If the cocktails at the Fall TV broadcast presentations weren’t enough to leave your head spinning, the TV jargon could certainly finish the job. Never fear, strategy is here to define some of the key terms you might have heard to prepare you for your next broadcast meeting.
Upfronts/Newfronts: No, it’s not just the latest party theme craze. Upfronts, and its newly-launched digital sibling, the Newfronts, are presentations hosted by each of the U.S. networks, and now the digital players – Hulu, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo and Google – in New York to song-and-dance about their content strategies to advertisers who buy space at premium prices. Canada, of course, follows with Toronto shindigs for national TV, and with distinct Montreal rollouts. It’s the most hopeful time of the year.
Crimetime: The biggest crime in this Saturday night block of crime-themed programming on CTV and Global is that networks are guilty of throwing in the towel against CBC’s ratings obliterator Hockey Night in Canada.
Hate-watching: Can’t stand the Kardashians but tune in every week? You, my friend, have just fallen victim to the newest trend in TV. To hate-watch is to view something for no other reason than to mock, and then let loose on social media with all your snarky comments. Which brings us to a subgenre of social TV – anti-social TV.
Sweeps: Got your PVR ready? These are the periods when ratings measurement agency Nielsen sends diaries to homes and asks what people are watching and when. Coincidentally it is also the time when the best storylines are run. Funny how that works. [Ed. note: Stop with the “live” sitcom stunts already.] VM
