Upfront 2010: Mine Is Bigger Than Yours - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBloggers

What with all the schmoozing and presentation-attending and party-going and business -doing, Upfront week for me is a blur of perpetual motion. I never have free time during this annual whirlwind, or at least I never used to.

This year, I stacked up downtime like crazy. That's because the networks threw out many of the charts and graphs they love to trot out every May. I have to tip my hat to them. They were masters of efficient activity - not something you always associate with network executives - who appear to have been cured of their obsession with three-and-a-half-hour presentations.

They just got down to it.

In fact, in some cases it only took about 90 minutes for broadcasters to present their new seasons to buyers. I was freeing up an hour a network. So I had plenty of time to ponder the meaning of this year's Upfront.

There's always a meaning. Always one Big Theme to Upfront week. One trend, one issue, one thing that everybody agrees everybody did or said or wanted. And the Big Theme for Upfront 2010 was as uncharacteristic as the length of its presentations.

In past years, the bragging, the comparing and the confronting were always network versus network. My shows are better. My deals are better. My numbers are better.

Mine is bigger than yours.

This year, though, the Big Theme was the networks versus everybody else.

The message was loud and proud: we still matter. We still have the biggest audiences. The best content. The big events.

This year, it wasn't mine is bigger than yours; it was we all still have one.

And ours are still bigger than everybody else's.

The recession has receded, a little bit. Advertiser dollars are coming back, not in a flood, but in a steady stream. A strong scatter market augured well for a buyer-friendly Upfront in any case, but a bit of that old strut showed up this year as well.

"Over the last several years, the networks seemed like a prize-fighter who was taking the persistent blows of the Internet and then the economy, and found himself in a defensive posture on the ropes". That's how MediaLink Chief Creative Officer Sandy Grushow, no stranger to Upfronts or Big Themes, explained it to me. "This year at the Upfronts, it felt as though they were newly emboldened and collectively came out swinging."

Sandy attributes this to a combination of factors. First, the networks are just generally feeling better about themselves because of improved economic conditions. Also, the feeling - is growing, he notes, that network television and digital media "are two platforms that can actually coexist. It's not as if broadcast is problem-free. To the contrary. But it does seem as though broadcast is not going away anytime soon. Live event television has actually experienced a renaissance this past year, and people are pointing to social media as being one of the chief reasons."

In fact, none of broadcast's many recent bogeymen: DVRs, out-of-date metrics, online, social networks, the recession and collapse of key sectors like automotive, have been unable alone or in combination to kill the networks off.

Carved them up, sure. Bloodied them, undoubtedly. Smaller, naturally. But there they were last week, partying like it was 1999, only with fewer charts and graphs. And perhaps most telling: happily splashing about once again in a buyer's market.

Michael E. Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink, LLC, a leading Los Angeles and New York City-based advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing, advertising, media, entertainment and digital technology. Michael can be reached at michael@medialinkllc.com

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