NBCU reports ‘modest’ increase in upfront ad commitments

NBCUniversal saw a “modest” uptick in advertising commitments during its upfront sales process, the company reported July 19, 2024.

Mark Marshall, chairman, global advertising and partnerships at NBCU, said live sports and Peacock stood out as strong performers during the annual upfront sales cylce.

“NBCUniversal saw growth in advertising commitments across its portfolio in key business areas including strategic audiences, live programming, and streaming — demonstrating the value of our storytelling and the strength of our powerful tech stack to the marketplace,” Marshall said in a statement.

Marshall notes that executives have shifted NBCU’s strategy to investment and innovation in “driving media effectiveness for our clients.” 

Like most other legacy broadcasters, NBC’s 2024 upfront was expected to be challenging as ad dollars shift from linear to digital broadcasting. Its move into streaming via Peacock has been one key way to attempt to continue to grab at least some of those ad dollars. 

That said, the digital video advertising market, once seen as booming, has undergone some shifts in recent months. Amazon’s decision to start showing ads in its base Prime Video offering, opened up a significant amount of inventory at a time when available ad slots were already on the rise.

The 2024 upfronts was also the second in which major networks have agreed to charge advertisers lower CPMs in at least some cases. This, in turn, caused ad revenue projections to dip for the second time as well. Meanwhile, Disney recently announced it would also offer lower CPMs for some ad buys, hoping to make up for it by requiring broader commitments. 

Advertisement