's Tina Fey on the street in New York, and we were able to do it safely.”

The episode is about the reunion of the 30 Rock characters, Feldman said, but with the NBCU upfront message layered in, much of it delivered by Tracy Morgan. It also name checks some ad-industry figures, including Yaccarino.

There are no commercials during the episode. Instead, the equivalent of commercial time is filled with trailers and promos of new shows and cameos of people who star in them, including Dwayne Johnson, Gwen Stefani, Jimmy Fallon, Khloe Kardashian, Mandy Moore and Andy Samberg.

“If you’re a fan of NBCUniversal or fan of television in general or of media in general, you're going to find this super-interesting,” Feldman said.

Testing New Formats

NBCU’s commercial format that introduces an ad from a scripted show is employed during the episode, Feldman said.

The episode aired in primetime on NBC Thursday, on NBCU cable networks Friday and is available on-demand via Peacock, the streaming service. Many NBC affiliates decided not to air the show, partly because it promoted programming not on their stations. 

Ad buyers were able to see it Thursday afternoon at the end of the NBCU Creative Summit. The big message for them is that NBCU could do something like this for their clients. How much would that cost? “I don’t have an answer for that,” Feldman said. 

VAB, the trade group representing the biggest TV ad sales organizations, is calling on Nielsen to reverse its plan to delay the integration of out-of-home viewing into its national ratings.

In an "urgent" letter to Nielsen CEO David Kenny, VAB CEO Sean Cunningham said the VAB board disagreed with both the substance and the handling of the decision.

“We believe it puts all parties in the TV marketplace at an unnecessary disadvantage, and as one of your largest sets of Nielsen customers, we implore you to return to plan: with OOH viewing data fully integrated into a single stream of currency data without postponement or delay,” Cunningham’s letter said.

Nielsen began informing clients of the postponement due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday. The decision comes amid a particular chaotic upfront selling season for the TV industry amid a pandemic that disrupted many advertisers’ ad spending plans.

The move particularly hurts TV networks with sports programming, especially the NFL, which gets big chunks of viewing in bars, health clubs and hotels.

ViacomCBS, which airs NFL games, called Nielsen’s move “unacceptable and unjustifiable” in a statement late Thursday.

The VAB letter laid out three key objections to Nielsen’s decision to postpone adding out-of-home viewing to its ratings.

The first was that Nielsen’s out-of-home data has been stable, even though out-of-home viewing has been down during the pandemic. “Being ‘down’ cannot preclude it from integration into a single stream currency product . . . we do not see a methodological driver that could justify a ‘postponement,’ nor a need to change methodology.”

The VAB’s second point was that there was a contradiction between Nielsen’s decision not to include out-of-home data in its ratings, but to continue to make that out-of-home data available to the market as a currency on which advertising sales can be transacted. “You can’t have it both ways,” the letter said. “This is the type of demonstrated confusion and uncertainty that can have the effect of significantly eroding confidence in Nielsen as a third-party currency provider.”

The final point said that the decision was “an extremely bad surprise” for the top ad sales execs who make up the VAB board. “‘Blindsiding’ is perhaps the politest way of characterizing how under-communicated and contradictory” the decision was. The VAB noted that all of its members are in weekly conversations with Nielsen about topics including out of home viewing data and were stunned by the announcement.

“While this letter quickly conveys to you the need for Nielsen to REVERSE this morning’s announced ‘postponement’ on behalf of my Board leaders, you will certainly be hearing from them individually--I urge you to listen to your customers and have Nielsen act as a solution-provider in our marketplace and not an impediment,” Cunningham said.

.

Disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, advertisers canceled 15% to 25% of the third-quarter advertising time bought during the 2019-20 upfront, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Ad sales executives said the cancellations were “not as bad as expected,” after the according to Standard Media Index.

Advertisers ordered $21.9 million worth of television ads during the 2019 upfront. The networks sell a full year’s worth of commercials “upfront” and guarantee they will deliver a certain number of viewers. As part of the deal, the advertisers are given an option to cancel as much as 50% of their orders in the third quarter.

The coronavirus began impacting business in March, just past the deadline for advertisers to cancel second-quarter commercials bought during the upfront. The deadline for canceling third quarter upfront buys was May 1, but the networks extended those deadlines, hoping that the economy would open up, increasing the demand for advertising and reducing the inclination to cancel.

Advertisers who canceled their orders could later turn around and try to buy commercials in the scatter market.

“They're saying ‘we want control of this money,’” said one sales executive, even if advertisers know they might have to come back and buy the same ads back later.

The executive said the scatter market had been getting stronger along with the stock market and cancellations were slowing down at the the networks.

“They want control over how to reallocate their spending,” the executive said. “The only argument against taking options is the possibility of paying a CPM penalty” if prices in the scatter market are above the pricing in the upfront deals they canceled.

In order to keep prices up, networks can opt to use unsold inventory to satisfy make goods rather than put them in a soft market and accept below upfront rates.

“We’re going to come into the third quarter with almost no liability [for ratings shortfalls]," the executive said.

Discovery, Inc. is the latest in a growing line of programmers that have decided to cancel their upfront presentations to advertisers in the wake of the coronavirus, saying it has prepared a digital alternative to showcase its content lineup. Details, it said, will be announced at a later date.

Discovery had planned to hold the event May 12 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York. In a statement, the programmer said the decision to cancel the event was “made out of an abundance of caution and care for the health and safety of employees, talent and business partners.”

Discovery joins several programmers that have canceled their upfront event as the coronavirus COVID-19 has continued to spread. Earlier today broadcasters CBS, NBC and Fox said they would cancel their upfront events, as have smaller programmers like AMC Networks, A+E Networks, Freewheel and Fox News.

“With Discovery’s increased scale and reach, we were proud and excited to showcase our expanded portfolio of beloved brands and talent, for the first time, during the traditional broadcast Upfront week. The decision to cancel is bittersweet but unequivocally the right one,” Discovery chief U.S. ad sales officer Jon Steinlauf said in a statement. “We have a terrific story to tell and more opportunities and products than ever for current and prospective advertisers. We will just tell that story in a way that best suits these unprecedented times.”

WarnerMedia will launch a new professional wrestling franchise in partnership with All Elite Wrestling, WarnerMedia announced prior to its Thursday morning upfront presentation.

TNT will air live weekly AEW matches later this year, marking TNT’s re-entrance into the wrestling ring in nearly 20 years since airing content from the now defunct WCW pro wrestling franchise in the late 1990s. 

In addition, the AEW will stream content through WarnerMedia’s B/R Live event as well as via pay-per-view, according to company officials.

B/R Live will serve as the exclusive digital streaming partner in the United States for AEW’s May 25 inaugural event, Double or Nothing, said AEW officials.

“All Elite Wrestling is a talent-forward, fan-first league whose inclusive approach to creating high-quality athletic wrestling competitions is already making waves with fans and attracting top-tier wrestlers,” said Michael Quigley, executive vice president, commercial operations, content strategy and monetization for TBS and TNT in a statement. “It is high-adrenaline, gripping entertainment and we can’t wait to bring it to fans everywhere with this game-changing new business.”

Rita Ferro

Title: President, Ad Sales, Disney/ABC Television Group
Broadcast Network: ABC
2017 Upfront Sales: $2.1 billion.
Outlook: America’s Network is using a “Forward Together” theme to reinforce that Ferro’s team has a portfolio that includes ABC, Freeform and the Disney Media kids business. But with the “Disney Difference,” it can include other Disney units, from films to theme parks, in campaigns. Disney also just announced the launch of Luminate, a suite of advanced advertising products that will be used by both the Disney/ABC networks and by ESPN.

Joe Marchese

Title: President, Advertising Revenue, Fox Networks Group
Broadcast Network: Fox
2017 Upfront Sales: $1.6 billion
Outlook: Marchese is looking to innovate the heck out of the TV ad business. He said his goal was to get Fox’s ad load down to two minutes per hour by 2020. The first place he’s targeting is Sunday night, when each commercial pod will have just two 30-second spots. How much will advertisers pay for that uncluttered environment? We’ll see. Marchese is also pushing six-second ads, which seem to fit particularly well in live sports.

Tonia O’Connor

Title: Chief Revenue Officer, Univision Communications
Broadcast Networks: Univision, UniMás
2017 Upfront Sales: Not available
Outlook: With Telemundo hot on its heels, Univision is rolling out a number of new initiatives in time for this year’s upfront. Univision this month unveiled Aperture, a suit of data-driven advertising products that include precision targeting, a selfserve campaign builder and Campaign Impact, which help evaluate a media buy’s effectiveness. Aperture also features Fokal, an analytic firm that helps drive results across data sets. To reach younger viewers, Univision has made deals to produce projects with Snapchat, Facebook Watch and PopSugar.

The 2018 Upfront: Sales Execs Claim Strong Hand Going Into Upfront | Buyers Want Better Measurement, But Will Use Old Metrics in Upfront | Levy Wants 5% of TV Ad Budgets Spent on Audiences | The CW Brings a New Night to the Market | Pitching Hispanic Buying Power | Broadcast Networks Take Center Stage

Jo Ann Ross

Title: President and Chief Advertising Revenue Officer, CBS
Broadcast Network: CBS
2017 Upfront Sales: $2.5 billion
Outlook: Never better, according to CBS’s ebullient chairman and CEO Les Moonves. No longer stodgy, CBS has been a pioneer in the over-the-top and subscription businesses and Ross said advertisers are interested in CBS All Access, CBSN and CBS Sports HQ. Last year, Ross added digital sales to her portfolio, with former Facebook exec David Lawenda, now executive VP of digital sales and strategy, reporting to her. CBS has also set up CBS Eye Max, a unit devoted to ad innovation and creating branded entertainment with clients.

Rob Tuck

Title: Executive VP, National Sales, The CW
Broadcast Network: The CW
2017 Upfront Sales: } $500 million
Outlook: The CW is an early adopter in monetizing digital viewership, a key for a network that attracts young (for broadcast) viewers. Its convergence sell has been copied by other broadcasters to capture eyeballs glued to mobile phones, iPads and other connected devices. This year adds a new night of primetime programming (see related story), creating the opportunity to generate more advertising revenue.

Linda Yaccarino

Title: Chairman, Advertising Sales and Client Partnerships, NBCUniversal
Broadcast Networks: NBC, Telemundo
2017 Upfront Sales: $6.5 billion*
Outlook: NBCUniversal will kick off Upfront Week on May 14 with a presentation that covers its entire portfolio of broadcast, cable and digital opportunities for advertisers. Yaccarino has been pushing an advanced advertising agenda and this year helped give the audience buying business a boost by joining Fox, Turner and Viacom in the OpenAP consortium. NBCU also launched CFlight, a new metric that measures on air and online impressions. * NBCU upfront revenue across broadcast and cable.

Amid the official unveiling of its new live streaming service, Hulu on Wednesday announced the renewal of its original drama series The Handmaid’s Tale for a second season during its upfront presentation in New York. 

Season two of the series, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood, will launch in 2018, according to the network. “The response we’ve seen to The Handmaid’s Tale in just one week since its premiere has been absolutely incredible," said senior vice president and head of content Craig Erwich in a statement. "It has been an honor to work with this talented team of cast and creators to develop a series that has struck such a chord with audiences across the country.”

In other upfront news, Hulu said it has secured exclusive streaming rights to FX’s original comedy series Atlanta. The first season of the Golden Globe award-winning series starring Donald Glover will become available to Hulu subscribers ahead of its second season premiere in 2018, with subsequent seasons becoming available to stream on Hulu following their run on FX, said company officials. 

Hulu also announced the greenlighting of two new series: Marvel’s Runaways – based on the popular comic book series; and The First (working title), a drama set in the near future about the first human mission to Mars.

In 2012, beIN Sports exploded onto the global stage as a major player in the soccer world.

In the U.S., a Spanish-language channel and English-language channel were simultaneously launched, giving viewers even more access to top-flight fútbol from the world’s top clubs.

beIN Sports is now set to take a broader approach to attracting viewers to its English-language American feed. In contrast, the Miami-based media company is reaffirming its soccer focus on beIN Sports en Español while expanding a signature studio show to five nights a week.

At an upfront event held May 16 in New York, beIN Media Group Deputy CEO Yousef Al Obaidly said that the English-language beIN Sports network would add coverage of Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) events, making the network its official TV channel for all tournaments played from 2017 to 2021.

Also, beIN Sports has launched coverage of North American Soccer League (NASL) games on its English-language feed as part of a previously announced long-term broadcast agreement. The NASL is widely considered to be the equivalent of a second-division U.S. men’s professional soccer league, below Major League Soccer (MLS). NASL teams include Miami FC, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Puerto Rico FC and the New York Cosmos, among other clubs in the U.S. and Canada.

beIN Sports has also locked up the exclusive broadcast rights to the MotoAmerica professional motorcycle racing series. Coverage will be paired with pre-existing motorcycle racing shows WorldSBK and MotoGP.

Also being added to the slate on beIN Sports’s English-language channel is mixed martial arts programming.

beIN Sports also said at the upfront that it would begin airing college football and college basketball games on its English-language channel. After the upfront, the network announced that it had reached a multiyear TV pact with the college conference Conference USA.

“This year, we are expanding our multiplatform offerings and rethinking our English programming strategy to more fervently reflect our commitment to North American sports fans,” Al Obaidly said.

Unlike the English-language service, the Spanish U.S. service of beIN Sports will stick with its soccer-centric focus. The channel has proven widely popular with fans of Spain’s first-division soccer league, La Liga; Italy’s top soccer division, Serie A; and France’s first-tier soccer league, Ligue 1. In markets such as Miami, which boasts a large population of Latinos from across the Americas and from Spain, the channel can be seen on TVs in restaurants, bars and lounges throughout the city.

Added to the mix are CONMEBOL and CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers, featuring the men’s national soccer clubs in competition for entry and positioning for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, set for June 14-July 18, 2018 in Russia.

In fact, the lone “enhancement” to beIN Sports’s Spanish-language lineup is an expansion of its soccer-focused studio show, The Locker Room, from two nights five nights per week.

Looking to build greater appeal with viewers, TV One will increase its original programming outlay by 10% over the next year with a mix of scripted comedies, original movies and celebrity-driven reality content, network executives said during TV One’s upfront presentation Tuesday afternoon.

Overall the African-American targeted network is planning to deliver more than 460 hours of original programming over the next year, according to network president Brad Siegel. As part of the increase, the network plans to develop some 16 original movies as it looks to create a monthly Saturday night movie block targeting adult 25-54 year old viewers, added D’Angela Proctor, TV One senior vice president of original programming and production.

Among the new scripted content set to roll out in 2015-16 is Mitch N' Max, a scripted comedy that follows a down and out Wall Street broker who is forced to move in with his estranged hip hop artist friend; and Born Again Virgin, which follows the relationships of three female best friends. The network is also developing as pilots The Family Plot, a comedy about a former beauty queen who unexpectedly inherits a funeral home from her deceased husband; and Brooklyn Faith, about a small community that encounters moral conflict in its attempt to balance professional ambition with its personal lives. 

On the unscripted side, the network will launch later this year real crime shows For My Man, which features the shocking stories of women who have been arrested for crimes they committed in the name of love, and Unstoppable, which profiles heroic men and women who stopped at nothing to find justice for a murdered loved one. Other new shows include The Next 15 which follows a group of male and female former reality stars that crave another 15 minutes of fame; and The Weekly Show, a one hour-parody of a fledgling local news program.

Unscripted pilots include Debutantes, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at young ladies preparing for womanhood and their society debut; Biker Girlz, which follows a female biker club; It’s Good To Be Me, which profiles the lives of Black America’s most famous celebrities and well-known public figures and Strippers, a documentary series that chronicles women who live regular lives by day and make a living as strippers by night.   

On the specials front, TV One will team with PBS to present The Gospel Tradition: In Performance at the White House, and with Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network for The Triumph Awards, according to Siegel

The new series and specials will join returning series Hollywood Divas,Fatal Attraction, Unsung,Unsung Hollywood, News One Now and Verses and Flow, said Proctor.

New York -- Although concerns remain about deflating inventory pricing and disrupting the way TV buying and selling has been conducted over the decades, programmatic sales are becoming more ingrained in the industry's fiber, taking its place at the table during Madison Avenue’s annual negotiating rite of spring.

Todd Gordon, executive vice president, U.S. director of the Magna Global division of Mediabrands, speaking here during the opening keynote of NewBay Media’s conference Advanced Advertising: Profiting From a Targeted Audience on Wednesday afternoon, said clients and networks don’t necessarily construe programmatic per se as being part of the upfront. Nonetheless, he said “we’re having discussions with top players" interested in more-targeted, granular, tech-driven information.

“That’s all part of the conversations being done for the upfront for sure,” he said, noting that The Walt Disney Co. and its ABC broadcast network were aggressively open to such targeting considerations during the 2013-14 upfront media bazaar.

Erica Schmidt, executive vice president, managing director of Cadreen U.S., a technology division of Mediabrands, who also weighed in during the keynote discussion that was facilitated by B&C business editor Jon Lafayette, said that during her 10 years working in London, European publishers were fearful that pricing would decline in the face of automated selling practices.

She said they needed convincing and reassurance that there might be short-term losses, but the publishers came to realize that programmatic assisted them in assessing the true value of their inventory bases.

Schmidt said there have been some similar concerns with the TV equation. However, she said that programmatic plans not only can extend reach and GRPs, but can have an “impact on bottom line results by driving sales. You know how many boxed are shipped off the shelves via this new TV paradigm.”

Gordon said that traditional TV remains the most effective way to get most of the reach clients need. Still, when a media plan reaches the end of that curve, dollars spent programmatically can afford more incremental reach than traditional TV means.

Given data sourcing, programmatic action has occurred with national networks. But Gordon, responding to an audience member’s query about how the platform would play for national spot buys, said Manga is looking how to "harness" in-market consumption data together. "It’s harder to grab hold of, but we’re spending a lot of time thinking about it.”

In Gordon's view, local cable avails are being “undervalued.” The inventory should get better pricing, he said, noting that the technology can enable more buys and drive incremental sales and efficiencies

TV advertising dropped 9% in October, with cable's rate of decline below the medium's overall fall.

According to data from Standard Media Index, spending on cable decreased in 7% in October, versus a 9% downturn for the broadcast networks.

“SMI’s latest data shows advertisers held back dollars in October which caused a decline across the market, driven by a slow start to the new TV season. We anticipate that falling commodity prices will flow through to more money in consumers’ pockets in the coming months and ad dollars will begin to follow,” said James Fennessy, chief commercial officer at SMI.

With a weak upfront selling season, scatter has become a bigger part of the television ad business. For broadcasters, 16% of their revenue came from ads sold in scatter—close to air date—versus 11% in October 2013. For its part, cable saw scatter account for 23% of revenue, up from 17% in 2013.

The declines came despite gains in the media, consumer electronics and pharmaceuticals categories.

Total ad spending in October was down 4% from a year ago, even as digital continued to grow. Programmatic digital was up 49% last month, while mobile grew 22%, video rose19%, display increased 17% and search expanded 16%.

Through the first 10 months of 2014, digital was ahead 11%

SMI gets it revenue data directly from the computer systems at media agencies representing about 80% of total spending.

After reaching a record level, national cable networks saw their upfront intake decline by 6% for the 2014-15 television season, according to The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau.

All told, national cable secured $9.6 billion in upfront TV/video spending from advertisers during the annual Madison Avenue bazaar, down from $10.2 billion during the 2013-14 upfront selling season. 

The drop, which CAB attributes to clients keeping their TV ad dollars in hand until they need to be expressed on-air as a means to gain financial flexibility to make investments closer to the beginning of campaigns, ended a four-season run of significant upticks by the medium.

According to CAB, national cable network saw their collective upfront dollar base jump 52% from $6.7 billion in 2009-10, following the end of the recession, to last year's $10.2 billion mark, an increase of some $3.5 billion over that span.

“Several big-spending advertisers stated that they anticipated spending fewer ad dollars in this year’s Upfront, and nearly all cited increased flexibility as their reason why,” said CAB president and CEO Sean Cunningham. “Cable networks are meeting this instinct for immediacy with multiscreen brand programs around hit shows.”

Cable TV/Video Upfront Dollars

2014/2015: $9.624 billion, - 6% (- $577 million)

2013/2014: $10.220 billion + 4.3% ($423 million)

2012/2013: $9.797 billion, + 5% ($511 million)

2011/2012: $9.286 billion, + 16% ($1,283 million)

2010/2011: $8.003 billion, + 19% ($1,278 million)

2009/2010: $6.725 billion

Source: CAB

With the general market upfront unfolding more slowly than in years past, it took kids market leader Nickelodeon somewhat longer than usual to wrap its upfront business.

But Jim Perry, head of sales for the Nickelodeon Group, said it was worth the wait.

"We’re very pleased with volume and pricing,” Perry said during an interview Wednesday afternoon,after Nickelodeon completed its upfront sales process. He pegged Nickelodeon’s gains in the single digits overall, in a marketplace he estimated was down in the mid-single digits. 

Perry said that with ratings improvement on the Nickelodeon mothership -- after rare slippage a couple of years back -- and Nielsen amelioration with Nick Junior and Nick Toons, the kids programmer brought more GRPs  to the marketplace negotiating table  – a position that also benefited from Cartoon Network migrating an hour to Adult Swim. As such, Nick grew its market share.

Although Nickelodeon officials would not address specifics, the kids marketplace has registered business in the $700 million to $800 million range in recent years.

Perry pointed to growth across a number of key categories, with clients targeting the kids themselves, as well as packages that emphasized Nick’s strong co-viewing – “a key driver”  -- with parents and/or caregivers in the mix.

He said that studios were very aggressive, securing schedules ahead of their key theatrical releases, while toy companies bought into the “hard” weeks ahead of the Christmas and Easter seasons.

Consumer packaged goods companies will have a big presence on Nick and its spinoffs during the season ahead, and that “insurance was a big success.”

Conversely, food was one category where Nick saw some “pull back,” but he anticipates more action in the scatter market.

Underlining Nick’s leadership position in the marketplace, the programmer typically writes business accounting for upward of 70% of its linear inventory.

Perry said the company was also registered advances on the digital side through a recently launched Nick.com, its digital app now counting some 9 million users and commitments to launching more original content in these venues.

Although the additional platforms, by nature, tend to extend the negotiation process, as clients are brought up to speed about current offerings and future fare,  Perry said those conversations proved worthwhile as Nick increased its take in the digital space as well.

Adult Swim Friday unveiled its original programming slate which features projects from 30 Rock star Jack McBrayer and Parks and Recreation star Jon Glaser.

 Among the pilots in development for the network – which shares channel space with Cartoon Network and recently expanded its programming to 8 p.m. -- are an Untitled Triumph/McBrayer sitcom (pictured), which follows McBrayer as a former child star who reunites with his troubled co-star – Triumph The Insult Comic Dog -- years after the show was cancelled; Dream Corp. LLC, which chronicles an experimental therapy facility that creates a virtual reality for patients to simulate their wildest dreams; Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter, created by Glaser (Delocated, Parks and Recreation, Girls), which follows a mysterious, neon-clad man who hunts werewolves; and an Untitled World Star Hip Hop Project, a comedy pilot inspired by a top urban website World Star Hip Hop.

The pilots follow previously announced series Mike Tyson Mysteries, a half-hour animated adult comedy series in which the former heavyweight boxing champion takes on unsolved mysteries; Black Jesus, a live action comedy series from Aaron McGruder (The Boondocks), which follows Jesus as he lives in present day Compton, Ca.;  and Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories, an anthology series produced by Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!).

Adult Swim will look to build on its position as the most watched network among adults 18-49 and adults 18-34 on a 24-hour basis during the first quarter 2014, according to Nielsen.

“Since its launch, Adult Swim has effectively expanded from a late-night programming block to a network that resonates with all key adult demos," said Donna Speciale, President of Turner Ad Salesin a statement.  "Building upon Adult Swim's successful foundation, Mike Lazzo and his team have put together a programming slate that will be very attractive to our advertising partners looking to reach and engage with the brands' key adult demos in primetime.”

 Adult Swim will officially hold its upfront presentation on May 14.