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Upfronts 2025: Live sports and big numbers distract from potential economic pains

A TV showing color bars. A marketer pulls back the bars like a curtain to reveal a bright light from behind the screen.

Illustration by Holly Warfield / Getty / Shutterstock / The Current

In an upfronts clouded by economic uncertainty, the major TV networks and streamers stuck to a familiar script: sports, sports, sports.

Broadcast rights for most major sports are locked in for the foreseeable future, so it was no surprise that they dominated presentations this year. Live sports remain a bright spot for the struggling linear TV business as well as a beacon of hope for streaming growth.

“This year’s presentations confirmed what many of us have been sensing: Media is converging around cultural moments, connected TV and commerce,” says Tamara Alesi, CEO of Mediaplus North America. “Sports dominated across every platform, reinforcing that sports are the new prime time, regardless of what shows were headlined.”

That means upfronts turned into a sports-measuring contest:

  • Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company, which owns ESPN, delivers the “most live sports hours” in the industry, and Rita Ferro, president of global advertising, said that it holds “the largest portfolio of live sports rights anywhere.”
  • Mark Marshall, NBCUniveral’s chair of global advertising, claimed that Peacock streams 7,500 hours of live sports, more than any platform.
  • Even Netflix, which doesn’t own traditional sports rights, trotted out NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to announce the matchups for the streamer’s Christmas Day games this year.

“Live content is emerging as a powerful driver for streaming, unlocking smarter ways to use ad space in real time,” says Julie Clark, SVP of diversified markets, media and entertainment at TransUnion.

But, as Ferro said during the Disney presentation, “None of this works without scale.” In an effort to woo advertisers, the companies threw out the biggest numbers they could.

  • Ferro said that Disney’s streaming platforms reach 164 million global monthly ad-supported users.
  • Marshall boasted that NBCU’s networks and platforms are expected to reach 286 million people a month and that 99% of ads are viewed to completion.
  • Netflix President of Advertising Amy Reinhard said its ad tier has 94 million monthly users, including more 18 to –34-year-olds than any other network or platform.
  • Amazon said that its ad tier reaches over 130 million U.S. users (after it made the tier the default for Prime Video last year).

Still, Alesi cautions that success in advertising isn’t just about reach, but also about relevance, resonance and results.

To that end, upfront presentations showcased ad tech offerings like Disney Compass, which Ferro said “gives agencies direct access to first-party data for smart planning, deeper insights and more precise measurement.” And Netflix introduced the Netflix Ads Suite, an in-house advertising platform designed for more precision and control.

“Data continues to be the foundation of both streaming and linear TV strategies, and it’s reshaping how media is bought and sold, pushing us closer to true impression-level targeting and measurement,” Clark says.

The week also ushered in big announcements, particularly of the branding variety.

  • Ahead of its presentation on Tuesday, Disney announced that its upcoming ESPN streaming service would be called — drumroll — ESPN and cost $30 a month.
  • Comcast recently named its company of spun-off cable networks Versant, and the networks revealed their first programming slates during NBCU’s upfront.
  • Fox announced its new streaming platform would be called Fox One.
  • Warner Bros. Discovery announced it was changing the name of Max back to HBO Max.

All of this provided plenty of fodder for Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue at the Disney upfront.

“That’s why they call us Imagineers,” Kimmel said, referring to naming the ESPN platform. “We forgot we had to come up with a name for this thing until this morning, and we had it. And you know what? It could have been worse. It could have been ‘Versant.’”

The big questions: Will the sports, tech, rebrands or jokes convince advertisers to commit dollars during the current economic turbulence? Or will more flexible options, like programmatic buying, prevail, further signaling that the upfronts are changing along with the larger media industry?

“Unless they’re bulk buyers, a more fluid, adaptive approach remains the smarter play,” Alesi says.