Walt Disney Co. says notable surges in promoting dollars committed to sports and streaming helped it match what it secured in last yr’s “upfront” volume — but weren’t enough to assist it surpass that total.
The parent of ABC, Disney+ and Hulu said overall “upfront” volume was “consistent with last yr,” suggesting that TV corporations are continuing to struggle to win greater promoting support at the same time as Madison Avenue gravitates to the sorts of sports programming that Disney supplies through ESPN and its various platforms.
In 2024, Disney said it was in a position to win a 5% uptick in overall ad commitments tied to the upfront, when TV corporations attempt to sell the majority of their promoting inventory ahead of the industry’s next cycle of programming.
“As the rate of change within the promoting landscape continues to speed up, this Upfront demonstrates the enduring power of storytelling, premium environments, and that the worth of trusted relationships matter to marketers,” said Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of worldwide promoting. “Our strength in streaming and live events delivers results at scale, and we’re shaping what’s next for the complete industry.”
Disney’s upfront results come after each NBCUniversal and Fox Corp. said they were in a position to win increases in volume from advertisers, owing to heavy sports schedules. NBCU likely took an excellent chunk of cash that had previously been earmarked for NBA telecasts on Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT, owing to a transfer of rights that put the league’s games on NBC, Peacock and Amazon. NBC and Amazon launched early efforts to win that cash — in addition to, for NBC, dollars tied to next yr’s Winter Olympics and Super Bowl. Fox benefitted from 2026 rights to telecast the World Cup.
Disney, too, saw robust spending tied to sports. The corporate said it secured sports-ad commitments across linear and digital price “nearly $4 billion.” Promoting committed to NBA games, which Disney continues to carry rights for, grew within the high-single-digit percentage range, driven specifically by the NBA Finals and expectations for “Contained in the NBA,” the favored TNT studio show that to which ESPN has secured rights. Ad volume tied to “Monday Night Football” and college-football telecasts grew within the double-digit-percentage range, Disney said. Women’s sports saw ad commitments grow in an identical range.
Streaming volume was also up, Disney said, and “accounted for greater than 40% of total upfront volume, consistent with last yr’s market.
The corporate also saw commitments increase for live live events, and noted it had secured “early bookings” for “The Oscars,” “CMA Awards,” and “Dick Clark’s Recent Yr’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.” The corporate indicated that it almost doubled the variety of ad units sold within the upfront tied to its annual “Oscars” telecast, for which Disney often seeks between $1.7 million and $2.2 million for a 30-second industrial.
More to return…