Programmers are using their Q1 earnings reports as a dress rehearsal for their upfront pitches.
Over the past two weeks, Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), NBCUniversal and Paramount all made one last appeal for spend commitments going into TV upfront negotiations, which start next week.
Sports led nearly every pitch, as the historic battle for airing rights spills over into connected TV. Now, streamers are brandishing their live sports clout as proof of their growing scale.
Meanwhile, programmatic platforms, including Magnite and PubMatic, also had upfronts in mind during their Q1 earnings. The more buyers execute their upfront dollars programmatically, the more supply-side platforms have a stake in how those negotiations go.
Sports programming meets streaming
NBCU, Disney, Paramount and WBD all attempted to woo TV advertisers by showing how their sports programming could help advertisers reach as many subscribers as possible.
Disney touted its standalone ESPN+ app, set to launch in 2025, and the addition of ESPN to the Disney+ app, which is coming at the end of this year. ESPN content will also be part of Disney’s forthcoming sports-focused streaming venture with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox. The three studios will pool their sports airing rights as part of this venture.
WBD bragged about its exclusive rights to some upcoming NCAA games, plus a new bundle offering that will include Max, Disney and Hulu.
Then, Comcast used its earnings call to flaunt its plans for the Olympics on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, including new ad formats designed to increase viewing time and, as a result, ad revenue.
And, although Paramount only had a 10-minute earnings call the day it lost its CEO in a dramatic leadership shake-up, most of those minutes centered on sports. That included how the recent NFL and NCAA playoffs contributed to subscriber growth for Paramount+ last quarter.
Streamers are so eager to court marketers with sports that their pitches even had some overlap.
Paramount reminded advertisers that subscribers who sign up for Paramount+ to watch sports spend 90% of their time watching other content, while Comcast said Peacock subscribers also spend 90% of their time watching something that isn’t sports.
Preaching programmatic
Not to be left out, programmatic platforms pushed their supply-path optimization efforts for CTV and video supply during their Q1 reports.
Case in point: PubMatic and Magnite are both busy trying to gain adoption for their direct ad buying products in an effort to bypass demand-side platforms.
But while it’s convenient to ballyhoo the advantages of direct buying through SSPs since they have larger footholds with publisher supply than DSPs, the competitive pressure of SPO is also pitting sell-side platforms against each other.
PubMatic and Magnite each made their respective case to investors that they’re differentiated as SSPs and therefore have no reason to fear getting disintermediated.
PubMatic’s direct buying product, for example, offers private rather than open auctions because they resemble the direct dynamics of traditional TV ad buying.
Magnite, on the other hand, bragged about its combined offering with an SSP and ad server, reducing steps in the ad buying process. It also rushed to ink a deal with TV ad buying platform Mediaocean for more traditional TV demand ahead of the upfronts.
The rising need for SPO in streaming ad buying puts programmatic platforms on a similar plane as the programmers they get their supply from. Both must prove they have something their competition doesn’t or fold under the pressure.
May the best SSPs and streamers win.
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