This is the second year in a row you’re set to double ad sales revenue. What do you attribute that to? Also, do you ever get to chill, or are you just doubling every year?
It is a really fun time to be in this business, and it helps when we’ve got such a fantastic content slate that really helps drive that. A key part of our success has been these live events that we’ve been doing. We’ve got a couple coming up soon. We’ve got a roast with Kevin Hart. We’ve got a fight between [Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano] next weekend. The fights have been fantastic for us. The NFL business is really good for us.
But then you look at the live events that we did around the world, like the World Baseball Classic in Japan. That really kick-started our business in Japan. I look at events like the Alex Honnold climb in Taiwan, those being at that intersection of culture and interests. The live piece has really helped us grow the business.
This is the last year of the 3-year NFL deal for Christmas games. Do you see that relationship continuing?
I do see that relationship continuing in the future. We’ve had great interest in those games, and I think what we’ve been able to do around eventizing the games that we’ve had—we’ve had really fantastic halftime shows as part of those events on Christmas Day. I would look to see more of that continuing.
And you have the Women’s World Cup in 2027, what can you say about early negotiations and your strategy?
It’s very similar to the other sporting events that we’ve had. The tournament nature of that World Cup—and we will see a preview of that this year in the Men’s World Cup—but there are so many advertisers who want to be a part of those moments. 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. I would say those are the types of opportunities that get brands really excited, and get us excited as well. So it’s going to be a really fantastic couple of months for us, and there’s a lot of interest going into the upfronts around brands that want to get involved in the wave that is women’s sports right now.
Last year, we saw Emily in Paris/Lily Collins make an appearance at the upfront, pitching the audience as an ad executive. Is Emily returning? And what can you tell us about the presentation on May 13?
It is definitely going to be star-studded. We are going to roll out the red carpet for a lot of great talent, and obviously leaning into the great slate that we have coming up. [Bela Bajaria, Netflix chief content officer]; [Nicolle Pangis, vp, Netflix Advertising, UCAN]; and I will be taking the stage, all coming at it from different angles. I’ll be giving an overview of where we’re at on a global basis; Bella will be getting into our content; and then Nicole will be driving it home with our advancements on the data and the tech side in the U.S., and lots of really fun moments in between. You may or may not see an appearance by Emily in Paris. I think it’s going to be a really fun time.
