It’s no exaggeration to express that Mark Marshall, the NBCUniversal ad sales chairman, is extremely optimistic about their offerings during this year’s upfront; in fact, he seems to be more than just optimistic.
As I eagerly express to The Hollywood Reporter, I firmly believe that this year will undeniably stand out as the most exceptional content-rich year for any individual media company in history.
He has a case to make.
The NBA on NBC is coming back to the schedule later in the current year, while in early 2026, the network will host the Winter Olympics, followed closely by the Super Bowl, and then the NBA playoffs. This trio of major events will be almost consecutively aired.
This year’s upfront is presented by Marshall as the conclusion of numerous years of dedicated effort, encompassing not only our product lineup but also the content we produce.
As a dedicated fan, I’ve been eagerly working towards the day when Peacock becomes a fully-fledged platform, with our data products and targeting reaching maturity too. For the past four years, we’ve had our sights set on the 2026 upfront, meticulously building everything to make that vision a reality.
Indeed, this doesn’t imply that the upcoming event will follow the usual pattern. Ongoing tariff concerns and worries about economic recession have cast a shadow over the media sector. However, Marshall remains unfazed as he hasn’t observed any significant negative effects so far.
Regarding COVID in 2020, we’ve been navigating five years of unpredictability, be it supply chain issues or tariffs. However, unemployment remains low and the economy is thriving, albeit there’s a discussion about interest rates. Nevertheless, this doesn’t significantly affect our initial operations, as we’ve already adapted during these past five years, Marshall explains. Tariffs, indeed, bring uncertainties, but marketers are becoming more agile in deciding the type of content they produce. We observed that advertisers who stayed consistent performed 80% better during that period.
Marshall indicates that the company aims to offer more flexibility to marketers in arranging their promotional strategies, while maintaining a strong impact during the upfront. Both NBC and Telemundo will feature a significant amount of live programming, leading marketers to reconsider and return to traditional broadcasting.
As a gamer, I’ve noticed a trend where marketers who once abandoned live streaming have returned, and here’s why: they crave the real-time interaction and resources that live streams offer. The reason is simple – live streams fuel social conversations. It can be challenging to create a social conversation for a streamer when people watch at different times, so it requires a unique strategy.
He’s hoping that the May 12 event, which marks the beginning of a busy week, might generate another exciting moment that buyers will recall even as upfronts continue, much like NBCU did last year when they unveiled the trailer for Wicked at the conference.
Marshall mentions that it’s something quite different from what we used to do in the past, but it’s really exciting – incredibly so,” Marshall says, implying that How To Train Your Dragon and the forthcoming Epic Universe theme park might be factors here.
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2025-05-09 16:54