What began with a sales pitch, ended with Oprah Winfrey, and in between featured two hours and 20 minutes of attractions like reality television stars, Ron Howard, Roseanne Barr, a marching band and one of the Wallendas, the daredevil circus performers.
Each year, the Discovery upfront presentation - so named because it takes place before the start of the coming television season - is one of the most elaborately staged events of its kind, stuffed with eye and ear candy.
The reason behind all this spectacle, and why the entertainment quotient tends to so eclipse its rivals, is that the company tries each year to interest advertisers in hundreds of new shows, specials and returning series that will appear on its 14 cable channels in the United States, which in addition to Destination America include the American Heroes Channel, Discovery Channel, Discovery en Español, Hub Network, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (hence Ms. Winfrey's presence) and TLC.
How much programming is there? A news release describing the offerings for just Discovery Channel ran 11 pages. And a video shown during the presentation informed the audience of media agency buyers and planners that Discovery intends to spend $1.5 billion on content for the new season.
"We own all our content," said Joseph Abruzzese, president for sales at Discovery, who started the presentation. That, he says, enabled the company to more easily "integrate your brands into our shows." He presented examples that featured products from Dyson, Geico and Mitsubishi.
Abruzzese - who appeared at the end of the presentation with Winfrey and David M Zaslav, president and chief executive of Discovery - suggested that advertisers would also benefit from what he called "the curiosity effect," an attitude among viewers of the company's channels and visitors to its websites that makes them "more likely to engage with your message and purchase your products."
Nik Wallenda, the star of a live special last June on Discovery Channel, during which 13 million viewers watched him walk a high wire across a gorge near the Grand Canyon, promoted his next live feat for the network, centred on his walking across the Chicago skyline untethered. He appeared with Willie Geist, a host of last year's special who is to return for the Chicago stunt. "There's nothing like live," Geist said, "and there's nothing like live events on Discovery."
Indeed, live events, which advertisers like because viewers are more likely to watch them in real time and see the commercials, seem to be a trend on Discovery Channel. Joining Wallenda's "Skyscraper Live" will be "Everest Jump Live," presenting the first wingsuit flight off the summit of Mount Everest; "Survival Live," a reality show, scheduled for late 2014, that will follow eight contestants for 42 consecutive days. Among other highlights are a series on Science Channel with a title that cannot be published in a family newspaper, which for propriety will be rendered as "I Fiercely Love Science"; "Vanity Fair Confidential," on Investigation Discovery, in partnership with Vanity Fair magazine; and the first scripted show on Animal Planet, "Revenge of the Whale," with Martin Sheen.
A half-dozen upfront events, for agencies and reporters, are planned this week, including BBC America, CNN and FX Networks. Two channels, Aspire and UP, will even park a bus near Bryant Park for their annual "upfront press happy hour."
© New York Times News Service
