After the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the upfronts for two straight years, NBCUniversal is planning a return to normal for 2022. Well, sort of.
The company will return to Radio City Music Hall for its annual upfront presentation the morning of May 16, and will once again host a Telemundo-branded party that evening at the Ziegfeld Theater.
“We’ll lift up the stories that hundreds of millions of consumers trust, connect with, and rely on no matter the stage or screen — and preview what’s coming next, and how you can be a part of it,” NBCUniversal ad sales and partnerships chairman Linda Yaccarino wrote in a letter to the company’s partners on Tuesday.
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However, the company is also planning a pair of new “interconnected” events that will lead up to its more traditional upfront offering, as well as participating in the IAB Newfronts.
On March 22, NBCUniversal will hold One22, its follow-up to the inaugural One21 developer conference, which it launched last year. The company will hold the event live from Studio 8H in New York, the home of Saturday Night Live, and also make it a virtual event so partners can watch from home.
And during the week of April 11, the company will hold what it is calling “content and community previews” in both New York and Los Angeles. “These intimate, in-person, gatherings will illuminate how our content creates communities and give you a new window into the audience insights and data science that inform our content development and creative strategy,” Yaccarino wrote in her letter.
NBCUniversal will also present during the IAB Newfronts in early May, with a focus on streaming and Peacock.
2022 will see the networks return to in-person upfront events (assuming the pandemic doesn’t get in the way once more), though at least two other networks are planning different presentations than they have pursued previously.
Fox Corp., which will for the first time include Fox News, Fox Sports and streaming service Tubi in its upfront pitch, will relocate from midtown to lower Manhattan. Disney, meanwhile, is planning to leave its longtime home of Lincoln Center, with David Geffen Hall, the traditional venue for the presentation, undergoing renovations.
Discovery and WarnerMedia, meanwhile, have to plan for an upfront where it isn’t yet clear whether the two companies will be able to make a unified pitch, or whether regulatory delays force them to once again go it alone.
