The upfronts are supposed to be an opportunity for cable and broadcast networks—and now digital content providers—to unveil their slates of new programming before an audience of advertising executives, in a bid to impress said execs into turning their pockets inside-out. But tugging dollars from industry wallets takes more than a PowerPoint presentation. The upfront is also a network's only chance to strut its stuff and throw money around, spoiling its most important audience—while demonstrating its health, spirit and vitality in much the same way as a debutante.
Read MoreIt was perhaps the worst kept secret in the business, but when Simon Cowell on Monday afternoon introduced Britney Spears as one of The X Factor ’s new celebrity judges, the crowd at the Beacon Theatre let out quite a whoop, y’all. “This year, we are going to seriously kick butt,” Cowell told the crowd of media buyers and advertisers assembled for Fox’ 2012-13 upfront presentation. “I promise you… we are going to make this the best series we’ve ever made.” In what marked their first promotional appearance on behalf of The X Factor , Spears and fellow Fox newcomer/former Disney princess Demi Lovato greeted the audience alongside Cowell and X Factor veteran L.A. Reid. “I am so excited about this whole experience,” Spears said. “It’s going to be so much fun and so different from anything I’ve ever done. I’m ready to find the true star.” Lovato chimed in, telling clients that she is “totally stoked” to work with the rest of The X Factor cast. Cowell stopped short of making any guarantees about The X Factor ’s ratings prowess—before the show bowed last fall, the acerbic Brit boasted that anything shy of 20 million viewers per episode would be “a disappointment”—but curiosity seekers and fans of Spears and Lovato should provide a significant early lift. If The X Factor fell short of Cowell’s boosterish projections, season one was hardly a bust. The premiere cycle averaged 11.4 million viewers and a 3.8 in the demo, making it the eighth highest-rated series on the tube.
Read MoreNBC on Monday returned to its Radio City upfront stomping grounds, laying out a 2012-13 prime-time schedule designed to tickle viewers’ funny bones. But before the network could get the ball rolling on its comedy-heavy slate, NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt had some sobering news for 30 Rock fans. Speaking to a crowd of media buyers and clients, Greenblatt said that the fall run of 13 episodes would be 30 Rock ’s last, adding that the series will end after seven seasons with a one-hour finale. Greenblatt said he thinks 30 Rock creator Tiny Fey is a comedic genius. “We hope she has a home at NBC for years to come," he said. Greenblatt’s announcement was a bit of a reversal of comments he made on Sunday afternoon, when he told reporters that a decision on the fate of 30 Rock was still up in the air. During that same call, the NBC exec said that the exiled Community could earn a longer order if it draws a crowd in its new Friday 8:30 p.m. time slot. With 10 comedies on the roster, including four new entries, NBC is practically doubling down on sitcoms. In the fall of 2011, the network had six comedies on its prime-time schedule, although that number would fall to five with the Oct. 5 cancelation of Free Agents . The crowd reacted generously to clips from the new batch of comedies, with the biggest laughs being doled out for the Matthew Perry series Go On and the antic Justin Kirk effort, Animal Practice
Read MoreOn the eve of the annual spectacle known as Upfront Week, broadcasters can take comfort in the knowledge that the four-day dog and pony show will lead to some $9.2 billion in advance advertising commitments. This despite the fact that 32 of the series that were so lovingly introduced a year ago have no hope of securing a spot on the fall schedule. While it may be true that no other business tolerates TV’s failure rate—you wouldn’t fly with a carrier whose flights crashed 90 percent of the time—every network has its own working definition of failure. In October, CBS canceled the comedy How to Be a Gentleman after just two episodes, during which it averaged 8.16 million viewers and a 2.6 in the 18-49 demo. And while those numbers weren’t good enough for CBS, the truncated Gentleman still managed to outperform every single scripted series on NBC.
Read MoreThe basic contours of the TV programmer vs pay TV provider fight are basic and unchanging: The programmer tries to get more money for their stuff, the pay TV provider says that’s too much, and the two sides chest-bump for a while. Eventually they settle, and you, the pay TV customer, ends up paying more. And that’s what’s happening in the latest dust-up between Dish Networks , the satellite TV service, and AMC Networks , the programmers now best known as the guys who bring you “Mad Men”, “Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad”. The slight twist here: For argument’s sake, at least, Dish is arguing that because AMC is selling digital versions of those shows to other outlets its hit shows are worth less to Dish subscribers. “It’s actually devalued,” says Dish chairman Charlie Eergen. The fact that networks are selling or giving away their stuff online has been a minor but growing issue in carriage fights for a while now. But this is biggest stink that a cable/pay TV provider has about it, at least in public.* Dish first brought this up via a press statement last week, but Ergen went on about it length today during the Dish earnings call. It’s worth reading.
Read MoreMel Berning was carefully rearranging his silverware on the table at a French restaurant in midtown Manhattan last week when he deliberately and specifically broke down the various factors at play in the looming upfront. “This is the problem this year,” he said. “We’re sort of a year ahead of ourselves because there isn’t measurement yet to draw equivalencies between online and linear.” Rumors have been going around that this upfront season will be leaner than last year’s—buyers spent big in the spring and the scatter market that followed was soft. In the meantime, digital companies like AOL, Yahoo and YouTube are holding upfront-style presentations in an attempt to woo TV dollars away from cable and broadcast. “Do you think that’s a bargaining chip [for the buyers]?” Berning wondered aloud. Berning, who on May 4 was promoted to president from evp of ad sales for A+E Networks, is dealing with a rebrand at Lifetime and a slew of new programming at all the networks
Read MoreNickelodeon’s ongoing ratings woes were the talk of Viacom’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call, as executives faced a litany of pointed questions about the network’s under-deliveries. Speaking to analysts in a Q&A session Thursday, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman acknowledged Nickelodeon’s difficulties, reiterating his earlier assertion that at least some of the declines can be chalked up to “ratings measurement issues.” (Nielsen emphatically denies any inconsistencies in its methodology.) Nickelodeon in the first three months of 2012 saw a 24 percent decline in total-day deliveries, averaging 1.86 million viewers, down from 2.44 million in the year-ago period. The target demos took a proportionate hit, as kids 2-11 dropped 25 percent to 1.01 million, while kids 6-11 fell 27 percent to 529,000. Nick’s reversal of fortune is nothing new; in fact, the kids net hasn’t posted a ratings increase since April 2011. If anything, things seem to be getting worse—in April, Nick plummeted 30 percent among total viewers and the demos. While Dauman allowed that Nickelodeon faces a full-frontal assault from the likes of Disney Channel, he was quick to add that Viacom will fight kiddie churn with an infusion of programming dollars. “There certainly has been some compelling programming that exists on some of our competitors which we can clearly address,” Dauman said. “Nickelodeon is really stepping up to the plate in a major way with the creative community, with its own programming teams. More importantly, our marketing partners are very pleased what they’re seeing.” Indeed, despite all the agita over Nick’s vanishing audience, the network remains the proverbial 800-pound gorilla of the kids’ market, commanding 75 percent of the GRPs in its competitive spread. And it still boasts unparalleled reach—this marks its 68th consecutive quarter as the most-watched cable outlet on the dial. “Nickelodeon is the place to be if you want to reach kids,” Dauman said. “There aren’t too many advertising outlets to go after kids. One of our major competitors [Disney Channel], is not ad-supported. … So discussions [with clients] have been good. We have—the majority of conversations have been promising.” Earlier in the call, Dauman talked up Nick’s most recent programming initiatives, a slate that includes a new gloss on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise (fall 2012), the animated series The Legend of Korra and the live-action strip How to Rock . The Viacom chief characterized the 2012-13 lineup “Nickelodeon’s largest slate of original content, ever.” That fresh content could go a long way toward shaking things up at Nick, which of late has leaned heavily on the fortunes of a 13-year-old cartoon
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It is fascinating to watch the manner in which social media are affecting the political landscape. They are causing a gradual transformation in how we perceive -- and ultimately elect -- our candidates for public office. Several weeks ago, when Rick Santorum was in the race for the Republican nomination, he trended as the most talked-about candidate on Twitter. Unfortunately for him, those tweets were negative in context. In contrast, Mitt Romney seemed to receive the most positive mentions. Now that every other Republican presidential candidate has dropped out of the race, he is trending even more positively. No surprise there
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