NBCUniversal Will Return to Radio City Music Hall for In-Person, May Upfront

Two more in-person events have been added to May’s upfront week calendar, as NBCUniversal has solidified plans to return to Radio City Music Hall and kick off the traditional New York gathering for marketers for the first time since 2019. In addition to its event the morning of Monday, May 16, NBCUniversal will also hold a Telemundo Celebration that night at the Ziegfeld Theatre. “All day long, we’ll celebrate the culture-defining content that shapes the world, in both English and Spanish. 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,” Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships, wrote today in an industry letter. Those presentations are two of NBCUniversal’s five “interconnected” upfront events, Yaccarino wrote: “Each moment will build on the next to help you understand every layer of One Platform: the technology infrastructure, the creative strategy, the innovative experience and most importantly, the iconic content people love.” Fox Sets Combined, In-Person May Upfront Week Event in New Location On March 22, NBCUniversal will hold its annual developer conference, One22, which debuted last year and will showcase its technology stack at the foundation of One Platform ad offering. That event will be held in-person and virtually at Studio 8H in 30 Rock. Its content and community previews, focusing on its content development and creative strategy, are set for the week of April 11 in New York and Los Angeles. Additionally, the company will return to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s NewFronts on May 2 for a Peacock-centric presentation. First in-person upfront since 2019 This will be the first in-person upfront since 2019 for NBCUniversal, and the rest of the upfront week presenters. Last year, NBCUniversal held a virtual presentation during its traditional upfront-week time slot, and in 2020, the company assembled the cast of 30 Rock for a reunion/upfront hybrid event that aired on NBC. NBCUniversal is the fourth upfront week presenter to solidify an in-person return. Last week, Fox said it will hold an event on Monday, May 16, but the company is vacating its longtime upfront home, New York’s Beacon Theatre, for a new location: Skylight on Vesey. Additionally, Fox will combine its entertainment, sports and news presentations—usually held separately—into a single event. Like Fox, Disney will be also switching upfront locales for its May 17 event— leaving its traditional Lincoln Center home for “an all-new venue” that has not yet been announced. WarnerMedia, meanwhile, will return to the Hulu Theater at MSG for its presentation on Wednesday, May 18. The other upfront week presenters—including Discovery, ViacomCBS and The CW—have not yet publicly revealed their event plans. However, Discovery is planning on holding an in-person event on Tuesday, May 17, if the company is able to safely do so. These will be the first in-person upfront week presentations since Covid-19 arrived in early 2020. Media companies took varying approaches to virtual upfront events in 2020—which were held over several months—but almost all of them returned to the usual upfront week schedule in May 2021, presenting virtual events in their typical slots on the upfront calendar. All of those upfront week events can also be streamed for those who prefer to attend remotely.