• by Wayne Friedman , 3 hours ago

Paramount Skydance says it secured strong "double-digit percentage" volume gains for its TV advertising upfront selling season for the upcoming 2026-2027 TV season.

Executives touted that the company had the strongest upfront advertising results since the CBS-Viacom merger. The news came during the company’s second-quarter earnings release.

Specific financial details -- the actual potential upfront revenue and CPMs (cost per thousand viewers) -- were not disclosed other than explaining valuable content pulled in by advertisers.

For the just-completed second-quarter period, Paramount Skydance posted a 9% decline in total ad revenue to $1.94 billion. The company has seen many periods of declining ad revenue.

The company says it expects more positive advertising results ahead, with growth in the second half of the year because of its streaming platforms, which will offset legacy, linear TV and media declines.

This rapid increase is already underway from streaming.

All of Paramount’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) platforms (which include subscription and advertising revenue) grew 9.3% to $2.47 billion in the second quarter. Alone, Paramount+ posted 16% revenue growth over a year ago.

This helped to absorb a 9.4% decline in traditional TV-media revenue to $3.12 billion.

Company executives offered guidance that Paramount+ would see relatively flat results in subscribers in the third quarter year-over-year.

Overall, for the full second half/six-month upcoming period in 2026, the company says D2C subscription and advertising revenue will see an acceleration.

The earnings release comes just after news of Paramount Skydance's trial to defend itself against a lawsuit from 12 states to stop its $111 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, which may not be completed until June 2027.