Stuart Elliott

For the big television industry event called Upfront Week, NBCUniversal will borrow a page from the playbook of its parent, Comcast, and bundle together its cable channels.

NBCUniversal intends to invite Madison Avenue to a combined presentation of plans for the 2014-15 season by the company’s cable holdings, which include 17 channels like Bravo, E!, Esquire Network, Oxygen, Sprout, Syfy and USA Network. For the last several years, NBCUniversal has hosted its cable upfront parties, receptions and other events separately, typically scheduling six to eight -- or more -- in February, March and April. The combined presentation by what is known as the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group -- including discussion of digital content like online video -- will be on May 15, the final day of the 2014-15 Upfront Week, in an afternoon time slot used since 2011 for upfront events for USA. The presentation will be at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, a site that NBCUniversal has also reserved for a presentation by its broadcast network, NBC, to be held on the morning of May 12.

[March 7]