Upfront Update: No Failure Tax from A&E

Venue There are some technical wizards at Lincoln Center with the ability to turn Damrosch Park into a stylish indoor paradise on a dime They did it for Style39s runway upfront during Fashion Week three months ago and they were at their best for AampampE converting the outdoors into a huge bigtop tent and Damrosch39s band shell into a threescreen stage AampampE contributed a host of celebrities from the Duck Dynasty family to the casts of Lifetime39s upcoming Devious Minds and Witches of East End all available for attendee snapshots near the front entrance Five jacksplus alone for the star power along with the delicious sushi and pulled chicken Grade 5 JacksPresentation Justpromoted AampampE chief executive Nancy Dubuc promised a short overview of content to come at her networks making good on that intention by quick separate AampampE History and Lifetime sections The prelude the toughest public rhetoric on broadcast or cable channels at any upfront so far coming from ad sales president Mal Berning After getting a clothes makeover from one of Duck Dynasty39s clan with contributions from a Vikings actor and Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn Berning fired away quotNext week you39ll hear our broadcast ancestors make the argument for why less costs more And no doubt you39ve already heard from at least one of our big cable competitors who have been busy reworking and repricing the plan you bought from them last year so they can charge you more for it this year The math says that broadcast erosion is throwing over 1 billion up for grabs in this year39s upfront If you39re tired of paying a failure tax we have lots of successful programs for you to invest inquot Minutes later this from AampampE chairperson Abbe Raven while paying tribute to the behindthescenes talent quotWe make decisions every day based on the creative process not on what Wall Street analysts think we should be doing We39ll continue to make bold moves because that39s how it39s donequot Grade 5 JacksNews History coming off its huge miniseries success of the last year with Hatfields ampamp McCoys and The Bible will premiere three more miniseries over the next 12 monthsSons of Liberty Houdini with Adrian Brody in the title role and Bonnie ampamp Clyde simulcast on AampampE and Lifetime Separately Lifetime Movie Network Biography Channel and H2 are in for hefty increases in firstrun production What will they produce Wait until late summer for the details AampampE executives say Grade 35 JacksHost Solid turns by Raven Dubuc and Berningwho looks decent in a Duck Dynastychosen sports coat Grade 45 JacksOverall Grade 45 Jacks Big everything here from the tent to the acknowledgment of successful series to perhaps the big new catchphrase of upfront 2013failure tax Oh and the big sushi5 Jacks Excellent4 Jacks Very Good3 Jacks Good2 Jacks Fair1 Jack Poor0 Jacks Worse than badObservations from the passing paradeHeard from DirecTV after our review of their Upfront earlier this week Near the end I mentioned there was nothing about Audience Network the exclusive channel for their original programming That was intentional because the event39s focus was to highlight interactive and addressable ad opportunities one of DirecTV39s spokespeople noted Besides Audience Network39s primetime programming now featuring Rogue with Thandie Newton is commercialfree Point made and thank you for the replyTelemundo39s got a brand new bag to quote James Brown and it39s multiplatform in nature Fluency based in Los Angeles will produce English and Spanishlanguage series which will run shortform on the Web mobile and tablet and at the start 90minute films on Telemundo mun2 or other NBC Universalowned networks First projects funky romantic comedy La Buena MalaThe Good Bad One and comingofage sciencefiction Isa Could Spanishlanguage TV39s first weekly science fiction series come from Fluency39s effort Watch this warp driveOvation unveiled plenty during a press breakfast Thursday morning at the classy Dizzy39s Club space inside Jazz At Lincoln Center quotArt Everywherequot is the new tag line and nine new series will premiere on the network between June and yearend Culture Pop leads the lineup with a midlate June start date Nonfiction remains the dominant portion of Ovation39s content but scripted material especially madeintheUS scripted will come forward over timeUntil 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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Upfront Update: No Failure Tax from A&E

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