The newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery will host its first Upfront event on Wednesday, May 18 at The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, showcasing its combined portfolio of content, brands, franchises and talent, ad sales chief Jon Steinlauf said Monday.
The event is likely to be packed with clients, agency partners, investors, sell-side analysts and press following last week’s close of the mega-deal that combined Discovery’s extensive non-fiction and international entertainment and sports businesses with formerly AT&T-owned WarnerMedia’s entertainment, sports and news. Upfront presentations are swinging back into full gear this year after Covid-contained and mostly virtual events for the past two.
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According to today’s announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery’s top ad solutions “include the strength of what both former organizations offered clients including advanced advertising scale, data driven linear and programmatic, sponsored synergies, and the best ad light streaming services that extend into both cable and non-cable homes.”
Warner Bros. Discovery brands include Discovery Channel, discovery+, CNN, CNN+, DC, Eurosport, HBO, HBO Max, HGTV, Food Network, OWN, Investigation Discovery, TLC, Magnolia Network, TNT, TBS, truTV, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies and others.
The $43-billion deal unveiled last May closed on Friday after a week of executive news and final merger-related housekeeping. Shares of the combined company began trading on the Nasdaq this morning under the symbol WBD.
This spring will finally see some upfront action. Walt Disney plans to hold its upfront event on May 17 at Basketball City, a facility on Pier 36 along the East River and a change from the company’s longtime Lincoln Center base. The CBS event, now under the umbrella of Paramount Global, will return to its longtime home at New York’s Carnegie Hall on May 18. Fox and NBCUniversal have slated multiple in-person upfront events.
The last year for the annual upfront extravaganza, which stretches for several weeks in May, was 2019.