Amazon has wrapped its 2025 upfront negotiations, with the company touting “significant growth” across all major holding companies and strong commitments from independent agencies.
A spokesperson for the tech giant told TheWrap the company “exceeded” its internal expectations in total upfront commitments year over year with new and existing advertisers.
A key driver of upfront volume growth was Amazon’s live sports offerings, which include Thursday Night Football, NASCAR, the NWSL and the NBA and WNBA. It also saw increased demand for brand partnerships for Prime Video films and series such as “Fallout,” “Oh. What. Fun,” “Beast Games,” “Merv,” and “Elle.”
“We’re also continuing to launch innovative ad tech capabilities that make it easier for advertisers to plan, measure and optimize campaigns. Amazon DSP offers customers a seamless single point of access to the best inventory, providing a holistic programmatic buying and measurement solution across both Amazon-owned properties and premium publishers,” the spokesperson added. “We will continue to serve as strategic partners to brands, working hard every day to innovate and invent on behalf of our advertising customers.”
During its upfront presentation in May, Amazon revealed that Prime Video has an average monthly ad-supported reach of more than 200 million global consumers, including 130 million in the United States.
When combining the streamer with Amazon’s other owned and operated entertainment properties such as Twitch, MGM Studios, Wondery and Amazon Music, the tech giant’s entertainment portfolio reaches an average monthly ad-supported audience of more than 300 million.
The 2025 presentation marks Amazon’s second-ever TV upfront. Last year, the company reportedly secured over $1.8 billion in advertiser commitments following its inaugural event.
In addition to Amazon, other companies that have wrapped their upfront talks for the 2025-26 season include NBCUniversal, Fox, Disney, TelevisaUnivision and Netflix.
When asked about the upfront during their second quarter earnings call, Warner Bros. Discovery chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels acknowledged that the company had concerns going into the year due to macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, but that the ad market “held up very well.”
“We’ve seen prices up across all categories, more so in sports than in general entertainment. On the digital side, there is some price pressure, but we’ve maintained a very strong price premium for the quality of inventory that we’re delivering,” he explained. “So net-net, I’m very happy with the outcome.”
Overall, ad dollars committed to broadcast primetime fell 2.5% to about $9.1 billion and cable fell 4.3% to nearly $8.68 billion, according to Media Dynamics Inc., which tracks upfront spending. Meanwhile, streaming rose 17.9% to $13.2 billion. The total value of upfront commitments rose 5% to nearly $31 billion.
