FreeWheel Joins Fox News In Canceling Upfront Due To Coronavirus Concerns

Updated with FreeWheel cancellation:

Comcast’s FreeWheel said its management team has decided to postpone its NowFront presentation “as the coronavirus situation is still evolving and the health and safety of our employees, clients, partners – and press attending! – are of utmost importance. We are hoping to reschedule for a later date.” The event had been scheduled for March 12.

Fox News may have been the first to open the floodgates when the network cancelled its advertisers upfront presentation scheduled for March 24 due to coronavirus concerns.

“In a precautionary effort to keep our employees, client and agency partners safe, we have determined that it would be best to cancel our upcoming event in New York based on public health concerns due to coronavirus,” Jeff Collins, exec VP, advertising sales, Fox News, said in a statement.

Fox emphasized, however, that the larger Fox upfront presentation slated for May is still on.

Still, the cancellation is the latest in a stream of events impacting business as usual in the media and entertainment business, from halted production to postponed film releases to shuttered movie theaters, grounded festivals and depopulated or canceled conferences in the tech sector and on Wall Street.

It’s not clear if other programmers will pull their upfront presentations this month as well. A&E Networks, which has an event set for March 25, is still on for now. So is AMC Networks on March 18.