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Disney is the latest publisher to cross the upfront finish line.
On Monday, Disney closed its strongest upfront ever, reporting $9 billion in advertiser commitments from every major holding company and key deals across entertainment, streaming, sports and inclusion, according to the House of Mouse.
Live events, Disney+’s upcoming ad-supported tier, and addressable and measurement offerings drove demand, with 40% of total upfront dollars going to streaming and digital thanks to Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu.
A source familiar with the matter noted the company was excited to bring Disney+ to the upfront. The marketplace reacted very positively to the offering, with clients gravitating toward the overall platform, the scale and the diversity of content.
Additionally, CPM (cost per thousand viewers reached) increased across streaming, sports, broadcast and cable. Prime earned double-digit increases and high single-digit increases in addressable.
Revenue was up across the board, with double-digit increases in sports volume and pricing. The company also said it secured DEI commitments from every major holding company, along with financial services, pharmaceutical, retail, tech and telecommunications brands. According to our source, DEI was a strong priority for the company during the upfront.
The strongest categories included diversified consumer services, financial services, media and entertainment, pharmaceutical, sports gaming, and travel and leisure. In addition, Disney HuluXP, a unified video ad solution to reach addressable audiences across the Disney portfolio, also saw increased demand.
“Disney Advertising entered our 2022-2023 upfront committed to executing on our strategic priorities—streaming, multicultural and inclusion, sports and entertainment—and we delivered,” Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of advertising sales and partnerships, said in a statement. “This marks a historic close to our strongest upfront ever.”
The company is now the sixth upfront week presenter to finish negotiations, trailing NBCUniversal, TelevisaUnivision, Paramount, Fox and The CW. Warner Bros. Discovery is still a holdout.
Last year, the company also saw a strong upfront, with Disney’s ad sales team securing double-digit CPM increases across broadcast dayparts, cable and its major sports franchises, including NFL, NBA and college football. Overall revenue also rose last year, with 40% of the sales coming in streaming and digital.
Priorities for the House of Mouse
In May, Ferro gave Adweek an overview of Disney’s upfront priorities.
“The upfront was really about how do we tell a big-picture story of the volume of content coming from the Walt Disney Company because we have a lot of different endpoints, and we’re the home of streaming in a way that no one else has in the marketplace, premium storytelling in the streaming space with Hulu that has been around for 14 years. But since it was integrated and we took operational control a couple of years ago, it has been a driver of the AVOD opportunity in the marketplace,” Ferro said.
This is the first year Disney has offered Disney+ as an advertising option. And Ferro told us the streamer’s ad tier is a game-changer.
“When you look at Disney+ plus Hulu plus ESPN+, there’s just nothing in the marketplace like it,” Ferro said, “The scale of that level of storytelling.”
Disney previously confirmed to Adweek several features of the upcoming ad-tier product, including an average of 4 minutes per hour, which Ferro also expanded upon.
“The reason for that is we know most people come to Disney+ for our movies, and movies have a different ad load than a series would. So what drives Hulu is more series. What drives Disney+ is more consumption of movies, and therefore the ad loads will look different. So it’ll be an average of four minutes an hour, but it depends on the types of content you stream,” Ferro said.
