Latest news with #upfronts
Globe and Mail
11-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Elbows (and bottoms) up: The down-low on the upfronts at Corus, Rogers, Bell Media and CBC
Elbows up – and bottoms up! I got to observe the loopy, lubricated world of the newly nationalistic Canadian television industry upfronts up close last week. For the uninitiated, upfronts are live or streamed presentations where big media conglomerates – Corus Entertainment, Rogers, CBC and Bell Media in this case – each take a turn trying to get marketing folks to buy commercial time 'up front' before a new season of shows. The nation's media buyers started a hunt for advertising opportunities on Monday morning over mimosas with Matlock at Corus's headquarters on the Toronto waterfront – and ended it on Thursday afternoon with the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs hockey team from Shoresy inviting them to Bell Media's open bar at Meridian Hall. I kept to coffee and crudités and came away with the following takeaways. The nationalism of the moment was channelled in the most comically contradictory of manners at the Corus upfront. Those in attendance were invited to applaud the company's staff as they unfurled a banner that read 'Proudly Canadian!' This was immediately followed by executives eagerly conducting onstage interviews with flown-in stars from the American shows that take up prime time on its flagship network Global – from navy-cop soap NCIS to the coming The Office follow-up The Paper. In the end, the breakdown in the American-Canadian relationship was only seriously broached – jokingly – by late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, whose Late Show runs on Global. 'Retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods have really put a damper on my personal hobby of exporting car parts to Manitoba,' Colbert bemoaned, in a recorded message. Nobody at Corus, Rogers or Bell Media wants to see Canadians going seriously elbows up by cutting back on consumption of American screen content – but cancelling subscriptions to American-owned streaming services would be okay by them. The big fear in the sector isn't tariffs, but losing ads to American streamers like Amazon's Prime Video, which held its first-ever Canadian upfront in Toronto a week earlier. There's so many different ways to measure a show's viewership these days – between live, recorded and on demand; in apps, on websites, on actual television sets – that upfronts can feel like an elementary-school track meet. I don't know how both Bell Media's CTV and Corus's Global can both be home to the country's number one national newscast, for instance – but I'm sure their parent companies have numbers to back up the claim. Opinion: CBC shows off circus tricks and rescue pups, but no new dramas or comedies at 2025-26 upfront CBC, meanwhile, is just proud to be television's number one CBC. Saint-Pierre is its most-watched new series (on linear TV). North of North is also its most-watched new series (on Gem streaming service). Furthermore, Andrew Chang's About That is its most-watched show (on YouTube). Who's in a rush to standardize measurement again when everyone can be a winner? Global was home to a couple of the more talked-about TV character deaths this spring: Francis X McCarthy's was shot on NCIS, and Peter Krause's succumbed to a contagion event on 9-1-1. But the most surprising sudden disappearance may have been in the network's c-suite. On Monday, Corus co-CEO Troy Reeb bounded onto the stage at the upfront with incredible energy. 'Welcome everybody to Corus country!' he exclaimed. 'This is the greatest country in the world!' Two days later, Reeb immigrated away from the greatest country in the world. 'In light of the evolving industry landscape as well as the actions taken to date to stabilize the capital and debt structure of the Company, the Board has decided to transition back to a single CEO structure,' Corus's lead independent director Mark Hollinger said in a statement. In the release, Corus said Reeb had decided to pursue opportunities outside the company and John Gossling, who previously shared the job with him, had been appointed sole CEO. Those types of twists and turns are what keep us watching. As a father whose son had a Canada's Got Talent-themed birthday party (I did a magic trick and it was pretty good), I'm bummed that Rogers has hit 'pause' on the franchise. Instead, CGT judge Howie Mandel is back on Citytv this winter with a show with even more opportunities for product placement: The Price is Right Tonight. At a streamed-only upfront, Mandell talked of how the primetime game show would offer 'hundreds of integration opportunities for brands.' Citytv will be Canada's number one home for infomercials in disguise this season as it has also picked up NBC's On Brand with Jimmy Fallon – a reality show in which contestants create campaigns for major brands. I get why Citytv's Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is popular – but why do Canadian networks think homegrown law and order is all we want to watch? Global's Murder in a Small Town and Family Law are back for 2025-2026 – while Jason Priestley/Cindy Sampson's not-that-old Toronto PI show Private Eyes is getting rebooted as the Victoria-set Private Eyes: West Coast. Citytv will have its third dose of dun-dun, while Hudson and Rex returns for a eighth bow-wow (with new canine and human leads). CBC has a continuing drama lineup that consists of Heartland plus four police procedurals – and its execs are out at the Banff World Media Festival this week actively soliciting pitches for new law, medical and PI shows. Thank heavens for Bell Media – the only place commissioning serialized and non-formulaic TV dramas. Crave, its streaming service, in particular has a long list in development that'll slide in easily next to its premium HBO content and its two-solitude-bridging Quebec hit Empathie. I'm personally pumped for Seoul Palace – about an exiled Korean rock star starting a nightclub in Toronto in the 1970s and inspired by the true story behind rock hall Lee's Palace. Yaga sounds promising too – an eight-part series spawned from popular playwright Kat Sandler's stage show about the folkloric Baba Yaga. A trailer for six-part crime drama The Borderline, starring Stephen Amell and Hamza Haq as childhood friends who went down different paths, looked sharp too – with Minnie Driver playing against type as the villain.
Bloomberg
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
Warner Bros.' David Zaslav Tried to Rebrand HBO. It Didn't Work.
Good afternoon from Los Angeles. It's good to be home. I've just returned from New York, where I visited Saturday Night Live, saw Succession star Sarah Snook on Broadway and attended a Lady Gaga concert (aka YouTube's upfront presentation to advertisers). I am going to break down the biggest news from the upfronts in a moment, but first…
Reuters
12-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Tariff uncertainty clouds outlook for US television's annual ad-selling bonanza
LOS ANGELES, May 12 (Reuters) - The risk of a tariff-induced U.S. recession is hanging over the television industry's annual upfront selling season, when companies stage star-studded pitches to coax brands to commit to spending billions of dollars on advertising in the year ahead. Starting Monday, the presentations in New York kick off weeks of negotiations in which television networks and streaming services typically lock in the largest share of their ad revenue for the year. YouTube (GOOGL.O), opens new tab promises a performance by Lady Gaga and an appearance from one of its biggest stars, Mr. Beast. NBCUniversal will host its presentation at Radio City Music Hall and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD.O), opens new tab at Madison Square Garden. But the champagne-fueled parties will take place against a backdrop of economic concerns, stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump's on-again, off-again tariff policies, which economists warn may lead to a recession. While major media companies have not reported any decline in ad demand, industry analysts predict brands will reduce their spending as consumer confidence wanes. Research firm eMarketer projects ad spending on traditional television during the upfronts could fall to $13.4 billion, down $4 billion from last year, depending on the level of tariffs that take effect. The Trump administration is negotiating deals with a number of major trading partners, including China. For digital ads on online devices, the worst-case scenario is that spending will stay flat at around $13 billion, eMarketer said. If tariffs are limited, digital ads could rise to $14.7 billion. Data firm Guideline said a pullback was already evident. Ad spending rose 7% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2024, but future bookings suggest growth could decelerate to 3% in the second quarter, Guideline said. Media executives acknowledged some brands might feel nervous, but said there could be a cost to cutting ad spending. "Clients learned some important lessons during COVID, when a lot of advertisers pulled back very quickly and then had to redeploy those funds," said Jeff Collins, president of advertising sales, marketing and brand partnerships at Fox (FOXA.O), opens new tab. "And I think that they're trying not to have a knee-jerk reaction to what is happening now." Advertisers that wait to purchase time at the last minute in the so-called "scatter" market sometimes pay double-digit percentage increases in rates, Collins said. Fox had not yet seen any impact on ad demand from tariffs, he added. Karen Kovacs, president of advertising sales and partnerships at NBCUniversal, said brands that continued to spend on advertising during past downturns maintained better sales and market share than others that cut back. NBCU parent Comcast (CMCSA.O), opens new tab, in its latest earnings report, said ad revenue was roughly flat during the first three months of 2025. Sellers of ad time may need to give concessions on pricing and cancellation terms to win business, said eMarketer senior analyst Ross Benes, adding tariffs would have most impact on the advertising of physical products like cars and consumer goods. Digital players like Google's YouTube or Facebook parent Meta (META.O), opens new tab will likely emphasize the use of artificial intelligence to help brands reach customers more efficiently, said Greg Kahn, CEO of GK Digital Ventures media advisory firm. Many U.S. companies have cut or withdrawn their annual forecasts, citing an uncertain trade environment, including General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab, Kraft Heinz (KHC.O), opens new tab and bleach maker Clorox (CLX.N), opens new tab. Clorox is evaluating how much it spends on advertising, CEO Linda Rendle said on an earnings call last week. "We're going to continue to invest strongly in our brands, but at what level makes the most amount of sense given the returns that we're getting," Rendle said. Still, some media firms remain upbeat. Disney (DIS.N), opens new tab expects annual advertising growth to surpass its previous 3% forecast, while Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab co-CEO Greg Peters said in April the company was not seeing any signs of softness in its pre-upfronts discussions. The company does not disclose ad revenue, but analysts polled by LSEG project Netflix will bring in $2.7 billion from advertising in 2025. Netflix launched its ad-supported options in November 2022 and is still in the early stages of building that business. "That smallness probably provides us some insulation to market shifts right now," Peters said, adding that Netflix expects to double ad revenue this year.
