Disney Picks New York's Pier 36 for In-Person Upfront

Three-and-a-half months after Disney first announced plans to depart its longtime upfront week home, Lincoln Center, the company has settled on its new venue for the first in-person upfront week since 2019. Disney will hold this year’s upfront presentation on Tuesday, May 17 in Basketball City, a venue on New York’s Pier 36, near the South Street Seaport. After 2021’s upfront shifted to a virtual format for the second year because of the pandemic, the company decided that “after three years, we really have to do something different” when it came to returning to an in-person presentation, said Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of advertising sales and partnerships. Basketball City was a “white canvas” that offered the flexibility the company was looking for. “It feels different, and we want to break with tradition,” said Ferro. Discovery Latest Upfront Week Presenter to Set In-Person Plans The cavernous space also allowed the company to hold the pre-event, event and afterparty all in the same locale. This year, all upfront attendees will be invited to attend the afterparty, which previously had a much smaller guest list. In a memo to marketers announcing the new venue, Ferro promised “an upfront event unlike anything you’ve ever seen from Disney.” She told Adweek that instead of spotlighting ABC’s primetime schedule or focusing on the portfolio’s individual brands, the presentation will center “more around the volume of the content across the company and our platforms, and the reach and scale of our platforms.” The event will also feature “more talent than we’ve ever had before,” said Ferro. The list of upfront speakers will be “slightly different” from previous events, said Ferro, but rest assured, Jimmy Kimmel will return to give his annual upfront roast. “He’s such an important part of what we do.” An in-person upfront week Last October, Disney was the first upfront week presenter to commit to an in-person event for marketers in May. At the time, the company said only that it would not return to its longtime Lincoln Center home, and its presentation will take place “at an all-new venue.” It took almost three months for Disney’s peers to follow suit, but now almost every upfront week presenter has announced plans to return. NBCUniversal will kick the week off by returning to Radio City Music Hall on Monday morning, May 16. Fox’s event will take place that afternoon, but like Disney, that company has shifted to a new venue: Skylight on Vesey. The day will close with NBCU’s Telemundo soiree. Discovery will hold its first in-person event during upfront week on Tuesday morning, May 17 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, prior to Disney’s presentation that afternoon. WarnerMedia’s Wednesday morning presentation will be followed by ViacomCBS that afternoon, as the company holds its first-ever combined in-person upfront presentation (following its 2019 merger) at Carnegie Hall. The CW will close out the week as usual on Thursday morning, May 19, with a presentation at New York City Center Theater. All of those upfront week events can also be streamed for those who prefer to attend remotely. Several Disney upfront events Ferro said Disney’s upfront presentation will be the culmination of several upfront events, including the company’s second annual tech and data showcase on March 3, where Disney will make announcements related to its various ad-tech, addressable and programmatic offerings. This year, that showcase will be part of a broader tech and data week, during which the company will parcel out more information about how the company delivered on promises made last year so marketers aren’t inundated with information at the March 3 event. Disney will hold its third annual sports summit on April 6, a key event for marketers “because when you look across linear television, Disney and ESPN represent about a third of all sports impressions 18 to 49,” said Ferro. The company has set a new event, the storytellers showcase, on April 26 for brand marketers and press, to explain how creators are thinking about their content (including their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives) and how it connects to advertisers.

TV Upfronts

Disney Picks New York's Pier 36 for In-Person Upfront After Lincoln Center Exit

Company wanted ‘something different’ following two years of remote presentations

Jason Lynch

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Jason Lynch