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Upfront’s Obituary Premature: CBS Is In

Feb 14, 2008  •  Post A Comment

CBS said it plans to hold an upfront presentation for advertisers as usual at Carnegie Hall in New York.
The date will be May 14, Wednesday of what has traditionally been upfront week for the networks, the network said in a statement.
With the Writers Guild of America strike, which stilled network production for 100 days, there had been much talk about the networks changing, downsizing or eliminating their splashy upfront presentations. Each year, the networks use those upfront presentations to unveil their schedules for the upcoming TV season, show scenes from pilot episodes of new series and allow advertisers and media buyers to mingle with the stars at lavish parties.
NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker has been particularly outspoken about making changes in the way the network does its upfront presentations to make them more creative and client-focused.
“Changes will be made to this year’s upfront. Plans are under way and we will have an announcement shortly,” NBC said in a statement Thursday.
ABC President for ad sales Mike Shaw said that while his network’s presentation will be different this year because there won’t be pilots to show, he still expects to have a large-scale meeting with advertisers and buyers. He also said he expected the upfront advertising market will be conducted as usual during May and June.
(Editor: Baumann)
10:20: Updated with NBC statement

13 Comments

  1. The rest of the nets might not what they are doing from day to day, especially after the WGA writers strike, but you have to hand it to CBS. They are the Prudential of the networks, “like a Rock”. One of the benefits of having such a large stable of returning shows each year, like CBS does, and always leading the ratings race, is you have the foundation to weather the tough times and the ability to plan ahead when the road looks foggy to everyone else. I am going to look forward to seeing how well the other networks stack up with their upfront presentations compared to CBS’s.
    Troy S. Woody

  2. Someone tell J.Zucker to just stop it, stop it! I have no idea why GE keeps this putz around.

  3. I hope it doesn’t go back to “business as usual” at the upfronts. The lavish parties are ridiculous considering the state of the economy and the fact that some of these companies are laying off. CBS recently let some employees go at its radio division.

  4. I’m glad the parties will go on. The advertisers pay so much for those spots, the least the nets can do is give us a couple hours, some decent food and a polariod with the (hot) guys from “Lost”. 😉

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