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What we learned about TV during the biggest week

    Stocks plummeted and Covid cases rose.

    Who’s ready to buy some ads?

    For the first time in three years, the upfronts—the shop windows the media industry puts out for advertisers to convince them to pay for commercial time—happened in person in Manhattan. In recent days, thousands of ad buyers have gathered in venerable New York institutions such as Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. On the line? Tens of billions in ad revenue.

    Here were some of the top takeaways of the week:

    In 2019, advertisers spent just 10 percent of their budget on streaming. This year, that budget will rise to 50 percent, several media buyers said in interviews.

    The presentations reflected the change. With the exception of a short two-minute video focusing on CBS’s hour-by-hour fall schedule, media executives barely mentioned their network prime time lineups. On the eve of Disney, the vast majority of trailers and teasers were devoted to movies and series for Hulu and Disney+, the flagship streaming service, which will introduce ads later this year.

    “This is my very first upfront,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said from the Disney stage before introducing a trailer for “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” a new comedy set to premiere on Disney+ this summer. .

    This was a consistent theme throughout the week, with previews of upcoming shows and movies on Peacock, Paramount+, HBO Max and Discovery+ all getting a lot of airtime. Free ad-supported streaming services Tubi (owned by Fox) and Pluto (owned by Paramount) were also discussed prominently.

    “Traditionally, the upfronts have been for the TV networks,” said Allan Thygesen, who manages more than $100 billion for Google’s advertising business in the Americas. “But today, because of the incredible shifts we’ve seen in the media industry, this isn’t your parents’ prerogative.”

    Netflix aims to roll out commercials by the end of the year at a time of subscriber slump. Rival executives used that this week as an opportunity to say why their own company was the better destination for advertising.

    “We have been committed to the ad-supported video business since literally the earliest moments of our company’s history,” said Jeff Shell, chief executive of NBCUniversal, of Radio City Music Hall. “This is not an extension of our core business, or a pivot. It is our core business.”

    Linda Yaccarino, the chair of global advertising at NBCUniversal, made a similar comment, saying that to some of their rivals, “advertising can seem like an afterthought — or worse, a new idea for a revenue stream. But not here.”

    Eric Shanks, the CEO of Fox Sports, appealed to ad buyers at Fox, saying, “We know we’d just be Netflix without you. We love selling pizza and trucks and phones and insurance.”

    And Jimmy Kimmel, the king of the upfront roast, took repeated swipes at the struggling tech giant.

    “Remember when Netflix openly encouraged us to share passwords, and we thought, ‘How do these people make money?'” he told Disney beforehand. “It turns out they don’t.”

    “Oh, everyone likes ‘Bridgerton’?” he continued. “How much do you think they’ll love it if it’s interrupted by your Zyrtec commercial every four minutes? We already have Netflix with commercials — it’s called Hulu.”

    One sight advertisers are not used to seeing during the upfront week: Fox News.

    For years, the Murdochs’ news channel didn’t appear on the Fox presentation, a relief to the company’s entertainment executives, who were wary of alienating Hollywood talent on the left. But three years after Rupert Murdoch sold his film and television studios to Disney, Fox News was for the first time as prominent as its sports division and its slimmed-down entertainment division in Monday’s Fox presentation.

    “We are all part of one Fox,” said Suzanne Scott, the CEO of Fox News, underlining this in a pre-recorded video.

    While Ms. Scott never mentioned the network’s highest-rated host, Tucker Carlson, who has in the past faced uprisings from advertisers about his monologues about race, he did appear in a promo role.

    Later in the week, CNN’s new leader Chris Licht took the lead for the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery. Mr. Licht emphasized that his cable news network would strengthen its commitment to reporting, suggesting the network would turn away from souped-up opinion programming.

    “At a time when extremes dominate cable news,” he told advertisers, “we will try to take a different path, reflect the real lives of our viewers and improve the way America and the world view this medium. “

    After two years of virtual showcases streamed from ad buyers’ laptops, the networks went mainly for shock and awe – emphasis on the shock.

    Advertisement buyers were greeted with blinding lights, chair-shaking sounds, and elaborate musical numbers. Movie stars like Sylvester Stallone and Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, made their appearance, as did a couple of Kardashians and the Manning brothers. Singer Lizzo urged ad buyers on YouTube’s inaugural premiere to sing her lyrics “feeling good as hell” — a demand she made again the following day at the Warner Bros. Discovery showcase.

    On Monday, just as a few thousand unmasked ad buyers packed into Radio City Music Hall for NBCUniversal’s event, a warning went out on attendees’ phones: Covid cases in New York were on the rise and indoor masking became strong. encouraged.

    “It’s great to be with Radio City – what a historic room to be able to tell people you brought in Covid,” Seth Meyers said later during the presentation.

    Aside from Covid concerns (Mr. Kimmel tested positive shortly before the Disney presentation and had to perform via satellite), the show went ahead. Jennifer Hudson yelled out Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” at Warner Bros. Discovery. Even YouTube, one week early in the morning, came in loud, showing fireworks, sequins, and jazz hands at a Broadway theater a stone’s throw from Times Square.

    But behind the razzle dazzle was a fundamental shift. Viewers’ habits are changing, interest in fall lineups has disappeared, and there was that ever-present existential worry: What have the upfronts become and are they still worth it?

    “We’re not allowed to come forward, shake a few hands, make a few phone calls and let our media investments be made for the year,” said Shenan Reed, head of media at L’Oreal, presenting onstage for YouTube. “The days of the Mad Men three-martini lunches are finally, sadly, far behind us.”