In the North American television industry, an upfront is a meeting hosted at the start of important advertising sales periods by television network executives, attended by the press and major advertisers. It is so named because of its main purpose, to allow marketers to buy television commercial airtime "up front", or several months before the television season begins.
In the United States, the major broadcast networks' upfronts occur in New York City during the third week of May, the last full week of that month's sweeps period. The networks announce their fall primetime schedules, including tentative launch dates (i.e., fall or midseason) for new television programming, which may be "picked up" the week before. The programming announcements themselves are usually augmented with clips from the new television series, extravagant musical numbers, comedic scenes, and appearances by network stars, and take place at grand venues such as Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall or Carnegie Hall. Most cable networks present earlier in the spring since they usually program for the summer months; press attention to these announcements is usually much lighter.
Upfronts in Canada are similar but occur in the first week of June, after networks have had a chance to buy Canadian rights to new American series. Both broadcast and non-broadcast channels make presentations, with a single event per ownership group.