The TV industry’s annual upfronts—a high-stakes week of glitzy presentations, celebrity cameos, and billion-dollar ad negotiations—have kicked off in New York. While the spectacle of star-studded stages (Snoop Dogg hosting New Year’s! Michael Jordan returning to NBC! The Manning brothers singing badly!) grabs headlines, the real story lies in the seismic shifts reshaping the business. After NBCUniversal, Disney, Amazon, and Fox made their pitches, here’s what advertisers—and viewers—need to know.
Live Sports Is the Only Must-Have Left
If there was any doubt, 2025 cemented it: sports rights are the last bastion of appointment TV. Every major player doubled down:
- NBCUniversal flexed its $2.5B NBA deal (starting 2026), with Michael Jordan joining as a special contributor and Peacock rolling out interactive features like Courtside Live. They also dominate 2026 with the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, and FIFA World Cup.
- Disney went all-in on ESPN, barely mentioning ABC scripted shows. The Manning brothers’ cringe musical bit couldn’t distract from ESPN’s new streaming app and Thursday Night Football’s move to ABC.
- Amazon showcased Thursday Night Football and a Creed boxing series, while Fox leaned into NFL, NASCAR, and a bizarre IndyCar segment with David Letterman lifted in the air Dirty Dancing-style.
The message? If you’re not a sports giant, you’re fighting for scraps.
Scripted TV’s Slow Decline Accelerates
Gone are the days of packed fall lineups. The upfronts revealed a stark reality: scripted TV is shrinking fast.
- NBC has just seven scripted series this fall, with Peacock absorbing prestige projects like The Paper (an Office mockumentary spinoff) and Dig (Amy Poehler’s archeology comedy).
- Fox dedicates only 4 of 16 primetime hours to scripted shows, relying on The Masked Singer and Gordon Ramsay’s 25th year of yelling.
- Disney didn’t even mention ABC’s lone new series (*9-1-1: Nashville*) until Jimmy Kimmel joked, “Our fish is not fresh.”
Even greenlights are hedging bets: shorter seasons, streaming-first releases (Wicked’s NBC/Peacock special), and IP-driven spinoffs (Jurassic World, Bad Guys 2) dominate.
The Streaming-Broadcast Hybrid Is Here to Stay
The line between linear and streaming is officially erased. NBC’s The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (from 30 Rock’s creators) and Amazon’s Spider-Noir (starring Nicolas Cage) are streaming exclusives—yet marketed alongside broadcast fare. Even Disney’s Andor and Daredevil updates got equal billing with ABC’s Golden Bachelor.
The takeaway? Networks are now content farms for their parent companies’ streaming arms.
Ad Tech Is the New Battleground
With ratings fragmented, targeting is king:
- Disney touted AI-powered contextual ads, while Amazon pushed shoppable video integrations (e.g., buy The Wrecking Crew’s merch mid-stream).
- NBCU highlighted Peacock’s dynamic ad insertion for sports, and Tubi (Fox’s ad-supported streamer) bragged about 97M monthly users.
Advertisers now demand flexibility—shifting budgets between platforms, adjusting buys mid-season, and hedging against economic uncertainty.
The Bottom Line
The 2025 upfronts proved TV’s future is sports, unscripted, and ad tech—with scripted content increasingly relegated to streaming experiments. As NBC prepares for its 100th anniversary and Fox plans a “semiquincentennial” (that’s 250 years, folks) blowout, one thing’s clear: the industry’s golden age is over, but the scramble for what’s left is more cutthroat than ever.
