​Today’s news on ongoing Upfront happenings includes A&E Networks’ dismissal of other broadcasters’ “failure tax,” a new tagline from independent network Ovation and a new multiplatform studio from Telemundo.

Multichannel News reports that at the company’s upfront last night, A&E Networks’ ad sales president Mel Berning dismissed what he called “broadcast ancestors” who are asking advertisers to pay the difference for their declining viewership. “The business model problems shouldn’t be your problem,” he told the crowd,” going on to describe the increased ad fee requests as a “failure tax.” All three of AEN’s flagship channels are up this year, so if any broadcaster has the power to not collect a failure tax, it’s them.

At a breakfast upfront presentation this morning, Broadcasting & Cable reports, independently owned network Ovation unleashed its new tagline, “Art Everywhere,” to a crowd of executives that included representatives from its former owner Time Warner Cable—Ovation was dropped by TWC earlier this year. The network claims to still be in talks with TWC about a possible re-buy, and certainly made a case for themselves today, showing off footage from five of nine original series, including a BBC pickup of a show produced by and starring Jon Hamm.

Meanwhile, at an upfront preview press event, Telemundo told reporters (including Broadcast & Cable again) it has formed Fluency, a new multiplatform production studio. As the name suggests, the studio will create programming in both Spanish and English, across genres including sci-fi and adventure, and make it available as individual episodes or via the all-at-once model for binge-viewers.

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