Latest in Broadcast Upfronts

Univision has added two senior executives to its ad-sales ranks ahead of a pair of upfront presentations to media buyers. The Hispanic media giant is in its first upfront sales cycle since changing hands to a consortium of investors led by former Viacom CFO Wade Davis, who now leads the company as CEO. While the…

Discovery is elbowing its way into the week traditionally focused on broadcast upfront presentations, setting May 12, 2020 as the date for its own upfront breakfast event in New York. The Tuesday morning event will occupy a slot that was long held by ESPN until Disney this year added the sports network to its overall…

In a live-streamed news conference ahead of NBCUniversal’s upfront on Monday, Telemundo’s top executives discussed “closing the gap” with longtime rival Univision in primetime, plugged next month’s World Cup and laid out several new programming and digital initiatives. Plenty of programming news was broken, including…

The network says it nears the finish line “very confident that CBS has once again achieved the highest pricing and most total dollars” in sales of prime time ads for the season that begins this fall. The tally does not include the NFL games CBS will air on Thursday nights for several weeks; they’re being sold…

Fox and CBS have started to write upfront business. Movie studios moved first, sources say; that’s typical with Fox, owing to its ratings with young men who movie studios covet/target.  CPM increases are lower than last year (last year's range hovered in 5-7% territory), but no specific numbers are in yet. TV ad…

“Nobody on Earth brings more quality programs to audiences than we do,” CBS CEO Les Moonves told buyers today at his company’s annual Carnegie Hall presentation. The traditional media triumphalism provided a contrast with his rivals’ efforts this week to talk up corporate synergies and digital initiatives — especially…

Not much change from last year in the basic business proposition that ABC offered to upfront advertisers today: Forget that it’s the No. 4 network in prime time for 18-to-49 year olds. Execs touted the “brand halo” (as entertainment chief Paul Lee put it) that Disney and its properties offer ABC. “When you bring them…

I hear CBS might be done ordering new series, at least until after its upfront presentation on Wednesday. The network already has picked up five comedy series and three dramas, including two pickups on Sunday, of drama Reckless and comedy Friends With Better Lives. I haven’t heard that any of the three remaining…

It isn’t the kind of thing a network exec wants to admit the week before broadcasters open the upfront ad sales season. But the News Corp COO, in a quarterly call with analysts, couldn’t avoid the fact that this season’s ratings declines show “it's not been a great year for the broadcast business overall from a…

UPDATED 2011 UPFRONTS SCHEDULE & PARTY LIST Sunday, May 15 9:00 PM: UTA Upfronts Party Location: Lavo, 39 E. 58th Street Monday, May 16 11:00 AM: NBC Announcement (evite ticket) Location: Hilton Hotel – 3rd Floor, 1335 Avenue of the Americas Lunch to follow upfront – Location TBD 4:00 PM: FBC Announcement (evite…

Once again the broadcast upfronts are upon us. With less than a month until the five nets start to unveil their fall plans in New York, it’s time to begin our favorite guessing game of which pilots are likely to make it to series for next season. It is still early and many pilots have yet to be completed or even…