NBC Universal is up for a new strategy. The TV network confirmed Tuesday an announcement made by president and CEO Jeff Zucker in January, regarding the abandonment of the traditional May unveiling of the fall broadcast schedule at Radio City Music Hall.

NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker first explained the change during his opening keynote address at the National Association of Television Program Executives' 2008 Conference and Exhibition in late January.

At the time, Zucker referred to the ongoing “wrenching analog-to-digital transition” which demands a “re-engineering of our businesses from top to bottom” and said the traditional spring presentation at Radio City Music Hall would suffer a change. He called the “glitzy presentation” a “vestige of the last decade.”

Tuesday, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment Marc Graboff confirmed the change. “We are taking what has been a one-way conversation and turning it into a two-way dialogue with advertisers,” he was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying.

Graboff said there would be smaller meetings with advertisers in three cities, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. A “spotlight event” is scheduled for May 12, when NBC Universal will present its various cable and broadcasting platforms.

NBC will also announce a 12-month programming schedule in April in order for the advertisers to have an early look through the company’s plans. NBC will also do things differently in what its other outlets are concerned, like highlighting programs from cable channel USA Network and Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo.

The other broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, Fox and CW, have not lined up to NBC’s innovative approach to business. They will repeat the traditional presentation in locations such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Madison Square Garden, the Times reports.

Zucker’s keynote at the NATPE likewise highlighted changes such as ordering significantly fewer pilots, around five or six, starting with this year; taking more projects straight to series, without pilots; and signing fewer development deals, among other things.