Discovery Mulls Different Upfront Concepts as WarnerMedia Merger Looms

variety.com:

Discovery is getting ready to put out a big “upfront” presentation in mid May, part of an annual bid by TV giants to win ad dollars from Madison Avenue.

Unlike many of its rivals, however, Discovery isn’t entirely certain what it will have to discuss.Executives at the company, which is slated to take over WarnerMedia sometime in the first half of this year, are considering which of two different types of scenarios they may have to face, according to two people familiar with the matter.

There’s the obvious one: WarnerMedia and Discovery would each hold their own separate presentations. But executives want to be ready in case Discovery and WarnerMedia can merge sooner than might be expected and are considering whether they may have to hold a different gathering in which they are able to discuss not only Food Network and TLC, but Warner properties like HBO Max and CNN.

Each year, TV networks use the “upfront” market to sell billions of dollars in commercial inventory to advertisers. Both Discovery and WarnerMedia declined to make executives available for comment.