Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor In a tough moment for the economics of TV, NBCUniversal went to market with a greater emphasis on big tentpole events and a little less on individual TV shows and specific networks.
The Comcast-backed media conglomerate believes advertiser interest in larger properties such as the 2024 Olympics, a planned celebration of the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” and its annual “BravoCon” helped buoy its efforts in TV’s annual “upfront” market, when U.S.
media companies try to sell the bulk of their advertising inventory ahead of their next cycle of programming. NBCU expects the volume of commitments it sold this year to be flat with its efforts in 2022, according to a person familiar with the matter — no small feat when advertisers have been wary of spending amidst spikes in inflation, fears of a recession and the complexities of strikes by writers and actors in Hollywood.
NBCUniversal expected to secure more than $7 billion in advertising commitments across its portfolio in 2022. In an era when advertisers are mindful of viewership declines for linear TV and spikes in the audience for streaming video, the focus on bigger properties makes sense, says Mark Marshall, interim chairman of global advertising and partnerships for NBCU, in an interview. “A few years ago, if someone wanted to go after that Bravo audience, we would negotiate what percentage of primetime, what percentage of daytime they were going to get for their 30 second commercials.
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