Companies rely on sports after Hollywood strikes

Media giants relied on sports last year when they had to court advertisers during Upfronts week of meetings at a time when a Hollywood strike and cost-cutting affected their content and star power.

This year, although stars returned to the stage after the strikes ended, presentations still leaned more toward sports than scripted shows.

The hangover from last year's work break meant that some media companies had fewer series and movies to highlight during their presentations. Reduction of costs for companies such as disney and Warner Bros. Discovery It didn't help at all.

Live sports remained the favorites of Upfront gatherings, as they still attract the largest audiences and therefore the most advertising dollars.

“Believe [the companies] benefited in terms of income during the strike. And I think there was hesitation to increase because of all the problems of trying to understand how content spending was really driving returns,” said Tom Rogers, chief executive of Oorbit Gaming and Entertainment and former president of NBC Cable.

“There used to be this kind of automatic, where you would release a certain number of shows for the new season and it would be relatively formulaic without much sense of being able to understand how the content was driving profitability,” he added.

He pointed out two key issues for traditional media companies: the decline of traditional television and the rising fees companies have to pay to broadcast live sports.

“If you're going to maintain a low level of spending on content, by definition, that means your entertainment programming has to be reduced,” Rogers said.

Disney showed trailers for the upcoming Disney+ series “Agatha All Along” and “Daredevil: Born Again,” but for its FX cable network, it only highlighted the next season of the popular series “The Bear,” which also streams on Hulu . The company also announced “Golden Bachelorette,” the next installment of the popular ABC reality series.

Warner Bros. Discovery put shows like “House of the Dragon” and “And Just Like That,” both spinoffs of HBO series, front and center.

“However, a strong slate of content, whether it's sports or entertainment, is just one piece of the puzzle,” said Amy Leifer, director of advertising sales at DIRECTV Advertising. “With the explosive growth of [ad-supported streaming]”The modern television experience depends as much on the content as it does on the ads that support it.”

Some movies played a big role at the Upfronts, especially after streaming services like NBCUniversal's Peacock got a recent boost from blockbusters like “Oppenheimer.”

ComcastNBCUniversal was focused on the upcoming musical movie “Wicked” and the renewal of some Peacock original series.

The summer movie box office season, which runs from the first weekend in May through Labor Day, is expected to be down about $800 million this year as the season brings a limited and unstable flow of blockbuster movies. It follows a second quarter that lagged nearly 50% behind ticket sales seen during the same period last year.

The movie schedule is expected to ramp up in the fourth quarter, with major titles such as Warner Bros.' “Joker: Folie a Deux,” Paramount's “Gladiator II,” Disney Animation's “Moana 2” and Universal's “Wicked” arriving on the cinemas. The 2025 and 2026 calendars are slated to see a significant push in titles, including features from major franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, Batman, Super Mario Bros., and backlogged entries from a third Avatar movie.

Meanwhile, tech giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which recently added cheaper, ad-supported tiers to its streaming platforms, entered Upfronts week in full force, showcasing not only sports but also upcoming movies and series.

Amazon, which now owns MGM Studios, highlighted renewals and upcoming seasons of original series such as “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “The Boys” and “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” Actor Jake Gyllenhaal announced a sequel to “Roadhouse,” and Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon talked about their movie, “You're Warmly Invited.”

Meanwhile, Netflix announced the sequel to Adam Sandler's “Happy Gilmore,” as well as a host of other series.

The NFL once again reigned supreme in the majority of Upfront presentations this year.

Featured sports programming, from the Summer Olympics to the NBA, which draws the largest television and streaming audiences, and big advertising dollars, were also key parts of the presentations.

“We often hear from major clients that the importance of the initial purchase has decreased beyond securing placements in live sports,” said Mike Dupree, chief revenue officer at Teads, a premium global publishing platform. “Access to quality content in an on-demand world has reduced the scarcity that historically drove the initial model. “Live sports appear to be the last bastion, as evidenced by rights renegotiations.”

NBCUniversal dedicated much of its presentation to the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris. The NFL played a role in every presentation, even for the newcomer to the ad-supported streaming scene, Netflix. He perhaps caused the biggest sports stir during Upfronts week, when hours before his presentation it was announced that he had reached a deal to broadcast NFL games on Christmas Day for the next three years.

Amazon introduced Thursday Night Football, its second Black Friday game and an upcoming wild card playoff game in January, the first for Prime.

“This year, we saw media giants banking on big bets like 'Wicked,' the Olympics and sports superstars like Jason Kelce to generate buzz,” said Tim Hurd, vice president of media activation at digital marketing agency Goodway Group. . “There was a lot of excitement around the evolution of the live sports landscape and leveraging college sports, NFL games and the Olympics as an omniplatform experience.”

Kelce, who recently retired from the NFL after 13 years with the Philadelphia Eagles, appeared at the Disney upfront to announce that he would be a commentator for ESPN starting this season. His appearance made headlines, as he and his brother Travis Kelce tend to do, when he picked up “Abbott Elementary” star and creator Quinta Brunson during the event.

– Sarah Whitten contributed to this article.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.