Wide, Wide, World of NewFronts 2020: The Full Recap

Give tremendous credit to the Interactive Advertising Bureau for assembling a variety of content from players big and wannabees then mixing them with live selfproduced segments and transmitting the whole kibosh so seamlessly Whatever technical glitches popped up over last week one here or there they didn39t last longHere39s a selection of memorable bits from the virtual week that wasamp8230and here39s to bringing back NewFronts live and operating around New York City in front of crowds who connect with each other in 2021Slogan Of The Week quotGeneration Streamquot HuluHost With The Most Scott Rogowsky in his first big gig since HQ Trivia39s demise Brought the right frame of mind each dayamp8212by a ringmaster that balances the quest for advertiser support with humor when called for Example quotWhen you woke up this morning did you think you39d see Lenny Kravitz riding on a horsequotCoHosts With The Most Cheddar anchorperson Nora Ali and Michelle Morrow from Under Pressure Productions Excellent byplay with Rogowsky and held their own with the live interview segmentsDebut Of The Week Multichannel smart TV service Tubi now under Fox Entertainment ownership Fastmoving stylish display and the only major presenter to showcase a new Spanishlanguage projectComeback Of The Week Crackle after a few years of doing its own Upfront thing Came through with a wellrounded presentation featuring more than 200 hours of new series and specials for 202021 Personally looking forward to The Operation a clandestine thriller helped immensely by the return of Craig T Nelson Coach Call To Glory The District to series TVMissedMiscued Opportunities 1 Facebookamp8212A short video with nothing absolutely nothing about Facebook Watch and its variety of adsupportable content or Portal TV their innovative smart TV product with video chat and augmented reality features getting a second win because of the coronavirus pandemic 2 Ellen Digital Venturesamp8212Much ado visually without much info about new series and when they39ll debut And no special message from Ellen DeGeneres herself A huge letdown from last year39s excellent event with the best layout and variety of food at any NewFront space that weekTurnoff Of The Week TiVo39s PowerPoint slide demo complete with boring narration and unappealing onscreen graphicsamp160 Encyclopedia Britannica filmstrips I watched in grade school during the 1960s had far more energyControversial Thought Of The Week quotTaking down statues is a good thing but we can also build new monuments and that39s betterquot That from IAB chief executive officer Randall Rothenberg during the first NewFronts hour last Monday With tremendous respect condoning the takedown destruction or defacing of statues monuments and landmarks on public property by people willynilly without their historical facts straight is NOT a good thing If you let this go on where does it stop Put your focus on building those new monuments periodWish You Were Here Amazon which earlier agreed to be part of NewFronts 2020amp8212and somehow between the initial schedule release and last week dropped out This would have been a great stage to present IMDB TV their adsupported programming service for smart TV setsdevices rumored to be making a big push into original series this fall Also could have used the time to show off Food Network Kitchen its groundbreaking interactive venture with DiscoveryTop Celebrity Segment Vevo39s extended interview with Katy PerryKeep Your Eye Onamp8230 1 Whistle TVamp8212Interesting mix of uplifting empowering unscripted and scripted programs 2 3Blackdotamp8212Gaming and esports online and mobile content maker with two appealing TV series in development toon Alpha Betas and remoteproduced Party ChatClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Wide, Wide, World of NewFronts 2020: The Full Recap

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Simon Applebaum

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Wide, Wide, World of NewFronts 2020: The Full Recap

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