UPFRONTS
About twice a year or so, we hear a lot about news coming out of meetings or press conferences called upfronts.
An upfront is where television networks hold a meeting where they sell airtime to the advertisers for the upcoming television season.
During the sales pitch, networks will tell advertisers and attending media what their programming plans are.
It’s during these upfronts that networks give advertisers a chance to buy ad time at a discounted ad rate. If they don’t buy ad time during the upfronts, ads can cost the premium rate during the season. So upfronts are a calculated risk, to some degree. OK, so super-hit shows like American Idol, NCIS and what not are not gambles. But new shows can be. This is the sales pitch time!
This is the reality of our favorite television shows. If networks never sold ads, we wouldn’t have shows produced. This would also preclude being able to buy our shows later on DVD for our home viewing. It’s the nature of the beast that we so vehemetly complain about. Personally, if ads weren’t so go****ed loud, I wouldn’t have such an issue with them, but… well, that’s another article.
Television network stations tend to have their upfronts in May, previewing September premeiring shows. Cable networks tend to have their upfronts earlier since they bring out more of their heavy hitters in the Summer. That way they don’t compete with basic networks for ratings when the “big boys” go to Summer reruns.
