Like the masses curling up to watch Friends, advertisers are being invited by media companies and streamers to tune into a repeat at next week’s annual upfronts in New York.
Over three short days, from Monday morning to Wednesday night, eight companies will razzle-dazzle advertisers in a reassuringly familiar set of theaters across Manhattan. NBCUniversal will once again lead off at Radio City, with YouTube bringing down the curtain at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Theater. (See the full schedule below.)
Late-night hosts Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel will offer their customary roasts of their own companies and the industry at large at the NBCUniversal and Disney upfronts, respectively. Fox, Netflix and TelevisaUnivision will be in new locations, but still in Manhattan. Those slight changes of address are perhaps the only notable changes in this year’s lineup. For an industry buffeted by consolidation, artificial intelligence and macroeconomic turmoil, the three-day blitz will offer a welcome chance to run things back and further establish new patterns post-Covid.
Paramount and The CW remain on the sidelines of Upfront Week, having opted for smaller-scale presentations to ad buyers rather than full-tilt proscenium spectacles. Paramount, which is in its first upfront cycle under the leadership of David Ellison and his team after last year’s merger with Skydance, held an upfront presentation in Los Angeles last month, along with companies dinners, two of which were opened to the press. The CW’s remains off-limits to press.
In percentage terms, overall spending in the upfront is on the wane, though the total ad business has been resilient as rising digital players like Amazon and YouTube counter consolidation and retrenchment of traditional TV. Research firm Media Dynamics said last year saw $17.8 billion in spending, down from $18.4 billion in the prior year. The prevalence and clout of live sports, which can be difficult to lock down months in advance given its inherent unpredictability, has propped up scatter pricing. And the digital pie continues to grow, with this year’s set to cross the $80 billion mark, according to trade group IAB.
Advertiser sentiment, by and large, remains upbeat. Ad tracking firm iSpot surveyed 360 brand marketers ahead of the upfront and found that 31% of them plan to hold spending steady or increase it in the upfront. Half of them are looking to step up in social video and streaming. While the positive momentum is less pronounced than it was heading into the 2025 cycle, budgets are still “increasingly concentrated in channels that offer the highest degree of accountability,” the iSpot report noted.
While the war in Iran, related spikes in gas and jet fuel prices and lingering inflation have vexed some in the ad business, recent media earnings calls have seen some glass-half-full takes from major media companies.
“There may be a hiccup in the economy, but I’m not sure there’s gonna be that much of a hiccup in advertising,” said Michael J. Wolf, a former TV exec who now runs management consulting firm Activate, told Deadline in an interview.
Below is the upfront schedule (all times ET).
NBCUniversal (featuring a set by Seth Meyers)
10:30 a.m., Radio City Music Hall
Canela Media
12:30 p.m., AVRA Rockefeller Center
Fox Corp
4 p.m., New York City Center
Amazon
6:30 p.m., Beacon Theatre
TelevisaUnivision
11:30 a.m., Terminal 5
Disney (featuring a set by Jimmy Kimmel)
4 p.m., North Javits Center
Telemundo upfront celebration
5:30 p.m., Rainbow Room
YouTube creator event
6 p.m., Dear Irving Broadway
Warner Bros. Discovery
10 a.m., Theatre at Madison Square Garden
WBD upfronts lunch
11:30 a.m., The Food Network Kitchen
Netflix
2 p.m., Sunset Pier 94 Studios
YouTube Brandcast
6 p.m., David Geffen Theatre
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