TV advertisers expect to hear a lot of big asks this year, but not so many small requests.
When NBCUniversal opens the media industry’s annual “Upfront Week” Monday, it is likely to do so with talk of the 100th anniversary of the NBC broadcast network and three different types of sports to offer on Sundays. And while the media company known for such series as “Law & Order” and “Saturday Night Live” will almost certainly nod to new programming, Madison Avenue wants NBC and its media rivals to go big before they go home to decide whether to put millions of advertising dollars into their coffers — or somewhere else entirely.
With streaming video breaking down what were once broad TV audiences watching at once into smaller pockets of viewership, advertisers are on the hunt for properties that can still bring the big stuff. Companies that can’t offer it aren’t likely to fare well in the “upfront,” the annual marketplace during which U.S. TV companies try to sell the bulk of their commercial time ahead of the debut of their next cycle of programming.
“People who don’t have a lot of growth and who have lackluster streaming may have a harder time getting dollars this year,” says one TV sales executive.
TV networks are under significant pressure to please their sponsors. Advertisers have earmarked fewer dollars for broadcast and cable TV each year for the past three. Dollars committed to broadcast primetime in 2025 fell 2.5% to about $9.1 billion, according to Media Dynamics, a consultancy that tracks upfront negotiations, compared with $9.34 billion in the year-earlier period. Dollars committed to cable fell 4.3% to nearly $8.68 billion, compared with nearly $9.1 billion last year. Meanwhile, dollars earmarked for streaming rose 17.9%, Media Dynamics said, to $13.2 billion, compared with $11.2 billion in the 2024 upfront.
Marketers will rush to put down dollars on programs that can still draw large crowds all tuning in at once, says one media buying executive. There’s only so much commercial inventory available around “large tentpole events, big cultural events and sports,” this person says, and “the big upfront conversations are taking place where there is scarcity.”
Some evidence of these conversations has already surfaced. Disney is seeking $10 million for a 30-second ad in next year’s Super Bowl LXI, slated to be broadcast across both ABC and ESPN on February 14 of 2027. The price is higher than might be expected early in the Super Bowl sales process, and some media agencies have pushed back on Disney’s ask, according to six people with knowledge of recent negotiations.
Many of the media companies are likely to lead with sports and specials. They can charge their highest prices for big-league games, which more or less expire once the clock runs out, along with awards shows and one-time specials. In recent years, some of TV’s biggest advertisers have rushed to get more dollars into sports — even if they typically focused more on dramas and comedies in the past. “We are excited about this space, and we have proven that we can bring new advertisers to live sports,” says Alan Moss, vice president of global sales for Amazon Ads, citing the entrance of more than 80 new brands to Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” and more than 30 new advertisers to the company’s first year of NBA stream casts. “We think live sports will continue to be an important area.”
Disney has already articulated a growing focus on live spectacle. Over the course of eight weeks in 2027, Disney’s TV and streaming properties will feature the College Football Playoffs, the Oscars, the Grammys and Super Bowl LXI — the first time ABC will have shown the Big Game since 2006.
No matter how big the swing, traditional TV’s ability to lure more ad dollars than in the past remains suspect. As more consumers move to streaming, advertisers will follow them, says Brian Wieser, who tracks ad spending for Madison & Wall, a consultancy. The new streaming companies “have a large share of inventory that they should be able to monetize through advertising, and it will come at the expense of the incumbents,” he says.
Ad revenue for cable in 2026 is projected to fall by 10%, according to MoffettNathanson, an independent research firm, while broadcast ad revenue is seen rising 5%, largely due to the Winter Olympics and the move of NBA games from Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT to the NBC broadcast network. The bulk of new ad dollars, which once went to TV, are moving to digital giants, the firm says: “Over the last decade, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft alone accounted for virtually all (96%) of the U.S. ad spend growth. These four platforms now capture 65% of total U.S. ad spend, a share we expect to reach 72% by 2028.”
No matter how big the play is from the traditional media outlets, they may only result in small steps.
