4 Trends to Watch During TV Upfront Season

Upfront week is over, but all the latest season’s trends are still the talk of the Ton.

From publishers like Netflix bringing advertisers into the worlds of their shows, such as Bridgerton, to the continued shifting marketplace for sports—and whatever is happening with measurement—we’re keeping an eye on all the storylines brands and marketers should follow.

At ADWEEK, we’ve spoken to ad leaders from all the upfront week presenters, including Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal, and more, and here are some of the top trends to watch as upfront season unfolds:

Agentic is already impacting advertising

Agentic was a hot topic throughout upfront presentations, as companies showcased new offerings, including Fox’s new AdStudio bringing agentic media planning and buying in the coming months. Plus, Netflix will have a new suite of AI tools, with AI agents autonomously managing and optimizing purchases on the platform.

Though different companies have different definitions of what agentic looks like—whether that be agents managing budgets on their own or programmatic becoming more efficient—the goal is to make things seamless for customers, according to Robert Voltaggio, president of ad sales, platform monetization, Warner Bros. Discovery.

“It’s very important for us in terms of, again, the evolution of our tech stack, to not only meet the market where it stands today, but be agile and nimble enough to meet the market where it’s going. And I think agentic AI is, at the very core, that’s what it’s really used for,” Voltaggio said.

However, it’s also worth noting that today’s agentic may not necessarily look like tomorrow’s.

“If I could bet anything, I would say that our view of it right now will probably be very different in three years as the space evolves,” Amy Reinhard, president of advertising, Netflix, recently told ADWEEK.

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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.

“More and more of our conversations are rooted in, instead of Adults 25 to 54, it’s show me your in-market auto intenders. Show me your first-time home buyers. Show me the chief household officer who you know manages grocery lists,” Ryan Gould, president of ad sales and client partnerships, Warner Bros. Discovery, said.

Harnessing fandom for brand-om

In a fragmented marketplace, fandom drives eyeballs and consumer sentiment, and publishers are all-in.

“Fandom is what our movies drive, what our sports drive, our shows,” Ferro told us, noting that Disney built its whole presentation around fandom as a theme.

Throughout the upfront events, companies such as Disney, Netflix, and Amazon pitched ways to get brands closer to the content, whether that’s through new offerings like AI integrating brands into the worlds of shows or custom campaigns built around IP.

Look for that trend to continue as the lines between content and commercial blur.

“Custom creative and brand partnerships are a significant part of our upfront deals for brands that want to go beyond the spot and become part of the content itself,” Alan Moss, Amazon vp of global ad sales, recently said.