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Future of TV Upfronts Upfront

A new Viacom emerges as Nickelodeon begins the upfront season

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By Natan Edelsburg, SVP

March 3, 2017 | 3 min read

March has just begun but the TV upfront season is now underway. Nickelodeon kicked off the annual party-meets -resentation season with a beautiful event yesterday at New York City's Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Nick

Viacom's upfronts were infamous for their awkward opening shout outs to Philippe Dauman and Tom Dooley (the former CEOs) who would usually sit in the audience, stand up and awkwardly wave to everyone. This yearly occurrence, while in a corporate setting, definitely didn't communicate the vibe of a company that largely wants to appeal to teenagers.

Enter Bob Bakish (a "suit" that doesn't always need to wear a suit) the new President and CEO and the 2017 Nickelodeon upfront was the beginning of a new conversation for the company. After outlining the company's new strategy on tage he introduced Cyma Zarghami, Nickelodeon's president who gave a shout out to Shari Redstone, the company's Vice Chair of the Board (and pointed out that she is grandma with kids who love the network).

While all of this might seem minor, it was clearly a well thought out strategy to show that the company is back and better than ever. Nickelodeon, among many big announcements is:

  • Bringing Welcome to the Wayne, a series that thrived on their website to TV
  • Bringing Dude Perfect season 2 (which was on CMT for season 1) to their channel (based on the #1 sports YouTube channel)

Found Remote will continue to comment on the minutia of the upfront season that hints at the bigger picture of the industry.

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Future of TV Upfronts Upfront

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