NEW YORK — Hollywood jack of all trades Seth MacFarlane opened NBCUniversal’s 2025 Upfront Presentation at Radio City Music Hall on Monday (May 12) the one way he knows how: with a profanity-laced song-and-dance show tune. The creator of “Family Guy” and the “Ted” franchise took shots at competitors Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Max and Paramount, boasting that NBCU has the stuff advertisers are after and stays “the one place where the content doesn’t suck.”
The remainder of NBCU’s upfront looked to make good on that promise, laying out a mammoth 12 months in content that features sports, scripted TV, reality shows, major movies and an advertising-focused competition show hosted by Jimmy Fallon. With the primary presentation of upfronts week, the media conglomerate looked to put itself in pole position amongst media corporations.
“The media landscape is more fragmented and competitive than ever, and you would like partners who can reliably produce great content and meet the audience where they’re so as to earn a share of their time, their attention and wallets,” said Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal, on stage.
Among the content highlights are the return of the NBA to NBC, featuring latest special contributor Michael Jordan; a live “Wicked” special in November; and a six-hour variety special to have a good time the corporate’s a centesimal anniversary. To meet the audience where they’re, NBCU again focused on Peacock, the corporate’s streaming service that — unlike competitors resembling Netflix — was built with advertisers in mind since its launch in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.
“We’ve invested within the technical infrastructure to support our competitive zones of performance, security, reliability and consumer experience to be sure that your brands are a part of our success,” said Langley.
There’s no place like NBCU
Amid a star-studded lineup that included Snoop Dogg, Tracy Morgan, Keke Palmer, NBA star Victor Wembanyama and lots of on-screen talent, perhaps nobody had more fun than Mark Marshall, chairman of worldwide promoting and partnerships. In a pre-recorded video, the chief dropped in to properties, including “Love Island,” before descending on-stage like Glinda in an homage to Universal Pictures’ smash hit “Wicked.”
“When you’re allocating where are you going to put your dollars, there’s just one ad chief that was within the rafters of Radio City, risking his own life,” Marshall deadpanned. “So you choose where the cash should go.”
After joking that NBCU had solved the tariff issues prematurely of the show — nodding to the morning’s development of a rollback of U.S.-China tariffs — Marshall noted that in a time of economic headwinds, brands that stay on the air are 98% more likely to retain their customers.
That wasn’t the one statistic on display. NBCU’s reach will grow to 286 million people a month this 12 months, with over 95% of that reach backed with promoting and consumers watching 99% of those ads to completion. Plus, advertisers will still give you the chance to reach NBCU and its spun-off cable channel entity, recently named Versant, through one sales team and the corporate’s OnePlatform offering.
“Whether it’s our sports content, our movies, our trusted news or any of our entertainment programming, this isn’t nearly someday, one big show, one big event,” Marshall said. “This is a canvas to tell your brand story, and that is what drives $1.4 trillion of consumer spending each month.”
‘The biggest month in sports history’
Live sports have remained a spotlight of media company offerings and advertiser budgets, as they represent considered one of the last bastions of video viewing across TV, streaming and mobile devices. Along with the return of the NBA to NBC (alongside iconic theme song “Roundball Rock,” performed on the presentation by composer John Tesh), the corporate is preparing for a February 2026 sports slate that features Super Bowl 60, the Winter Olympics and the NBA All-Star Game — a period the corporate believes will likely be the best month in sports history, according to Karen Kovacs, president of promoting and partnerships at NBCU.
“Over that next two-year period, we’ll own nearly 40% of huge event viewership within the U.S.,” Kovacs said in an interview ahead of the upfronts. “We think we’re really tremendous at storytelling at NBCU… Clients have seen how we tell these stories, and so they want to be an element of the key moments.”
While NBCU didn’t host its annual technology showcase, the corporate is continuous to develop tech-driven solutions in order that it could actually turn TV right into a performance media channel. Along with offering Versant through OnePlatform, NBCU last week expanded its partnership with full-funnel marketing agency Tinuiti with a brand new collaboration around first-party data strategies. Plus, parent company Comcast this 12 months launched a Universal Ads platform that appears to bring the following 100,000 buyers of TV into its ecosystem.
“Media and tech are converged now,” Kovacs said. “Our ad-tech capabilities are really integrated to every little thing we do, and we’re going to proceed to infuse that technology offering all year long.”
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