In an uncertain time for network television, NBC is shaking things up.

The network is all but dispensing with the traditional "up-front" advertising spectacle—splashy events each May to show off stars and fall prime-time schedules in hopes of luring advertisers and publicity.

Instead, it's trying a pared-down approach, meeting one-on-one with advertisers after a news conference, held today at 1:30 p.m., in which the network's year-round—not fall prime-time—schedule was announced.

Facing an increasingly splintered audience, increased competition from cable networks and the internet, and now a recession, NBC executives said in February that their revamped up-front process would let them "create new advertising models, define more effective metrics, and provide a better return on our clients' investments."

Sure, that sounds great—and other networks scrambled to react. Fox executives even claimed that they had been introducing year-round schedules for years and should get credit for the idea.

But will all this hoopla about the new formula really help give NBC a competitive edge?

"Not necessarily," says Charles Rutman, C.E.O. of MPG–North America, a media planning and buying company based in New York. "First of all, we don't know if the programs are any good. This is all a great strategy, but you have to deliver the goods."

Rutman said he does see a benefit in terms of advance planning, however. Many clients are already thinking about the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year, so moving up the up-fronts by a month or more "could be beneficial," he says.

"But is this going to be a major shift in share gain in and of itself?" he asks. "I don't think so."

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, introduced the shows returning to NBC, including Lipstick Jungle, whose fate had been uncertain, and reality shows Celebrity Apprentice and The Biggest Loser. Silverman seized the opportunity to take a jab at Fox, praising NBC's uplifting reality content and saying, "We will not be doing Moment of Truth" (Fox's excruciating lie-detector- using and marriage-destroying reality show).

Among the new shows announced was a The Office spin-off that will have its premiere after the Super Bowl.
 
If nothing else, NBC has the advantage of getting to advertisers first. Today's news conference took place six weeks before competing networks—Fox, CW, CBS, and ABC—hold their traditional up-fronts.

But the early start on selling doesn't mean that NBC will ditch the glitz altogether: The network still plans to hold what it's calling a spotlight event on May 12.

Some things, however, never change. The NBC executives who spoke all read from a prompter.