Steve McClellan, Adweek

Just a few years ago, the nine broadcast networks all crammed their new season presentations into the third week of May, commonly known as “upfront week.” Now, taking a cue from the cable nets, the broadcast upfront week is gradually morphing into an upfront month. Or two.

Forgoing a New York stage show, Spanish language network Telemundo just completed a series of meetings over two weeks in Miami where senior management met with individual clients and agencies to present its new fall schedule along with branded integration and other marketing opportunities. “It’s far more productive to have two-way conversations with individual clients than a one-way conversation from a stage,” said Alfredo Richard, senior vp, communications and talent development, Telemundo.

Buyers agreed. Glitzy presentations at storied New York venues “are not as impactful as sitting down and understanding what the challenges are for individual clients,” said Gibbs Haljun, managing director, media investment, at Mediaedge:cia. One-on-ones, he said are “much more hands on” and enable sellers to be “more on top of what is needed to serve individual client needs.”

It’s Telemundo’s second consecutive year of bypassing upfront week to meet directly with clients and media shops. But last year’s approach was somewhat different: instead of meeting with clients at its home base, it did a road show, meeting with advertisers in the top five Hispanic markets.

Ion TV, the former Pax network, and Telemundo rival Univision are also getting an early jump. Last week, Univision held the first of a series of smaller presentations to advertisers and buyers in Chicago, while Ion began showing its new schedule to small groups of clients in Los Angeles two weeks ago. Both nets will continue to present to smaller client groups and have eliminated dog-and-pony presentations for the first time this year.

Both networks are essentially following the lead of NBC, which last year broke ranks to present what it called its first “in-front” presentation, announcing its new schedule in early April to New York clients and press. That was followed by smaller presentations around the country and wrapped with a showcase and reception event at its New York headquarters during upfront week.

This year, NBC will kick-off its road show May 4 and 5 in New York (for press and advertisers, respectively), followed by presentations in other cities. The network said it has not yet firmed up plans for upfront week itself.

Meanwhile, ABC and CBS are sticking to the script, hosting presentations in New York: ABC at Lincoln Center on May 19 and CBS at Carnegie Hall on May 20. Last year, CBS scrapped its usual after-presentation gala at Tavern on the Green. The net hasn’t yet finalized plans for a post-presentation event, a rep said. Ditto ABC, according to a rep there.

Fox, meanwhile, has confirmed it will present its new slate May 18 at New York’s City Center auditorium followed, like last year, by a bash at Wollman Rink. The CW will present at Madison Square Garden on May 21.