upfronts 2013

With the broadcast network season close to ending, many mid- and smaller-size networks — on traditional over-the-air TV stations and/or local TV digital subchannels — have some ratings increases to promote.

Analysis says that specials seem to be getting almost as much emphasis as regular series by the broadcast networks for the 2013-14 season.

Warner Bros. Television leads the pack with 12 series orders, followed by 20th Television (11) — the season’s biggest gainer — and ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios with nine each.

ESPN President John Skipper said Tuesday he isn’t too worried about proposed legislation from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would allow consumers to pick what channels they want instead of buying a big package of networks. “We don’t think the bill has any momentum,” Skipper said to reporters after ESPN made a presentation to advertisers in New York City. His view that McCain’s legislation is a long shot is shared by many television industry insiders.

As the broadcast networks make their glitzy upfront presentations to advertisers this week, another media entity has already started writing some upfront business. Viacom, the owner of cablers including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Spike, has notched some upfront deals, according to people familar with the pace of negotations, by offering terms it believes will be more favorable than those of its competitors in order to drive additional business into its coffers.

CEO Randy Falco spoofs AT&T spots to tell advertisers they get more from his Spanish-language network than from the English-language networks it increasingly trounces in key ratings areas.

The No. 4-ranked network will play off hits with four new comedies, including Conan O’Brien’s Super Fun Night with Rebel Wilson that will lead out of top-rated Modern Family on Wednesdays.

Fox and Twitter have entered into a partnership to promote the broadcaster’s programs and allow advertisers a way to reach TV audiences as they discuss the shows on the social network.

Fox entertainment chief Kevin Reilly kicked off Fox’s upfront presentation to advertisers by conceding his network’s troubles this year — and vowing to return to No. 1 in the key demo next season. “Part of an upfront is being upfront,” he said, admitting: “This was not our best year.”

When your network is growing, it’s a lot easier to deliver a strong new schedule. You simply stick with the things that have been working. The network has five new telenovelas on tap, as well as two new daytime shows, and it has renewed La Voz Kids, which bowed to record numbers earlier this spring, for a second season.

The network said Monday it’s making its largest original-programming investment yet with a crop of 11 new series and a miniseries from filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan for the 2013-14 season. That’s more than double the five series it announced last year.

In the television season about to end, some of the most popular new shows from a year ago have not built on their initial success — and in fact have wound up in premature decline.The excitement that surrounded the introduction, in fall 2011, of comedies like New Girl on Fox, Two Broke Girls on CBS and Last Man Standing on ABC, and the family-friendly drama Once Upon a Time on ABC, largely fizzled in season two, as their ratings fell.

U.S. broadcast networks head into their biggest ad-selling season this week, competing with streaming services like Netflix; battling online players for ad dollars; and fending off hits starring zombies and duck hunters on cable.

The network canceled four low-rated shows Friday to make room on its fall schedule for new programs. Rules of Engagement, CSI: NY, Vegas and Golden Boy have all been axed.

NBC on Sunday became the first of the major broadcasters to announce its plans for next season, and its executives said they had ordered a staggering 17 new series. Only six of them are on fall’s schedule, however, with another six to join in midseason when NBC hopes to get a burst of attention from its telecast of the Winter Olympics.

No longer satisfied with being “a comfortable No. 2,” said Telemundo Media President Emilio Romano, the NBCUniversal-owned network ups its game with creation of new LA-based multimedia studio.

The TV industry likely will look back on the 2013 upfront as another year of slow growth and dwindling dominance. With all the networks down year-over-year, and cable and digital rivals siphoning dollars and buzz, most analysts predict only moderate increases from the $9.25 billion broadcast networks booked in 2012 (compared with cable’s $9.8 billion). Here’s a network-by-network breakdown.

The network, staking a claim to growth in online video ads, will brief advertisers next week on a service providing live shows on mobile phones and tablets, people with knowledge of the plan said. Watch ABC, a first-of-its-kind application from a broadcaster, will stream live and archived shows to pay-TV subscribers, said the people, who sought anonymity because the plans aren’t public.

Each network will sport its own strategy in a battle to win around $9 billion in prime time ad dollars. Here’s a look at the major figures and entities that stand to influence the flow of millons of dollars.

NBC added another comedy and drama to its new series roster for the 2013-14 season, picking up comendy Undateable and a remake of the 1970s series Ironside, this time with Blair Underwood as the whealchair-bound detective originally played by Raymond Burr.

ABC also says no to a comedy pilot starring Kelly Preston and a gothic soap opera from Mark Gordon.

CW has joined the series pickup fray, giving greenlights to four dramas: Tomorrow People, The 100, Reign and Star-Crossed.

NBCUniversal head of ad sales Linda Yaccarino’s success this upfront is critical to NBCU parent Comcast, which needs her to move approximately $9 billion worth of broadcast and cable ad inventory. Adding to the pressure, her boss, NBCU CEO Steve Burke, has told Wall Street in recent months that he believes NBCU’s outlets should be commanding higher CPMs.

Fox is looking to bring back its signature real-time drama 24 as a limited series. Kiefer Sutherland is in talks to reprise his Emmy-winning role as Agent Jack Bauer. No deals are in place, but Fox is eying 24 as part of its recent push in limited event series.

NBC has renewed “Parks and Recreation” for a sixth season while at the same time announcing cancellation of White House laffer 1600 Penn, Whitney and Up All Night.

Despite its second-season creative reboot, the Kiefer Sutherland starrer will not continue on for a third season.

The big challenge is to get the digital agencies to think of, and buy, digital video in the same way they do traditional TV. Some have started to implement buys with a comScore vCE or Nielsen OCR metric, but it’s just the beginning as the original forms of measurement are gradually replaced and client demand for digital video increases.

NBC is firming up its programming lineup for the 2013-14 television season, picking up a number of comedies and dramas as it looks to continue its attempt to rebuild under entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt. Ahead of Monday’s upfront presentation, here’s a look at what’s on the schedule so far.

That’s when Fox and NBC, the No. 2 and No. 3 networks among adults 18-49, make their pitches, and both have a lot to prove to media people.

With Big Five upfront presentations set for May 13, 14, 15 and 16, the networks are looking to fill a lot of slots in hopes of finding significantly more keepers than last season.

Anticipating the “upfront week” of May 13 (when ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the CW unveil their lineups for advertisers and the world), industry analysts and media writers have been handicapping each network pilot, described for them but sight unseen, as a familiar springtime guessing game: Which will be among the chosen few? Which are doomed to oblivion? It’s no secret the pressure has never been greater on the broadcast networks to generate robust hits.

With no new hits, the usual $9 billion in ad spending is predicted to slide as Fox (with American Idol in free fall) will take the biggest hit and NBC (surprise!) will score an increase.

If advertisers and agencies can’t get reach from TV fast enough, without using too many spots and too much time, they will get it elsewhere.

Must-watch TV is looking more like must-wait TV. The rapid rise of time-shifted viewing — driven by DVRs, video-on-demand options and mobile devices — decimated TV ratings in the first quarter and threatens to drag down the annual upfront ad-sales season that swings into high gear in just a couple of weeks.

Immediately after the network presents its 2013-14 fare to Madison Avenue advertisers, stars from its new and returning shows will mingle with fans during the event.

YouTube is taking a novel approach to winning TV ad dollars during this year’s Upfront season: lowering prices. Google’s video platform — the world’s biggest — isn’t exactly lowering ad rates, the cost-per-thousand that advertisers pay, but it is re-thinking the way it structures up front ad deals for premium content on the eve of its “Brandcast,” a big show for marketers and agencies in Manhattan next week.

The CW has fewer timeslots to fill than any other broadcast network, airing just 20 hours of original programming per week. But the network has still struggled to fill those slots the past few years, with a slew of new shows that came and went nearly as quickly as Blair’s latest hairstyle on Gossip Girl. With Girl and 90210, two veteran dramas, ending this season and America’s Next Top Model in its twilight years, that’s a lot of open space on the schedule.

In one packed schmooze-and-booze New York week, digital media purveyors will try to dazzle Madison Avenue with new Internet shows, apps and ad executions. The goal of the second annual Digital Content NewFronts: To convince ad buyers that there’s a big (and growing) audience for high-quality content on Internet and mobile screens, and that they should drop coin now to lock sponsorship deals.