Sports is never a big part of TV’s upfront ad selling season. But this year’s network TV upfront presentations, which kick off in N.Y. today with Univision, NBC and Fox, are expected to focus more on sports programming than in previous years. The reason -- the market for entertainment programming continues to be soft, as the trend of viewers watching entertainment programming on demand continues to be dominant. Fox’ presentation, which will be held this afternoon at the Beacon Theatre, will highlight “Thursday Night Football,” as well as the rest of the net’s NFL schedule.
New ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro will make one of his first public appearances tomorrow morning at his net’s upfront, which will be held at Minskoff Theatre. Turner, which goes on Wednesday morning, will unveil details of its soon-to-launch OTT net. CBS also goes Wednesday at Carnegie Hall and will focus on Super Bowl LIII, which it carries this coming season (John Ourand, Staff Writer).
Despite the "disruption occurring in TV, the annual take for broadcast and cable networks" in advanced ad sales is "not expected to drop significantly this year" after hitting $19.7B in '17. Research firm EMarketer is "projecting a 3% rise in upfront sales this year." But other analysts are "less optimistic, projecting a decline" in the 2-3% range (L.A. TIMES, 5/13).
