The inclusion commitments are notable for Disney, as ad sales chief Rita Ferro challenged advertisers to “be intentional” about DEI during Disney’s May upfront week presentation.

“It’s really important,” Ferro told Adweek following the event. “We started that ask for a commitment as part of the upfront years ago because the intentionality behind what we’re doing in that space from a company perspective and all of our storytellers and creators have been really important in terms of how we think about the investments.”

This year’s upfront was one of the slowest markets in years, with advertisers thought to be seeking rollbacks in pricing amid uncertain macroeconomic conditions. However, Ferro told Adweek back in May that the market was always “active.”

“Disney tends to be at the front of the line. We own the scale and size of what we have, and sports and streaming are a priority for most marketers if you ask them across the board, and we have probably the largest footprint in both of those,” Ferro said.

Ferro added that though it wasn’t “the robust market of other years,” brands were still enthusiastic about having the right relationships and business terms in place with Disney.

Planning for fall

In addition to uncertain macroeconomic conditions, the ongoing writers strike is also weighing on brands’ minds heading into the fall.

However, the company has safeguards in place. Notably, ABC went with an unscripted-heavy fall lineup, which will help in case the strike is prolonged.

Additionally, in an earnings call in May ahead of upfront week, CEO Bob Iger touted Hulu and Disney+ content combining in a single app experience, saying the advertising platform of the combined experience would be “incredibly exciting,” as over 40% of Disney’s domestic advertising portfolio is addressable.