After Hollywood strike, companies turn to sports

Last year’s shutdowns caused some media companies to feature fewer series and films in their presentations. Cost cutting by companies like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery didn’t solve the problem.

Live sports remains a favorite of upfront conferences and continues to attract the largest audience and therefore the highest advertising spend.

“I think [the companies] They received income benefits during the strike. And I think there was some hesitation to increase it because of all the issues of trying to understand how spending on content is actually driving revenue,” said Orbit Gaming and Entertainment Executive Chairman and former NBC said Tom Rogers, President of Cable.

“We used to have this kind of automatic mechanism where we would put in a certain amount of programming for a new season, but it was relatively formulaic and there was no sense of understanding how the content was going to be profitable. “There wasn’t much,” he added.

He pointed to two key issues for traditional media companies. The decline of traditional television and the increasing fees companies have to pay for live sports coverage.

“If we’re going to maintain the level of reductions in content spending, that obviously means we’re going to have to cut back on entertainment programming,” Rogers said.

Disney has dropped trailers for the upcoming Disney+ series “Agatha All Along” and “Daredevil: Born Again,” but for the cable network FX, the upcoming Disney+ series “The Bear,” which also streams on Hulu, has been released. It just highlighted the season. The company also announced the next installment of broadcast network ABC’s popular reality series, “The Golden Bachelorette.”

Warner Bros. Discovery has pushed series such as “House of the Dragon” and “And Just Like That,” both spinoffs of the HBO series.

“But strong content candidates, whether it’s sports or entertainment, are just one piece of the puzzle,” said Amy Leifer, chief advertising sales officer at DIRECTV Advertising. “With explosive growth, [ad-supported streaming], the modern television experience relies on content as well as advertising to support it. ”

Several movies have played big roles on the upfront, especially recently after streaming services like NBCUniversal’s Peacock were boosted by blockbusters like “Oppenheimer.”

Comcast’s NBCUniversal focused on the new musical film “Wicked” and the renewal of Peacock’s original series.

The summer movie box office season, which runs from the first weekend in May until Labor Day, is expected to shrink by about $800 million this year due to limited and unstable screenings of blockbusters. This follows a second quarter that saw ticket sales lag nearly 50% behind the same period last year.

The movie calendar is expected to increase with major titles like Warner Bros. in the fourth quarter. “Joker: Folie à Deux,” Paramount’s “Gladiator II,” Disney Animation’s “Moana 2” and Universal’s “Wicked” are coming to theaters. Calendar 2025 and his 2026 will feature major series titles such as Marvel, Star Wars, Batman, Super Mario Bros., and a rollover ticket for the third Avatar movie It’s a schedule.

Meanwhile, tech giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have recently added ad-supported lower price tiers to their streaming platforms, and are getting into Upfront Week in earnest, showing not only sports but also upcoming deals. Movies and series were also introduced.

Amazon, which currently owns MGM Studios, has focused on renewals and upcoming seasons of original series such as “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “The Boys” and “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” Actor Jake Gyllenhaal announced a sequel to “Roadhouse,” and Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon talked about their movie “You Are Warily Invited.”

Meanwhile, Netflix has announced a sequel to Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore and other series.

The NFL reigned supreme in most Upfront presentations this year as well.

High-profile sports programming, from the Summer Olympics to the NBA, which attracts the largest television and streaming audiences and significant advertising dollars, was also a key part of the presentation.

Mike Dupree, chief revenue officer at Teads, a global premium publishing platform, said: “Top clients are telling us that upfront purchases are becoming less important outside of securing slots in live sports.” I listen to it a lot,” he said. ”Access to quality content in an on-demand world has reduced the scarcity that has traditionally driven the upfront model. Live sports appears to be the last bastion, as evidenced through the renegotiation of rights. ”

NBCUniversal dedicated a large part of its presentation to the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris. The NFL played a role in all presentations, including Netflix, a newcomer to the ad-supported streaming industry. The show generated perhaps the biggest buzz in the sports world during Upfront Week, with just hours before the presentation announcing an agreement had been reached to broadcast NFL games on Christmas Day for the next three years.

Amazon introduced its second Black Friday game, Thursday Night Football, and Prime’s first wild-card playoff game scheduled for January.

Tim Hurd, vice president of media activation at digital marketing agency Goodway Group, said: “This year, the media giants are looking to create buzz around things like ‘Wicked,’ the Olympics, and sports superstars like Jason Kelce. “I was making a huge bet.” “There was a lot of excitement about the evolving live sports landscape and leveraging college sports, NFL games, and the Olympics as omni-platform experiences.”

Kelce, who recently retired from the NFL after 13 years with the Philadelphia Eagles, appeared on the Disney upfront to announce that he will be a commentator for ESPN starting this season. His appearance made headlines, as he and his brother Travis Kelsey tend to do, when he featured “Abbott Elementary” star and creator Quinta Brunson during the event.

— Sarah Witten contributed to this article.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.