2024 Broadcast Upfronts Recap
The 2024 broadcast upfronts have wrapped up, with the major networks presenting four trends of note for advertisers:
- Linear TV rates of change (outside of sports) are flat to negative in most areas including primetime, daytime and news.
- Sports volume and CPM increases represented the main increases in linear TV.
- Linear TV volume will likely remain flat as in 2023 with networks giving larger CPM rollbacks in exchange for additional dollar commitments.
- Streaming volume is up and helping to drive overall upfront YOY growth, as CPMs drop slightly given the increased impressions networks have to sell.
Networks have stated that volume is up YOY but digital and live sports are what is driving this increase. Specific network updates:
ABC/Disney
- Volume and revenue are up 5% for linear/streaming YOY.
- Sports are up 15% in part due to soaring women’s sports commitments which grew by “triple-digits” from last year’s upfront.
- Streaming, specifically Disney+ and Hulu, are up 10% YOY, though CPMs are down.
- With no mention of linear TV only numbers, it’s likely that outside of sports there is flat to minimal growth in volume YOY.
- Linear TV rate of change in daytime, prime and news are flat.
- Sports rate of change came in at +3-7% depending on sport.
- In some linear dayparts revenue could be getting a boost from stronger ratings.
CBS
- While there have not been any official announcements yet, our discussions with them mirror what we’ve seen across the other networks.
- Rate of change came in negative for prime, news and daytime, with small single digit increases in sports.
- Paramount+ reportedly sold over $1 billion in upfront commitments.
FOX
- Fox Prime upfront volume is reportedly up YOY, seeing increases in ad commitments to both linear and Tubi.
- Sports saw a double-digit percentage increase in volume, no doubt boasted by Fox’s 2025 Super Bowl LIX. Fox claims 70-80% of 2025 Super Bowl units have already been secured in the upfront, with match spend fueling additional sports ad dollars.
NBC
- Rate of change also flat to slightly negative in prime, news and daytime depending on the volume of deals.
- Sports again is the area with slight CPM gains this year in the low to mid-single digits depending on the sport.
- NBC upfront volume is reported to be similar to last year with “modest” growth predominantly fueled by live sports, most notably the NFL and digital.
- Digital volume is up significantly, with reports of double digit YOY growth in sports digital commitments.
- NBC’s Small Medium Business Growth Team reported upfront commitments up 50% YOY by DTC advertisers.
- Peacock emerged with its highest upfront to date, with commitments reported up 40% over the past three years.
NBCU Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships, Mark Marshall, commented, “The upfront used to be do-or-die—you needed to hit the numbers or your year was in trouble. Now, it’s the starting point of the race, and programmatic and scatter follow up behind it. It’s a different mentality for the marketplace.”
What Does This Mean for the Scatter Marketplace?
For advertisers looking to secure inventory in the scatter marketplace, impacts will be dependent on a number of factors including how the economy fares over the next few quarters. But, unless there is a significant increase in scatter volume YOY, it should be expected that we will see a similar linear marketplace as we head into the 2024/2025 broadcast year as long as linear ratings remain strong. As of now firesales and scatter inventory are not as open as they were in Q4 of 2023 or Q1 of 2024 but there are still some good deals to be had.
