Media Decoder: NBCUniversal Plans an ‘Upfront’ for Its Digital Properties

Remember how the Florida citrus growers ran commercials asserting that orange juice was not just for breakfast anymore? The NBCUniversal division of Comcast, in its seemingly continuous efforts to convince Madison Avenue that it is not just about the problematic NBC television network anymore, plans to share an ambitious slate of digital initiatives with advertisers and agencies on Wednesday evening.

The lengthy list of initiatives will be discussed by NBCUniversal executives at a presentation-cum-party devoted solely to the division’s digital and online content. It is being billed as a “Digital. Amplified” event, echoing a new trade advertising campaign to promote NBCUniversal that carries the theme “Content. Consumers. Collaboration. Amplified.”

There is expected to be some discussion at the event of programming on the NBC television network, but only in synergistic instances like “The Million Dollar Quiz,” a show scheduled for the 2013-14 broadcast season that will recruit contestants for television through an online competition; the game will also allow viewers at home to play along with the live TV broadcast.

The digital-centric event is being held five days before the annual Digital Content NewFronts, a week of presentations under the aegis of the Interactive Advertising Bureau that are devoted to online media. NBCUniversal took part last year, but this time executives decided to hold its own event before the digital upfront week.

“I don’t think the decision was to not do something,” Scott Schiller, executive vice president for digital ad sales at NBCUniversal, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. Rather, he said, the idea was to have a stand-alone event to highlight how “NBCU has long been a proponent of digital.”

“We are a true multiplatform company,” Mr. Schiller said, “and digital is part of everything we do.” For instance, he cited the numerous descriptions of digital initiatives at the upfront presentation made Monday night by the E! cable channel, which is part of NBCUniversal.

Speaking of E!, the NBCUniversal executives plan to describe at the digital upfront event how viewers of “The Wanted Life” — a new series on the channel, which will follow the lives of the boy band known as the Wanted — will be able to take advantage of interactive video chats with the band members while episodes of the show air. The chats are expected to take place on the channel’s Web site, eonline.com. (Whether all five members of the Wanted will take part in the chats is unknown at this time; one, Nathan Sykes, is recovering from vocal cord surgery and did not perform with his band mates at the E! upfront event.)

Here is a look at some of the other initiatives to be described during the NBCU digital event on Wednesday:

• Fandango.com, the movie ticket Web site, will introduce in the summer an online feature, Family Room, that is to serve as a one-stop hub for families interested in going to the movies together. Content will include video clips featuring the new chief correspondent of Fandango, Dave Karger.

• DailyCandy.com, the Web site with food, fashion and other content aimed at younger women, will host a fashion and film festival in New York in the fall and invite fans of the site to submit films online.

• Telemundo, the Spanish language network that is part of NBCUniversal, will become the first Hispanic partner in the United States for Zeebox, the application for smartphones and tablets that is meant to complement viewership of TV shows in social media like Facebook and Twitter. (NBCUniversal is a partner of Zeebox in this country with the HBO division of Time Warner and Comcast.)

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/business/media/nbcuniversal-plans-an-upfront-for-its-digital-properties.html?partner=rss&emc=rss