Fox, Paramount See Dollars Move to Sports, Streaming in Weak TV Upfront

Two of the nations biggest purveyors of primetime television are relying more heavily on other kinds of video inventory to fuel their advertising flows for 2023 and 202r,

Fox Corp. and Paramount Global are both near the end of their processes in TVs annual upfront ad sales market, and both expect to see some volume gains in specific areas of their portfolio. In a weak market, however, those increases appear to be coming from what have long been seen as ancillary products, not their usual stock in trade.

Fox expects the volume of ad commitments it has secured for the upfront to grow for its sports programming; at its Tubi streaming hub; and Fox News Media, according to people familiar with the matter. When it comes to Fox Entertainment, however, there was no information provided about volume of commitments, only an indication that Foxs broadcast programming increased the amount of inventory sold.

Paramount Global, meanwhile, expects an uptick in the low to mid single digit percentage range in overall volume of commitments, particularly for sports and addressable advertising.

In 2022, both companies offered a more robust outlook for the primetime schedules at CBS and Fox. Advertising commitments for last seasons CBS primetime schedule were expected to rise about 10%, while volume of commitment for the Fox primetime offering was expected to rise in a mid-single-digit percentage range.

The results spotlight Madison Avenues increasing disenchantment with traditional primetime TV as a vehicle for reaching the millions of consumers whose dollars they crave.

This years market has been a landmark, with the networks conceding to significant rollbacks or reductions in key rates, measures known as CPMs that represent the cost of reaching 1,000 viewers, in order to drive deals.

The networks and the digital-video companies have been in discussions that called for CPM increases of around 5% for the strongest TV properties, like sports,and for rollbacks going as deep as -5%for weaker linear inventory and even for digital, according to executives. According to buying executives, rollbacks were even discussed for primetime TV, once the mediums strongest asset. In a sign of how much weaker the market for TV advertising has become, TV networks in 2022 struck deals that called for CPM increases ranging from 8% to 12%.

NBCUniversal earlier this month said it had been able to secure a level of commitments that was flat with 2022 results, even though it saw robust response to its upcoming Paris Olympics. Meanwhile, TelevisaUnivsion indicated it was able to notch increases in ad commitments by taking some share of dollars away from its English-speaking rivals.