• by Wayne Friedman , February 17, 2021

Univision is joining this year’s club of virtual upfronts, including a pre-upfront “new vision” event of sorts, as well as announcing the hiring of former Turner TV networks senior ad sales executives.

Donna Speciale, the former head of Turner advertising sales, now president of advertising sales and marketing of Univision, said the “New Vision” event will reveal its “transformation.”

Speciale stated it will include “advanced advertising capabilities and leveraging data and analytics across the Univision ecosystem.”

The two former Turner ad executives who worked with Speciale -- Dan Riess and Dan Aversano -- have been hired as part of her team: Riess will be executive vice president and chief growth officer; Aversano will be senior vice president/data, analytics and advanced advertising.

Univision will hold its “New Vision” event on March 28, where Wade Davis, CEO of Univision, and Speciale will brief advertising executives.

Univision will then have its virtual upfront presentation on Tuesday May 18 -- the usual week for TV network in-person presentations.

Companies that previously announced virtual upfront presentations for that week include Fox Corp. (May 17), Walt Disney (May 18), Discovery (May 18), and ViacomCBS (May 19).

TV upfront networks/programmers' meetings to be held earlier are WarnerMedia Kid and Family (February 17) and A+E Networks (March 3).

Media companies that have yet to announce their upfront plans are NBCUniversal and The CW.

All this virtual would be a repeat of virtual upfronts a year ago -- just weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of in-person media and other business events.