The continued evolution of the sports marketplace
Sports was a big topic for all the ad sales chiefs, and, according to buyers, it will continue driving the upfront this year.
“Five or six years ago, sports used to represent 30% to 35% of the upfront volume that was being transacted,” one media buyer told ADWEEK, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Now it’s well over 50% and might be closer to 60% this year.”
The market continues to grow as advertisers follow the eyeballs, and with that, deals are evolving.
For instance, Disney is rolling out a year-long celebration of the Super Bowl, creating new shoulder programming and ad opportunities to have brands constantly involved in the lead-up to the Big Game. In addition, according to Disney’s ads leader Rita Ferro, the company is getting an “unbelievable” amount of asks for the Big Game and is thinking beyond just dollars as it looks to diversify the lineup of advertisers.
“We want to make sure that there’s a variety of advertisers in the show, but also advertisers who are thinking about the creative because it’s really important as we work with our partners at the NFL to make sure that it reflects the audiences that are watching, and those are diverse audiences across many products and categories,” Ferro recently told us.
Meanwhile, how viewers consume sports is also evolving, as well as the ad opportunities around that consumption. For instance, Netflix has the upcoming Women’s World Cup in 2027. The company has included integrations throughout its live sports programming with advertisers and its own brands, and Reinhard told ADWEEK that you can expect that to continue to grow.
“There are so many advertisers who want to be a part of those moments,” Reinhard said. “So expanding the brand partnerships, as we’ve done on a lot of our great content, and weaving some of those authentic moments into the games or into the shoulder programming that we do around the Women’s World Cup.”
Leaning into outcomes-based measurement
Adtech was top of mind during upfront week, with NBCUniversal even kicking off its presentation with an extensive segment dedicated to its Performance Insights Hub to give advertisers a more holistic view of data across linear and streaming.
“If people are really just looking at streaming in isolation, even in the premium video marketplace, they’re missing three out of four impressions,” Mark Marshall, NBCU’s ads chief, previously told us.
It’s just the latest step as advertisers focus on more outcomes and audiences rather than demos. And though buyers told us Nielsen will continue to be a major player in the ecosystem, different measurement methods are creating necessary alternatives.
