Netflix Closes First Upfront Talks With Advertisers, Total Commitments ‘In Line With Expectations’

Netflix has closed its first-ever upfront negotiations, with total commitments “in line with expectations,” a person familiar with the matter told TheWrap.

The company secured deals with all major advertising holding companies, as well as multiple independent agencies, at “top of market pricing” for the streaming industry.

Investment came from categories including auto, consumer packaged goods, retail and more, with Netflix taking share from traditional TV broadcasters as well as digital video platforms. Following Netflix’s announcement of new title and moment sponsorships, the company has filled nearly all inventory for 2023-2024.

The conclusion of Netflix’s upfront comes as the company’s ad tier has grown to over 10 million monthly active users, doubling from the nearly 5 million MAUs disclosed at its presentation to advertisers in May. The company’s executives previously revealed during its first quarter earnings call that average revenue per paid membership for the ad tier in the U.S. was greater than its standard plan.

Netflix is the latest studio to wrap up its upfront negotiations with advertisers.

NBCUniversal ended its negotiations with total cash commitments “roughly in line with last year.” In 2022, the company received $7 billion in commitments, according to AdWeek — the highest-grossing upfront in its history.

Sales for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games nearly doubled the pace at the one year out benchmark compared to Tokyo 2020, with NBCU anticipating sales to be ahead of all previous Olympic Games in total sales. The company has already sold out all of its new Olympic Prime Pod sponsorships.

It also received over 30 partnership requests across 13 product categories for Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary season, which it will confirm in the coming months.

Paramount Global ended their talks with commitments “up low to mid-single digits,” with the EyeQ, Vantage and Sports verticals seeing double-digit growth on a combined basis.

Meanwhile, Disney said its revenue and volume commitments “in line with the prior year.” Over 40% of total dollars committed were given to streaming and digital, led by Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu. The company also saw single-digit increases in sports volume and pricing.

Additionally, Fox is wrapping up its negotiations and recently touted price and volume growth at Fox News Media and Fox Sports. FOX Entertainment “increased Upfront sell-out over last year,” while Tubi saw volume growth for the fourth consecutive year.

Warner Bros. Discovery is also “making strong progress” on its upfront deals, chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels told analysts on the company’s second quarter earnings call. He noted that linear volume is expected to be up, with “pricing on balance pretty consistent with the prior year.” He added that DTC volume is “up more than 50% in the market in the marketplace in which CPMs were positioned to drive scale, for us as much as for the broader market.”

The conclusion of Netflix’s upfront negotiations was first reported by AdWeek.

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