• by Wayne Friedman , July 27, 2023

Fox Corp. wrapped up its upfront negotiations across all its major media platforms, with sports its major program financial gainer, according to executives close to the company.

Live, linear TV sports -- especially the NFL -- has been a strong programming genre, according to analysts -- an area that has seen steady price increases for advertising messaging on major broadcast and sports-oriented TV networks during the still in-process, TV upfront advertising marketplace.

One executive said Fox made gains with NFL, Major League Baseball, college football and the World Cup where it “saw growth this upfront in both price and volume.” Analysts say this has resulted in roughly 5% average CPM gains across all sports TV content.

Fox News Media also had pricing and volume growth.

Fox representatives did not comment about the company's upfront negotiations.

The negative side to this picture is non-sports and entertainment programming, according to media agency executives, who say, across all major broadcast TV networks there has been rare declines in cost per thousand viewer (CPM) pricing -- anywhere from 3% to 5%.

In terms of Fox prime-time entertainment programming, the network/media platform group increased its sellout levels. Average TV broadcast primetime sellout levels are typically between 70% and 80% of a TV network’s overall yearly advertising inventory supply. 

Fox has been touting Tubi with continued growth results -- now registering 1.4% share of total streaming TV viewing in Nielsen’s The Gauge measure. That share level is just behind Disney+ (2.01%) and ahead of Peacock and Paramount+, each at a 1.0% share.

Fox chairman/CEO Lachlan Murdoch estimated Tubi advertising revenue could hit $1 billion this year