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Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A group backed by many of the entertainment sector’s biggest traditional TV companies said it would back audience-measurement tools from Comscore and VideoAmp for use in national ad deals, the latest effort by media giants to create an alternative to Nielsen for tabulating viewership. Whether or not the new ad currencies will gain traction will depend on Madison Avenue.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Paramount Global doesn’t feel it needs Carnegie Hall to make its point to Madison Avenue. The New York owner of CBS, the Paramount movie studio and the Nickelodeon kids-cable outlet plans a second year of individual meetings with media buyers and advertisers for its outreach during the industry’s “upfront” sales market, and will not return to the more formal, glitzy presentation that has long been a staple of the period.

William Earl Roku is stepping up its efforts to court Madison Avenue. The company has released viewership data as a “case study” to demonstrate the strength of its streaming platform that offers a mix of aggregated channels, shows from third-party providers and a growing slate of Roku originals.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor When the Buffalo Bills square off against the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday via a game streamed on NBC’s Peacock, they will, for at least a period of time, do so without one of their most supportive fans: Madison Avenue. Peacock plans to stream the game’s fourth quarter without commercials, essentially sacrificing 12 minutes, or 40% of a game’s standard ad load, that would normally have been used to spotlight promotional messages for beer, gadgets and cars, among other products. Viewers won’t see the act as taking away anything.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CBS has scored a Super Bowl touchdown in November. The Paramount Global-backed network is “virtually sold out” of all its Super Bowl advertising inventory, according to a company spokesperson, completing a process that often isn’t completed until the final hours before the game kicks off in February.

Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods are opening an exciting new venture together.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Madison Avenue pulled hundreds of millions of dollars out of primetime TV and sent them to streaming venues in the industry’s recently completed “upfront” market, the latest sign that one of the media sector’s most stable mediums is in an era of severe flux. Ad commitments for primetime broadcast TV fell 3%, to $9.595 billion, compared with $9.91 billion in last year’s market, according to Media Dynamics Inc., an advertising consultancy that tracks the upfront, when U.S. TV networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for their next programming cycle.

Jennifer Lopez, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Beyoncé has died aged 64. Nello Balan built an empire from his eponymous diner on Madison Avenue, New York, which became a socialite hotspot. Sadly his daughter, Lucy, confirmed that he passed away in hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CBS is out; Netflix is in. Nothing encapsulates the tumult in television these days more than the fact that CBS, one of the pillars of network television, has decided not to attend the industry’s traditional upfront week — when media giants make glitzy programming presentations to prospective advertisers — while Netflix will make its debut. A year ago, when Netflix announced it would launch a subscriber tier supported by advertising, it was a seismic event in the history of the industry’s leading streamer. But so far, there’s been no quaking on Madison Avenue.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” isn’t slated to kick off until the fall of 2024. But that doesn’t mean NBC has to wait until then to start lining up sponsors. NBCUniversal intends to start talking to advertisers about the possibilities in the industry’s annual “upfront” sales session, says Mark Marshall, the company’s president of advertising sales and partnerships, in a recent interview. NBC could start calling attention to the landmark season during its telecasts of the 2024 Summer Olympics from Paris, he says, which means the media company is eager to start discussing ideas soon. TV’s “upfront,” when U.S. networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory, is expected to kick into gear next week, when NBCU and its competitors hold a series of glitzy presentations for Madison Avenue. “Saturday Night Live” generated approximately $74,7 million dollars in ad sales in 2022, according to Vivvix, a tracker of ad spending. That figure represents a 12% dip from the nearly $85.3 million “SNL” generated in 2021.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News Media, known best for shows led by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, is placing new emphasis on programming that relies more heavily on Kevin Costner, weather emergencies and Greg Gutfeld. In a meeting with advertisers slated to be held Tuesday, executives at the Fox Corp.-backed operation, will spotlight a growing array of lifestyle content, while continuing to nod to the political programming that draws some of its networks’ biggest audiences. Among the Fox News Media executives scheduled to be on hand were Suzanne Scott, the CEO, and Jay Wallace, president and executive editor. “If you take a look at our overall audience across all of Fox News Media, 40% comes from lifestyle – sports, weather, entertainment offerings,” says Jeff Collins, executive vice president of advertsing sales for Fox News Media. “We just want to reiterate to our clients the depth and breadth of this type of content that we have outside of just hard news.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox is getting ready to put on a new show for advertisers. After scaling back its upfront presentation in 2022, Fox Corporation will return the event to its usual wide-consumption format, moving the event to New York’s Manhattan Center on Monday, May 15. The company intends to focus attention on its broader portfolio of assets that includes Fox Sports, the Fox broadcasting network, Fox News Media and the Tubi streaming hub. “In a time of such complexity, strength, strategic focus and stability are the foundational elements that lead to success. Fox’s advantage is our ability to focus on what matters most — our advertising partners — and delivering for them, and our viewers, the best content across the industry’s leading sports, entertainment, news and streaming platforms,” said Marianne Gambelli, president of advertising sales at Fox, in a prepared statement. “For this year’s Upfront, we are hosting an in-person event — complete with a new venue and format — to connect with our clients in the most meaningful way, by showcasing the value of FOX’s best-in-class portfolio and its ability to innovate and engage with a wide array of consumers.”

A Glasgow woman has been ordered to tear down her garden decking for a second time after an appeal to keep it in place was rejected by the council. Theresa McInally first built the raised decking at her home on Madison Avenue, Catchart, during a garden makeover in 2020.

Andrew Wallenstein President and Chief Media Analyst Bob Iger shared a pessimistic outlook on the future of movies and traditional TV in an interview Wednesday at the Code Conference in Los Angeles.  The former Disney CEO was, however, particularly bullish on the growing number of streaming services embracing Madison Avenue, including Disney+, but predicted that not all of the current market entrants would survive in the long term.  “Advertising will thrive in the streaming world,” Iger told moderator Kara Swisher from the stage at the Beverly Hilton. “I think what Netflix is going to do in advertising, what Disney announced, those are smart moves because it’s going to give consumers choice.” 

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Karen Grinthal, a veteran ad-sales executive who has long represented cable’s Food Network and other properties to Madison Avenue, is set to retire from her post. Grinthal, who has worked at Scripps and then Discovery Communications for years, was recently named part of the new senior ad-sales executive team at Warner Bros. Discovery. Grinthal was named in July to be one of three top executives overseeing linear and digital sales for cable networks reporting in to Jon Steinlauf, head of U.S. ad sales for the company. Grinthal was assigned to supervise linear and digital sales and revenue for Food Network, TLC, TBS Entertainment, OWN, Cooking Channel, Cartoon Network and WB Syndication.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorRunning traditional ads on streaming services like Disney+, Netflix and Amazon can be difficult. Some advertisers may choose a different route by creating some of the programming those broadband services use to get people to subscribe in the first place.A new study from Interpublic Group’s Magna media-research unit and Amazon Ads found that consumers don’t seem overly concerned whether a TV show they watch is created by an advertiser or a more traditional production studio, so long as the content is entertaining.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThe hottest place to be in TV may not be traditional television, but Paramount Global was able to make the medium seem pretty cool.Paramount Global has largely completed its upfront sales negotiations. And while the company saw its volume of advance advertising commitments rise most significantly for digital venues like Pluto and Paramount Plus, ad dollars committed for the traditional primetime schedule on the CBS broadcast network rose as well, according to a person familiar with current negotiations  The company expects at least a 10% rise in volume for its primetime schedule, this person says.  In 2021, CBS may have seen its primetime commitments total between $2.03 billion and $2.64 billion, according to Variety estimates, compared with $2.03 billion and $2.51 billion in 2020.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTV’s upfront market is starting to close and ad dollars seem harder to collect.NBCUniversal expects the volume of advance advertising commitments secured in the annual haggle to be “in the same range as last year,” according to Jeff Shell, CEO of the Comcast owned unit. He said that declines due to “cord cutting were offset by pricing and Peacock for us,” during remarks made at an investor conference organized by Credit Suisse.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticIn “Mad Men,” Jon Hamm had his corner office: the room with a view, overlooking Madison Avenue, where Don Draper could work, drink and brainstorm in peace. Maybe that’s why the actor was drawn to playing a lowly paper-pusher with a bad mustache and big dreams of occupying such a space in “Corner Office,” a low-key, screw-loose workplace satire that offers audiences a side of Hamm they’ve never seen before — and might not be in such a hurry to experience again, unless the toil-from-home blues of the pandemic have made them receptive to the call of cubicle life.Premiering at the Tribeca Festival, “Corner Office” is director Joachim Back’s slightly taxing cinematic take on “The Room,” a slender novel by Swedish actor-cum-author Jonas Karlsson, unread by me, that bills itself as “a short, sharp and fiendish fable in the tradition of Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett and Charlie Kauffman.” Check, check and check, insofar as those three absurdist writers are concerned, though I’d quibble with the other descriptors in that pitch.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorBefore finalizing Discovery’s purchase of WarnerMedia from AT&T, David Zaslav spent months holding friendly conversations with Hollywood moguls and influential agents. Now he’s locked in contentious discussions with Madison Avenue.Warner Bros. Discovery is making what media buyers and other executives say are  severe demands on advertisers in the course of discussions around the industry’s annual “upfront” market, when TV networks try to sell the bulk of their advertising inventory.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTV’s “upfront” ad-sales market is starting to move — and earlier than expected.Just days after the networks wrapped glitzy programming presentations to Madison Avenue executives, Walt Disney Co. is said to have written some business with at least one major media buying agency, according to three executives familiar with recent discussions.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorHow did the simple act of counting TV viewers become so controversial? David Kenny thinks he knows.The CEO of Nielsen has been under fire for months, ever since some of his company’s biggest customers — the nation’s TV networks — began to complain about how Nielsen tabulated viewers during the coronavirus pandemic. They are still complaining.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterComedy “Pivoting” has been canceled after just one season at Fox, Variety has confirmed.The midseason single-cam sitcom starring Eliza Coupe, Ginnifer Goodwin and Maggie Q, concluded its 10-episode first season March 10.Set in a small, middle-class town in Long Island, NY, “Pivoting” follows close-knit childhood friends Amy (Coupe), Jodie (Goodwin) and Sarah (Q) as they cope with the death of the fourth member of their group. When faced with the reality that life is short, these women pivot, and alter their current paths, by way of a series of impulsive, ill-advised and self-indulgent decisions.

Lea Michele and Tommy Dorfman stepped out to attend a celebration of Balmain‘s flagship store on Madison Avenue.

In a fast-moving, 40-minute pitch to media buyers on Day 1 of the NewFronts, NBCUniversal’s Peacock touted its advertising DNA at a moment when some streaming rivals are just now cozying up to Madison Avenue.

Estelle Harris, who played George Costanza’s (Jason Alexander) mother Estelle on the popular NBC sitcom “Seinfeld” has died days before her 94th birthday.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFor at least one evening, worlds are colliding in late-night TV.Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel decided to switch up their hosting duties on April 1, with Kimmel traveling to New York to lead NBC’s “Tonight Show” and Fallon journeying to California to host ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” The studio audiences attending each broadcast were not informed of the move ahead of time, leaving them just as surprised as the TV viewers who tuned in Friday night. The Red Hot Chili Peppers served as musical guests for both programs.While such stunts are rare — each late-night program vies with the others for viewership and social-media activity — they are becoming less unique.

In its heyday Figure of Eight Park drew tourists from across the country to marvel at its rides, illuminations and a 100-tonne stuffed whale known as Eric.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBCUniversal has pushed in recent months to change the way TV audiences are measured and to shake up the methods Madison Avenue uses to place ads, but at least one thing about the Comcast-backed media conglomerate will remain the same: the location of its main upfront presentation.NBCU pledged to hold forth from Radio City Music Hall once again, just as it has for many years before the coronavirus pandemic scuttled the in-person extravaganzas that have become so much a part of the TV networks’ annual pitch to advertisers. The owner of the NBC, MSNBC and USA networks said it would kick off the industry’s annual Upfront Week on May 16, with an evening event aimed at promoting Spanish-language outlet Telemundo, marking a return to at least some of the traditions of the annual market, when U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox is shaking up the way it talks to Madison Avenue.After years of highlighting sports programming and primetime options on its flagship broadcast network, Fox Corporation plans to abandon its longtime roost at New York’s Beacon Theater during the industry’s annual May week of upfront presentations and start putting a bigger spotlight on ad-tech, streaming and its broader portfolio of media properties. The shift takes place as many traditional purveyors of TV make changes in their business to accommodate a growing interest by consumers in on-demand streaming and new demands from prominent sponsors to align commercial messages with the viewing patterns of narrower groups of potential customers.