Looking Back at the Best and Worst of the Upfront and NewFront Presentations

Different more immersive approaches to getting messages across with AMC39s sitdown dinner presentation a major examplePressdirected events where talent both in front of and behind the camera had as much face time as network executives GSN El Rey and Pivot being some of the most effectivePlenty of outstanding music performances from Nickelodeon and MTV to Adult Swim and UnivisionThe worst things in no particular order about this year39s parade of Upfront eventsThe absence of Cartoon Network TVOne The Hub Spike WGN America WE etc all with original especially scripted series meriting attention At the very least they should have offered press briefingsGetting inout of the Javits Center39s North Hall for both NBC and NBC Universal Cable39s events in the same weekSome Viacom networks going AWOL while others hosted eventsThe absence of the majority of multicast channels such as Bounce TV Live Well Network now set to shut down the end of this year This TV and so forthThe best things in no particular order about this year39s parade of NewFront eventsGreat variety of content available or in development with firsttimers like Buzzfeed Maker Studios about to be folded into Disney and PBS Digital making impressive marksAOL correcting a big problem with last year39s NewFront by having celebs speak for 90 seconds apiece at mostCrackle bringing Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston aboard for an outthere satire of the 1950s crime drama Tightrope with John O39Hurley featured in the pilot I can39t wait to see this series hopefully O39Hurley remains the leadThe kind of content PBS Digital puts together How about taking some of this to primetime on PBS stationsThe worst things in no particular order about this year39s parade of NewFront eventsVevo and other participants booking facilities too small to accomodate the majority of people interested in their content including pressMost of the participants continuing not to divulge when their programs will premiere or in some cases that they39re already online and in some cases running via smart TV setsBreakdown after breakdown with AOL39s transportation plans getting people to Brooklyn then in and out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard for their eventOther musingsWith all the programming Netflix is cooking up the rest of this year and next isn39t it time for them to follow the upfront lead and do a press event here in NYC with Reed Hastings their key programming execs and series creators Just askingInteractive Advertising Bureau did a great job arranging this year39s expanded lineup of NewFronts Now itamp8217s time for IAB to do the same thing arranging press credentials Have IAB be the place reporters get those credentials rather than call or email each and every presenter As it stands the process is too much of a wormhole with some companies not responding at all and others responding with no credentials then reversing calls at the last minuteKudos to The Walter Kaitz Foundation for holding its first Hollywood Creative Forum East here in New York last week with a firstever focus on scripted TV The more events like this take place in New York Los Angeles and all over the nation the bigger the opportunities for people of color to encourage the next generation of TV to open upUntil the next time stay well and stay tunedThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Looking Back at the Best and Worst of the Upfront and NewFront Presentations

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Looking Back at the Best and Worst of the Upfront and NewFront Presentations

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