The networks are once again publicly taking Nielsen to task for what they allege is flawed data from the measurement company. This time, the Video Advertising Bureau is asking Nielsen to delay its new “big data” monthly impact releases — set-top box and smart television viewership metrics that complement its in-house panel data for national TV measurement — until after this year’s upfront, calling the current data “unusable.”
Madison Avenue is getting closer to realizing its dream of using TV advertising to talk to viewers in a style more akin to a one-to-one conversation.
This year, Disney will hold an in-person upfront presentation at Basketball City at Pier 36 in New York’s Lower East Side, according to a memo sent by ad sales and partnerships chief Rita Ferro to the company’s clients Tuesday. Ferro told clients that the new May 17 event would be “unlike anything you’ve ever seen from Disney.”
The CW will joins the parade of TV networks returning to in-person upfronts, with a presentation slated for Thursday, May 19 in New York City. Time will tell whether the network will present as a joint venture of ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia or under the aegis of a new corporate owner.
NBCU today pledged to hold forth from Radio City Music Hall once again, just as it has for many years before the coronavirus pandemic scuttled the in-person extravaganzas that have become so much a part of the TV networks’ annual pitch to advertisers. The owner of the NBC, MSNBC and USA networks said it would kick off the industry’s annual Upfront Week on May 16, with an evening event aimed at promoting Spanish-language outlet Telemundo, marking a return to at least some of the traditions of the annual market, when U.S. TV networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for their next programming cycle.
For the first time, Fox Corp. will hold a unified in-person upfront presentation that includes entertainment programming on the Fox broadcast network, as well as pitches for Fox Sports and Fox News, the company said Wednesday. The in-person presentation, set for May 16, will also depart from tradition (or at least pre-pandemic tradition) by leaving midtown Manhattan for lower Manhattan, holding the advertising pitch at an event space that used to be the trading floor for the New York Mercantile Exchange.
