Netflix has closed its 2025 upfront negotiations, with overall commitments more than doubling — in line with internal expectations. The company declined to provide hard numbers.
The streamer touted year-over-year growth in key categories such as retail, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications, health & wellness, entertainment and technology. Its 2025-26 slate includes the final season of “Stranger Things,” new seasons of “Bridgerton,” “Emily in Paris,” “Nobody Wants This” and “Running Point” and the untitled Will Ferrell-led golf series.
It also said it has sold out all available in-game inventory for its pair of NFL Christmas Day games and closed sponsorships for the event with partners including Accenture, FanDuel, Google and Verizon on in-game and broadcast features. Additionally, Netflix will partner with DoorDash as the presenting sponsor for the 2025-26 season of “WWE Raw.”
In May, Netflix revealed that its ad tier, which accounts for over 50% of new sign-ups in the 12 markets where its available, surpassed 94 million monthly active users. The company raised the price on the ad tier for the first time in January to $7.99 per month.
Netflix’s in-house ad-tech platform has also rolled out in all markets where the ad tier is available. Additionally, the company previously unveiled new interactive midroll and pause ad formats incorporating generative AI, which will be available by 2026 in all ad-supported markets, and inked partnerships with Yahoo DSP, iSpot, Australia’s OzTAM and Kantar IBOPE Media.
The company continues to expect that it will roughly double ads revenue in 2025 as it scales its ad-supported offering.
“We are committed to building a long-lasting ads business that not only drives impactful return on investment for our clients but also offers an entertaining and relevant experience for our members around the world,” Netflix ad president Amy Reinhard said in a statement. “As we head into our third year of business this fall, we can’t wait to continue to deliver a must-buy opportunity with leading technology centered around our must-watch Netflix series, films and live events.”
Netflix is the latest to close its upfront negotiations. TelevisaUnivision touted “historic” volume driven by its ViX streaming service, which recently surpassed 10 million subscribers globally. However, overall volume was flat compared with the previous year.
Disney, which touted increased sales in sports and streaming, also saw overall volume consistent with the previous year. Streaming accounted for over 40% of total upfront volume, while sports ad volume across linear and addressable hit nearly $4 billion.
Fox exceeded $2 billion in upfront revenue on core properties, excluding the World Cup, representing double-digit growth year-over-year. It also saw Tubi’s volume of upfront ad dollars committed grow by 35% year-over-year.
NBCUniversal saw a 15% increase in commitments across its broadcast offerings, including news, sports and entertainment, and touted its largest digital upfront and strongest sports upfront in history, though it offered no hard numbers.
Peacock saw an over 20% year-over-year increase, representing nearly a third of the media giant’s total upfront commitments. The company’s new 11-year media rights deal with the NBA contributed to a 20% increase in new clients compared to the 2024-25 season and a 45% year-over-year increase in volume. Over 25% of NBCUniversal’s NBA advertisers will be new to broadcast this year. Bravo represented nearly 20% of the company’s entire entertainment demand across broadcast and cable and Versant saw a nearly 10% increase in clients investing in its brands.
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.
