NewFronts 2016: Closing Odds and Ends

The wave of announcements by participating companies for new virtual reality series or studios became so tidal you expected every NewFront participating company to include something VR at their presentation For Awesomeness TV and several other companies down the stretch last week it became a public badge of honor to be a nonVR showcase and proudly say soMy vote for Best New Presentation Site this year goes to the Altman Building on W 18th St halfway between Avenue of the Americas and 7th Ave This modest Chelsea space was used to great advantage by Popsugar the first week and Whistle Sports last WednesdayMy vote for Best Presentation Siteamp160that NewFronts and Upfronts should use more often The Morgan Library ampamp Museum on Madison Avenue near E 36th St A classy eyepleasing venue with a great cocktail reception lobby on the main floor and comfy auditorium downstairs It39s been home to National Geographic39s NewFront breakfast the last two yearsamp160and the atmosphere matches their ambition Delivered some good mangopassion fruit juice this goround Be a good place for a channel or service entering the UpfrontNewFront scene to impress What say you WGN America Bounce TV or FusionOne more National Geographic note Keep new digital series hosts Bertie Gregory quotWildLifequot and Angeli Gabriel quotNGeniusquot on your radar screen Have a strong hunch they will gravitate in time to National Geographic Channel series They are fun to watch oncamera and in personSeveral NewFront participants including Maker Studios Machinima and Conde Nast dramatically downsized their venues to the point where journalists were not allowed in Result Several of the most important announcements during the last two weeks such as Conde Nast39s trio of incubator ventures grooming new projects by women and people of color didn39t get the national notice they should haveAlso at least half of the participating NewFront companies didn39t have the courtesy to return email requests among a substantial number of journalists yours truly includedto attend and cover Among them Awesomeness TV Bloomberg CNN Fullscreen Hearst Mashable New York Times Time Inc and Vice This is the second straight year of this noncommunication baloney Time for the Interactive Advertising Bureau which organizes NewFronts to do what Advertising Week and other New Yorkbased theme weeks do as standard policyamp160Issue allaccess passes to all journalists If a participating company doesn39t want press as Yahoo openly noted just make the request PeriodNow for a few notes about this weekCongratulations to ABC for giving quotAmerican Crimequot a third season The best series now on broadcast TV deserved it after a brilliant second season executed by creatorexecutive producerdirector John Ridley and his associates Look for plenty of Emmy nominations in the Limited Series categories this summer and fingerscrossed the Peabody Award next springInternet Week New York is underway and it looks sadly like this theme week is in big trouble Less than 50 events will take place a huge drop from the 200250 events of recent years and longtime home base Metropolitan Pavilion is out of the picture As of this past weekend looking at IW39s website not one press release hadamp160been issued about this week39s agendaamp160and the press credentials page still contains a 2015 form As we39ve noted in this column IW has rejected most credential requests from major news organizations since 2013 and then invited them to pay for attendance That39s led to an absence of coverage by local and national print TV and technologyfocused Internet outlets as IW offered more events focused on Web players exploring TV and the emergence of smart TV sets and devices such as Roku Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast What a huge shame it will be if this royal fiasco of PR judgement leads to IW39s downfall This is a great annual crowdsourced projectIn sad Upfront week news there will not be aamp160press lunch Wednesday after the Turner Upfront It had become a grand tradition that allowed the press to spend time with show creators and executives from TBS and TNT and it will be deeply missed While many who enjoyed this annual ritual trust this is a onetime call give props to Turner for introducing a prepresentation red carpet that will include talent from truTV and other Turner channels Better than nothingAlso getting the hook Wednesday MundoMax39s upfront lunch the first event of this nature since Fox exited ownership of the Spanishlanguage network last yearamp160 I39m told a public showcase of MundoMax39s 201617 season content and advertising plans may happen in New York this summer Meantime the network will go forward with agencybyagency meetingsUntil 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 MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers amp160amp160

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NewFronts 2016: Closing Odds and Ends

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