WarnerMedia Spotlights Creative Vision, Brand Portfolio in First Upfront

WarnerMedia’s first-ever Upfront presentation featured executives such as John Stankey and Kevin Reilly showcasing the “power and breadth” of its expanded portfolio, with “unrivaled” data and insights.

Less than one year in as part of parent company AT&T, WarnerMedia presented at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City its premium ad-supported brands, including Adult Swim, Bleacher Report, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, CNN, Crunchyroll, Great Big Story, HLN, Rooster Teeth, TBS, TNT, truTV, Turner Sports and Warner Brothers Syndicate. The combined portfolio reaches an estimated three in four Americans every month across all platforms, and now boasts more than 1.2 billion followers across social media platforms.

John Stankey, CEO of WarnerMedia, said: “We’ve combined the creative vision, iconic brands and full content portfolio of WarnerMedia with the global reach, capabilities and direct consumer relationships of our parent company AT&T. It means we’ve streamlined our business to ensure that all of our audiences and platforms are available to you—in one place, with one conversation.”

He concluded, “We all know video consumption is changing. Technology is changing. And our business models are changing. But the need to connect with passionate consumers at scale is not changing.” Stankey added, “We are absolutely committed to pushing the creative and commercial boundaries of the advertising experience, building better solutions for our partners, and working side by side with you—everyone here in the audience—to lead the evolution of our industry.”

Kevin Reilly, president of TBS and TNT, and chief creative officer for WarnerMedia Direct-to-Consumer, reinforced the company’s commitment to “world-class storytelling,” and how a future direct-to-consumer product rounds out a partnership model—”centered around premium content”—that only WarnerMedia can deliver. He called the evolution of both TBS and TNT (with TBS adding dramas to the roster starting in 2020) the “most potent slate of originals on any network in its competitive slate” and on TNT, a “powerhouse of films, premium sports and high-octane original series.”

Adult Swim is adding to its successes such as Rick and Morty with several series pickups: Three Busy Debras, a live-action comedy series from Amy Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions; Birdgirl, a new animated spin-off from the world of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law; and Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, a new animated series from the creator of Samurai Jack.

truTV revealed greenlights for its first animated series, This Functional Family, from comedian Jo Koy, and a new series, Game Changers (working title), from Clayton English and Noah Gardenswartz. At Home with Amy Sedaris will return for a third season, along with new seasons of Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks and The Carbonaro Effect. Additional episodes of Adam Ruins Everything will be launching later this year.

You can find the new highlights from TBS and TNT here.

Also, Donna Speciale, president of WarnerMedia Ad Sales, took to the stage to outline the advantage advertisers have by partnering with WarnerMedia’s unified sales organization, now operating at the scale of AT&T. The message delivered was: WarnerMedia’s ability to package culturally-relevant, premium content to deliver full funnel solutions that drive impact for advertisers has never been easier.

Visit WorldScreen.com’s Fall Season Grid for all the details on the new and returning shows on the U.S. broadcast networks, and a listing of pickups by studio.