Kevin Mazur | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Media giants will make their annual pitch to advertisers this week amid significant disruption to the industry.
The Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strike has ended, meaning Upfronts will likely be star-studded again, major cost-cutting is largely a thing of the past, and streamers have fully embraced the advertising model. Still, this year’s Upfronts presentation comes amid further industry turmoil.
“It does feel like this is a moment, a moment about what’s going to happen in the next year, two years,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said on the company’s earnings call last week. “I said a while ago that this is a generational disruption.”
Here are the topics that may be discussed during Upfronts week, whether on stage, in the audience, or privately.
Advertising backlash?That depends
Media companies just finished quarterly reports The financial report shows that traditional TV still lags behind streaming media and digital TV in terms of advertising revenue.
According to eMarketer, traditional TV ad buying during this year’s Upfronts is expected to grow about 1%, to $18.79 billion. That’s an improvement from last year’s decline of about 4% to $18.64 billion.
Meanwhile, digital ad spending during Upfronts and Newfronts – held weeks ahead of traditional media events – is expected to grow nearly 32% this year to $16.45 billion, according to eMarketer.
A report by Tim Nollen, senior media technology analyst at Macquarie, showed that traditional TV advertising revenue improved overall last quarter, falling 8%, compared with a decline of nearly 16% in the same period last year. Streaming advertising by media companies grew by 22% and now accounts for 18% of total advertising.
Technology companies include break, Year, Google and Microsoft They all saw digital ad revenue make a comeback in the last quarter.and Netflix, Amazon and letterYouTube all has growth stories to tell advertisers.
On November 17, 2022, in London, England, people passed advertising posters for the Netflix TV series “Waterloo Crown”.
Mike Camp | In Pictures | Getty Images
“In streaming, Netflix is in many ways the gold standard,” Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said on the company’s earnings call this month.
Netflix, which had about 270 million subscribers worldwide as of the end of last season, has seen a wave of password-sharing free users convert into paying subscribers over the past year.
The company relies on its cheaper, ad-supported plans ($6.99 per month in the U.S.) to attract price-sensitive subscribers to pay a monthly subscription fee.As of January, more than a year after launch, Netflix’s ad-supported tier has More than 23 million Monthly active users.
Amazon Prime Video Debut Its advertising layer earlier this year. Amazon has spent billions in recent years on live sports rights — coveted advertising real estate — including paying about $1 billion a year to broadcast “Thursday Night Football,” the national football One of the National Football League’s season-long game packages. Amazon reported last month that first-quarter advertising revenue grew 24% to $11.8 billion.
YouTube’s first-quarter advertising revenue also surged by more than 20% to $8.1 billion, exceeding analysts’ expectations. In February, YouTube became the most viewed streaming app for the 12th month in a row. According to Nelson.
Amazon will hold an Upfront presentation in New York on Tuesday, followed a day later by Netflix and YouTube.
legacy lag
Tom Hiddleston stars as Loki in the Disney+ series Loki.
disney
Among some traditional media players, the vibe may be less positive.
Domestic advertising ComcastIts NBCUniversal revenue was flat at about $2 billion in the first quarter, but its streaming service Peacock was boosted by advertising revenue. NBCUniversal begins preview week Monday at Radio City Music Hall.
disney The report said advertising revenue from its traditional cable networks and Hulu declined in the first quarter, although ESPN’s domestic advertising sales increased by more than 20% in the quarter compared with the same period last year. Disney will hold a press conference on Tuesday.
“Obviously, the challenge in the advertising market right now is that there’s a significant increase in supply in the market, primarily due to one of our competitors entering the advertising space,” Disney Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston said on an earnings call this month. “But having said that, I think overall we feel like we’re in a better position than we were a year ago. “
Warner Bros. Discovery, which held a presentation at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, reported that traditional TV advertising revenue fell 11% last quarter from a year earlier to about $2 billion. Streaming ad revenue soared 70%, but the overall number was much lower — just $175 million.
Warner Bros. Discovery Channel and Disney announced last week that they will jointly offer streaming services – Max, Disney+ and Hulu – marking the first streaming bundle of a major service. The companies are also entering into a sports streaming joint venture with Fox. Which other companies join the bundle race remains to be seen.
Sports arouse interest
Sports are still the glue of television and still attract the largest audiences. The topic discussed during Upfronts Week was the future of NBA rights.
While Warner Bros. Discovery owns them through the end of the 2024-25 season, the next owner is currently being determined. NBCUniversal has emerged as the clear top contender, while Warner Bros. Discovery is considering whether to match NBC’s offer.
The future of regional sports networks also remains in question, with broadcasters slowly snapping up rights to local games.
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (No. 23) during an NBA game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on January 7, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Jevon Moore | Graphic Sports Line | Getty Images
EMarketer senior analyst Ross Benes pointed out that Warner Bros. Discovery Channel needs to retain its NBA rights in order to add value to its sports joint ventures with Disney and Fox.
“Without the NBA rights, WBD will become a weak third leg on the sports joint venture tricycle…If the NBA is lost, many WBD customers will wonder what all the cost cutting is for,” he said.
Fox CorporationUpfront said on Monday that ad revenue was down in the first season compared with the previous season when it aired the Super Bowl on its broadcast network. Chief executive Lachlan Murdoch said during an earnings call last week that ad trends were “clearly moving in the right direction” in early Upfront discussions, thanks in large part to Fox’s sports segment.
Like last year, Paramount Worldwide Holding an early presentation was skipped this year. Instead, the media company hosted nine events starting in April in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
Although there are no major talks taking place at Carnegie Hall, the events still include sneak peeks of upcoming content and content. Featured Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, Stephen Colbert, Tony Romo and other A-list stars.
Paramount is grappling with the ongoing sales process and currently does not have a single chief executive.
Revealed: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
About The Author
