• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 13, 2025

For legacy TV networks -- and their streaming platforms -- pounding this year's upfront messaging continues to be the viscerally rewarding and relief response from buyers to the word “live” when it comes to content.

It’s all about real-time viewer actions -- social media and otherwise -- especially when it comes to pricey sports TV advertising inventory.

“Seventy percent of all the programming across NBC is live,” said Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising/partnerships, speaking live at the NBCUniversal upfront event to advertising and media executives on Monday.

“And why does live matter to you? Because it delivers 21% more engagement for your brands.”

Next year, with the start of its new 11-year contract, NBCUniversal will see nearly half of its prime-time nights in 2026 -- 129 nights -- coming from sports, according to Peter Lazarus, executive vice president of advertising/sponsorship of NBC Sports, who spoke at a press event.

NBC will get 100 regular-season games from the NBA starting next year with 40 playoff games. And next year is an Olympic year, where the winter games will be held in Milan/Cortina, Italy.

"Prime time" can be assumed here to represent airings on the NBC Television Network. But consider another prime purpose: Peacock.

Including NBA coverage, sports on Peacock adds an additional 7,500 hours -- which is more than Apple TV+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video combined, according to NBC’s Marshall.

NBC’s Peacock anticipates that it will see major gains in usage/ viewership from the NBA deal. About half of the games with the NBCUniversal deal will be exclusively aired on Peacock.

Peacock is in about 41 million U.S. households reaching around 100 million monthly ad-supported users.

Overall, Lazarus pointed out, nearly 40% of all NBA ad inventory is also moving to streaming.

Now, you know why Fox Corp. -- some six years ago -- set a goal for more live TV, largely coming from sports (NFL, Major League Baseball, Nascar, FIFA World Cup). In recent years, a massive 77% of annual total time viewed on the Fox Television Network, came from sports.

Also factor in live news content on the cable industry-leading Fox News Channel -- with 2.4 million prime-time total viewers on average, coming in at fifth place among all U.S. TV networks.

Consider that despite all the cord-cutting, linear TV still provides the dominant lion’s share of all TV ad impressions across all dayparts and platforms.

Streaming and CTV is rapidly growing for sure. But transparency, cross-platform comparisons and the hurdles of walled gardens sometimes get in the way of things.

So we can expect messaging by TV network executives will not change all that much. Legacy TV platforms will continue to produce big-time ad revenues for some time to come -- especially when the word “live” speaks to brands.