LISTEN: Tech Talk, Streaming, Sports and Reboots Dominate Day 1 of Upfronts; NBCUniversal’s Liz Jenkins on Risk-Taking Amid Disruption
On today’s episode, Variety’s Brian Steinberg reports on the triple-header kickoff of Upfronts week after attending Monday’s NBCUniversal, Fox and Amazon Prime Video presentations. He parses each platform’s pitch to Madison Avenue. And we’ll hear from NBCUniversal Entertainment chief business officer Liz Jenkins on risk-taking in the time of disruption, in remarks delivered this month at SeriesFest in Denver. “We’ve found our cruising altitude again,” Jenkins says.
The message on Day 1 of upfronts boiled down to a focus on tech and data tools for reaching distinct slices of audience. Sports, streaming, the importance of driving social media buzz and the rise of more reboots, Steinberg says. (Hello, “Baywatch” and “The Rockford Files” revivals.)
“Everyone’s trying to balance the need to be current on ad technology with trying to show content that everyone likes,” he says. “In years past, these were big presentations on comedies and dramas. And now the advertisers are very concerned about reaching audiences that are on digital and social and streaming. And so they really want to hear a lot about very technical ad tech stuff. In fact, Fox even put a chief technology officer on stage. That’s kind of different.”
Jenkins detailed the evolution of NBCUniversal over the past year in her conversation with NPR host John Horn that was held May 6 at the SeriesFest event in Denver. Horn, a veteran entertainment journalist, asked Jenkins about how the studio maintains its appetite for taking big swings at a time when the risk is greater than ever because traditional paths to generating profits from movie and TV production is so challenged. Jenkins says the industry has to fight the chilling effect of deep uncertainties in the marketplace.
“There’s nothing more lethal than that mindset. I see it sometimes gripping our industry, which you understand why. To me, if you’re playing not to lose, you’re not going to be winning, frankly. And I understand why it makes sense to have like a scarcity mindset when it feels like the pool is shrinking, the volume of series are going down,” Jenkins says.
“But that’s not where innovation is going to come from. That’s not where really dynamic stories are born. And so how do you avoid it? [NBCU Entertainment chairman] Donna [Langley] talks a lot about having a growth mindset. And that is the expectation of people at our company. You take bets, but we make smart, well-informed bets. I talk a lot about data- informed decision making. It’s not data-driven, because data is never going to predict a hit. That’s impossible. A hit is something that significantly outperforms what something was expected to do. But I think data, along with a lot of other important points, can be a part of making a multifaceted decision.”
(Pictured: Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang perform at NBCUniversal’s upfront presentation at Radio City Music Hall on May 11.)
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The message on Day 1 of upfronts boiled down to a focus on tech and data tools for reaching distinct slices of audience. Sports, streaming, the importance of driving social media buzz and the rise of more reboots, Steinberg says. (Hello, “Baywatch” and “The Rockford Files” revivals.)
“Everyone’s trying to balance the need to be current on ad technology with trying to show content that everyone likes,” he says. “In years past, these were big presentations on comedies and dramas. And now the advertisers are very concerned about reaching audiences that are on digital and social and streaming. And so they really want to hear a lot about very technical ad tech stuff. In fact, Fox even put a chief technology officer on stage. That’s kind of different.”
Jenkins detailed the evolution of NBCUniversal over the past year in her conversation with NPR host John Horn that was held May 6 at the SeriesFest event in Denver. Horn, a veteran entertainment journalist, asked Jenkins about how the studio maintains its appetite for taking big swings at a time when the risk is greater than ever because traditional paths to generating profits from movie and TV production is so challenged. Jenkins says the industry has to fight the chilling effect of deep uncertainties in the marketplace.
“There’s nothing more lethal than that mindset. I see it sometimes gripping our industry, which you understand why. To me, if you’re playing not to lose, you’re not going to be winning, frankly. And I understand why it makes sense to have like a scarcity mindset when it feels like the pool is shrinking, the volume of series are going down,” Jenkins says.
“But that’s not where innovation is going to come from. That’s not where really dynamic stories are born. And so how do you avoid it? [NBCU Entertainment chairman] Donna [Langley] talks a lot about having a growth mindset. And that is the expectation of people at our company. You take bets, but we make smart, well-informed bets. I talk a lot about data- informed decision making. It’s not data-driven, because data is never going to predict a hit. That’s impossible. A hit is something that significantly outperforms what something was expected to do. But I think data, along with a lot of other important points, can be a part of making a multifaceted decision.”
(Pictured: Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang perform at NBCUniversal’s upfront presentation at Radio City Music Hall on May 11.)
Listen to Daily Variety on iHeartPodcasts, Apple Podcasts, Variety’s YouTube Podcast channel, Amazon Music, Spotify and other podcast platforms.