Upfronts Reveal TV's Future: Sports, Live, Less Scripted
Plus: Disney global ad sales chief Rita Ferro on what's selling this year — and why they can fend off Amazon and Netflix
Drumroll, please: It’s time for the Big Show. Upfronts kick off today in New York City, starting with NBCUniversal’s presentation this morning for media buyers at Radio City Music Hall. As the major networks vie for ad commitments, its annual party has been crashed by certain streaming services threatening to upstage the broadcasters of old. See: Jimmy Fallon opening NBCU’s show with “This ain’t Netflix, this ain’t Hulu” to the tune of Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” — bedazzled dancers and all.
I’ll be reporting from New York all week, so should you see me and/or our 6’4” Wakeup author and The Ankler Podcast host Sean McNulty (he’s hard to miss), please say hello.
All of this week’s talk of tech stacks and CPMs and Nielsen measurement currency on any other year could make your eyes glaze over. But this time, after the fiery, tough strike year of 2023, everything is a barometer of the New Normal, and it’s hard not to read the flashing tea leaves at the Madison Avenue dog-and-pony show. Presentations reveal what the big TV buyers are choosing to put forth (i.e., where they see their own future and their own spending in the creative TV marketplace) and also will further clarify the role of two new powerhouse entrants who have crashed advertising’s gates: Netflix and Amazon.
“It's the first year that we will have all of entertainment back,” Disney head of global advertising Rita Ferro told me earlier today, nodding to both the strikes and Covid.
Of Disney’s own Tuesday afternoon event, she says, “We have some of our biggest franchises represented on stage, a few surprises.” But echoing themes that will dominate this week, she points out “sports and streaming” as “the majority of what we are representing to the advertising marketplace this week.”
Today, I’ll tell you what I see the Upfronts telling us about the state of TV buying and selling back in Hollywood for writers, producers and development executives, including:
Why the death of pilot season isn’t all bad for writers — or networks
How the ad market is forcing networks to be more risk averse in what they buy
Why live sports, in particular, is so coveted by networks and streamers
The evolution of upfronts as a preview of a studio’s IP
How Sports Hulu will — and won’t — impact both the live sports and streaming markets
How Amazon and Netflix’s advertising blitzes are already upending the market