In excess of a hundred affiliates of The CW Network turned up for the network’s annual meeting with station managers in Vegas April 9. The assembly at the Encore represented the first affiliate meeting for Chris Brooks, The CW’s new senior VP of network distribution.
CW president Mark Pedowitz discussed the network’s strategy and highlighted recent ratings successes thanks to the likes of prime standouts Arrow and The Originals. Rick Haskins, executive VP of marketing, reviewed promotional campaigns with the affiliates while executive VP of development Thom Sherman gave an overview of the six pilots in the works for next season, including the DC Comics vehicle The Flash, drama iZombie, from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas, and Jane the Virgin, which is based on a Venezuelan telenovela and is executive produced by Jennie Snyder Urman and Ben Silverman.
Affiliates preferred to speak privately due to the closed-door nature of the meeting, and were pleased with what they saw. One Midwestern CW general manager called the session “very upbeat and positive.”
