The Bravo Network made their 2012 Media Upfront announcement, and Chef Roble has been renewed for a second season. Other shows returning are The Kandi Factory, Flipping Out, Tabitha Takes Over, Top Chef Masters, and a few others.

The network announced a 27 percent increase in original programming with 11 new and eight returning unscripted series, and two new scripted projects in development.

The network plans to premiere scripted series in 2013. Committed to breakthrough programming, Bravo continues to partner with prominent producers, writers and experts including internet entrepreneur Randi Zuckerberg and long-time Bravo producers, the award-winning Magical Elves.

Bravo continues its digital focus with the introduction of a sixth passion point, Digital, to add to the brand’s existing pillars of Food, Fashion, Beauty, Design and Pop Culture. The announcement comes on the heels of Bravo’s hit transmedia initiative “Last Chance Kitchen,” which was interwoven with the Emmy award-winning series “Top Chef.” This cutting edge on-line series allowed viewers to follow storylines across multiple platforms and garnered an unprecedented eight million video streams.

In addition to creating multi-screen interactivity and social experiences across all content, the Digital passion point will provide an expanded development filter for shows focused on the digital world. Bravo’s first foray into the digital programming bucket comes from internet mastermind Randi Zuckerberg, an executive producer on “Silicon Valley” and a second docu-series produced by RelativityREAL called “Huh?” that follows Ben Huh and his eclectic staff at icanhascheezburger.com.

Bravo also announced its next transmedia offering, a Facebook-driven social media game The Real Housewives: The Game launching this summer with the fifth season of “The Real Housewives of New York City.”

Bravo also will launch “play along” a real-time viewing experience that allows fans to tackle trivia, weigh-in on polls and predict what will happen next on every device as they watch their favorite shows on air.

“Our Affluencers are passionate about our content, and are the first to try new technologies and engage in social media,” said Frances Berwick, President of Bravo Media and Style. “It’s that combination of passion, engagement and curiosity that has powered our development of attention-grabbing experiences and trendsetting digital offerings. And it’s allowed us to drive the conversation and provide unique partnership opportunities across every platform.

Bravo delivered its sixth consecutive record-breaking and youngest-skewing year in 2011, ranking No. 11 in primetime among all cable entertainment networks with adults 18-49, and boasting 10 original series that attracted more than two million total viewers, according to Nielsen. Beyond its linear success, Bravo Digital posted tremendous triple-digit growth since 2007, earning its best year ever with 78 million average monthly page views and over six million average monthly video streams.

Bravo added more than 155 new advertisers and 25 new online advertisers last year, marking double digit growth in both national and digital ad revenue. The network ranked No. 1 for brand recall this past year across all advertising formats including standard ads, hybrids and in program placements, according to Nielsen IAG. Furthermore, nine out of the top 10 most engaging reality series on cable are found on Bravo.

“Bravo is able to harness the multi-media touch points with its Affluencers for its advertisers, which results in greater amplification of the sponsors’ message,” said Barbara Bekkedahl, Vice President of Bravo Ad Sales. “Through creative integration in shows, creating custom content, using new interactive technologies and other mechanisms, Bravo partners with advertisers to create co-branded messages that perform at a superior level across important metrics like brand/message recall, likeability and intent to purchase.”

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Source : NBC Universal