{"id":3345,"date":"2026-05-12T18:59:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3345"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:59:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:59:56","slug":"upfronts-tech-streaming-sports-liz-jenkins-nbcuniversal-1236745998","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3345","title":{"rendered":"Tech Talk, Sports, Streaming Drive Upfronts; NBCUniversal&#8217;s Liz Jenkins"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn today\u2019s episode,\u00a0<em>Variety<\/em>\u2019s Brian Steinberg reports on <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/upfronts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the triple-header kickoff of Upfronts week<\/a> after attending Monday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/nbcuniversal\/\" id=\"auto-tag_nbcuniversal\" data-tag=\"nbcuniversal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NBCUniversal<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/fox\/\" id=\"auto-tag_fox\" data-tag=\"fox\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fox<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/amazon\/\" id=\"auto-tag_amazon\" data-tag=\"amazon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a> Prime Video presentations. He parses each platform\u2019s pitch to Madison Avenue. And we\u2019ll hear from NBCUniversal Entertainment chief business officer <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/liz-jenkins\/\" id=\"auto-tag_liz-jenkins\" data-tag=\"liz-jenkins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liz Jenkins<\/a> on risk-taking in the time of disruption, in remarks delivered this month at <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/tv\/news\/lord-of-the-flies-spartacus-house-of-ashur-seriesfest-1236723049\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SeriesFest in Denver.<\/a> \u201cWe\u2019ve found our cruising altitude again,\u201d Jenkins says.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"pmc-protected-embed-2\" class=\"pmc-protected-embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/strictly-business\/daily-variety-tech-talk-streaming-sports-and-reboots-dominate-upfronts-nbcuniversal-s-liz-jenkins-on-risk-taking-amid-disruption\/embed?media=audio&amp;size=wide&amp;style=cover\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe message on Day 1 of upfronts boiled down to a focus on tech and data tools for reaching distinct slices of audience. Sports, streaming, the importance of driving social media buzz and the rise of more reboots, Steinberg says. (Hello, \u201cBaywatch\u201d and \u201cThe Rockford Files\u201d revivals.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cEveryone\u2019s trying to balance the need to be current on ad technology with trying to show content that everyone likes,\u201d he says. \u201cIn years past, these were big presentations on comedies and dramas. And now the advertisers are very concerned about reaching audiences that are on digital and social and streaming. And so they really want to hear a lot about very technical ad tech stuff. In fact, Fox even put a chief technology officer on stage. That\u2019s kind of different.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tJenkins detailed the evolution of NBCUniversal over the past year in her conversation with NPR host John Horn that was held May 6 at the SeriesFest event in Denver. Horn, a veteran entertainment journalist, asked Jenkins about how the studio maintains its appetite for taking big swings at a time when the risk is greater than ever because traditional paths to generating profits from movie and TV production is so challenged. Jenkins says the industry has to fight the chilling effect of deep uncertainties in the marketplace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more lethal than that mindset. I see it sometimes gripping our industry, which you understand why. To me, if you\u2019re playing not to lose, you\u2019re not going to be winning, frankly. And I understand why it makes sense to have like a scarcity mindset when it feels like the pool is shrinking, the volume of series are going down,\u201d Jenkins says. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cBut that\u2019s not where innovation is going to come from. That\u2019s not where really dynamic stories are born. And so how do you avoid it? [NBCU Entertainment chairman] Donna [Langley] talks a lot about having a growth mindset. And that is the expectation of people at our company. You take bets, but we make smart, well-informed bets. I talk a lot about data- informed decision making. It\u2019s not data-driven, because data is never going to predict a hit. That\u2019s impossible. A hit is something that significantly outperforms what something was expected to do. But I think data, along with a lot of other important points, can be a part of making a multifaceted decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<em>(Pictured: Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang perform at NBCUniversal\u2019s upfront presentation at Radio City Music Hall on May 11.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/daily-variety\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Listen to Daily Variety<\/a><\/em><\/strong><em><strong>\u00a0on\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/269-daily-variety-287806641\/\">iHeartPodcasts<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/1119-strictly-business-30950719\/\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Variety\u2019s\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCPo1esChL02h3WQo69TiAag\">YouTube Podcast<\/a>\u00a0channel,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/57f4fab9-d055-4e4f-9bbd-a33a01dd6a40\/strictly-business\">Amazon Music<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0gXghvpBqLBXznnxGVsPt5\">Spotify<\/a>\u00a0and other podcast platforms.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On today\u2019s episode,\u00a0Variety\u2019s Brian Steinberg reports on the triple-header kickoff of Upfronts week after attending Monday\u2019s NBCUniversal, Fox and Amazon Prime Video presentations. He parses each platform\u2019s pitch to Madison Avenue. And we\u2019ll hear from NBCUniversal Entertainment chief business officer Liz Jenkins on risk-taking in the time of disruption, in remarks delivered this month at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[501,260,405,1875,3,1953,1954,167,62,1878],"tags":[500,256,1871,1951,1952,1874],"class_list":["post-3345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon","category-daily-variety","category-entertainment","category-fox","category-lifestyle","category-liz-jenkins","category-nbcuniversal","category-netflix","category-news","category-upfronts","tag-amazon","tag-daily-variety","tag-fox","tag-liz-jenkins","tag-nbcuniversal","tag-upfronts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}