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Warner Bros. Discovery just made its TV upfronts debut as a merged company.
A recent sales deck obtained by Insider shows how the company is pitching Discovery to advertisers.
It emphasizes Discovery's lifestyle content on HGTV and TLC and touts its audience as affluent and diverse.
Warner Bros. Discovery made its TV upfronts debut as a merged company on Wednesday, promoting its content as unmatched across its various properties including CNN, HBO and Discovery.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav promoted the company as the fifth-biggest US broadcaster by reach and portfolio. The company touted a stat from March and April that showed it had the largest share of total TV primetime viewing between ages 25 and 50 that month, compared to other broadcast networks including NBC and CBS.
"This really is a moment for us as a company but us as an industry," Zaslav said.
The mega-merger combined a storied studio with a cable power known for low-cost, unscripted fare, and integrating their cultures is expected to present challenges for Zaslav.
The company pitched its streamers Discovery+ and HBO Max separately at its upfronts presentation, though the two services are expected to eventually be combined.
Warner Bros. Discovery focused heavily on its news and sports offerings as a way to take on rivals like NBC and Fox. It announced a premium package that combines properties like Turner Sports with Discovery's lifestyle content. One ad buyer who was briefed on the package said CPM rates would likely fall between the average $70 prime-time and $30 cable TV CPMs.
The buyer also speculated that Discovery could eventually cut brands such as Destination America, MotorTrend, and TruTV for underperformance. Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.
Insider recently obtained a 60-page sales deck focused specifically on how the company has been pitching Discovery to advertisers ahead of the upfronts.
The deck heavily promotes talent like Oprah Winfrey and Guy Fieri, reality shows like TLC's "Sister Wives" and "90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days," and franchises like "Shark Week" and "Puppy Bowl."
It also touts new features including dynamic ad insertion, a product NBCUniversal's Peacock and Amazon Prime Video also have been pushing.
Scroll down to see select slides from Discovery's pitch.
Discovery boasts of its "passionate super fans," partners like Oprah Winfrey, and data-driven targeting and measurement capabilities.
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Discovery's data and analytics platform offers targeting across wide national reach with outcome-based results, the deck says.
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Discovery claims advertisers will get a 26% brand lift using Discovery Engage versus traditional metrics.
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It says linear addressability is the next frontier in data-driven advertising and touts offerings like dynamic ad insertion across live national TV.
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Discovery spotlights its cross-platform targeting solution.
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Discovery highlights its self-service buying option with OpenAP.
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Discovery boasts of its affluent, diverse audience reach.
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It boasts of having 17 of the top 30 shows, including TLC's "90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days" and "Sister Wives," per Nielsen.
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Discovery allows advertisers to buy media across certain episodes of its shows like HGTV's "My Lottery Dream Home" and TLC's "90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days."
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Discovery Plus says it has 22 million subscribers and half are non-cable subscribers, citing Comscore.
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The deck cites a 2021 HUB TV Advertising Study that found 82% of viewers think ads on Discovery Plus are relevant, outperforming rivals like Paramount+ (69%) and Hulu (59%).
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The same study found viewers favor their experience on Discovery+ over competitors including HBO Max and Hulu.
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Discovery's offerings include single ad blocks during a break and shoppable ads.
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It boasts of the network's young and upscale viewers.
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The company says it delivers incremental reach of 167 million daily viewers across linear and digital.
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Discovery says its HGTV audience has an average household income of $125,000.
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Discovery claims HGTV is the No. 1 cable network for upscale women and No. 3 for upscale adults with 58% of its viewers bringing in $100,000 in household income.
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Discovery says ads on HGTV influence purchasing decisions.
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The company highlights its newest property on Discovery+, Magnolia Network, as reaching a broad audience across all its platforms.
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The deck claims Investigation Discovery is a "must have channel" among audiences.
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Discovery says it delivers relevant ads that influence purchasing decisions.
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Discovery claims TruTV has a growing social footprint and is popular with paranormal fans.
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It claims to have gotten 46.6 million views from its Ghostober Live on TikTok campaign.
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The deck claims Discovery Life is a top five "must-have" channel for people between the ages of 25 and 54.
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Discovery+ makes claim to a male audience outside the typical sports channels like ESPN.
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The deck claims Discovery is the No. 1 network among adults during the eight days of Shark Week.
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Discovery claims Animal Planet is the No. 1 family-oriented network.
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And Animal Planet indexes high with adults too, the deck says.
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Discovery cites its success with the Puppy Bowl.
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Discovery's Science Channel claims to be a No. 1 must-have cable channel among viewers 18 and older.
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Discovery's MotorTrend says it reaches the "do-it-yourselfers" and "thought leaders."
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MotorTrend asserts it "owns the road" across linear TV, social, podcasts, and other platforms.
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The deck cites top rated weekend shows on the Food Network, per Nielsen.
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The Food Network boasts talent like Guy Fieri.
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The Food Network also claims viewers have an average household income of $90,900.
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It claims to be a No. 1 primetime weekend destination with shows like "Love and Marriage: Huntsville."
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Discovery claims to be the No. 1 cable network for women.
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The deck says 11 of TLC shows deliver more than 1 million viewers.
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The deck breaks down how it's building reach across TLC through the week, including with family content on Tuesdays and relationship content on Sundays.
