Disney Upfront Reaches Record $9B

Disney Advertising has finished its upfront advertising TV/media deal-making --- pulling in a total of $9 billion.

Disney says it posted “double-digit” cost-per-thousand viewer (CPM) price increases for its ABC Television Network prime-time inventory, and “high single-digit increases” for addressable TV deals.

The company says 40% of the total upfront dollars ($3.6 billion) went to streaming and digital platforms -- including Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu.

Disney saw strong performance for its live events and its Disney+ new advertising option, and made gains in addressable and measurement offerings, according to the company.

For its its cross-platform business, Disney says there was “greater demand for Disney HuluXP, its cross-platform unified video advertising business reaching addressable audiences across all Disney media inventory.

Advertising categories that showed a strong performance include consumer services, financial services, media/entertainment, pharmaceutical, sports gaming and travel & leisure.

Disney says Disney+ received upfront “commitments” from all its media agency partners.

Rita Ferro, president of advertising sales of Disney Media and Entertainment, said in a release: “This marks a historic close to our strongest upfront ever, totaling $9 billion... [for] all of our clients to reach audiences at scale across all screens, and alongside the most premium content.”

Other TV-based network groups completed strong upfront deal-making weeks ago.

NBCUniversal also hit record results -- with total volume from all its businesses at more than $7 billion, and high-single-digit-percentage CPM gains versus a year ago, media executives say.

advertisement

advertisement

NBCU said there was almost a 20% year-over-year gain for its digital/streaming platforms -- which includes premium streamer Peacock. The company also says more than 40% of upfront business was conducted outside traditional age and gender guarantees, mostly provided by Nielsen.

Paramount Global also pulled in high single-digit CPM price gains with overall volume dollar increases.

For the upfront ad market a year ago, CBS took in $2.5 billion in upfront prime-time sales, according to industry estimates.

In 2021, Paramount Global’s overall ad sales rose 11% to $9.3 billion.

Media executives say Fox Corp. also took in high single-digit price increases.

Next story loading loading..