TV advertisers are well familiar with the “Upfronts,” events where broadcast television stations showcased their up-and-coming shows and seasonal line-ups to media and advertisers in order to secure advertising for premium primetime slots. The Upfronts have been around since 1962. But the NewFronts are gaining in momentum.
Much like their counterpart, the Upfronts, the Newfronts are a way to draw in advertising dollars. Media companies present their digital content over a series of events in May to a select audience of advertisers. Publicis Groupe’s Digitas is credited with creating the first “NewFront” in 2012. It was billed as a “programmatic upfront” event, and AOL, Digitas, Hulu, Google/YouTube, Microsoft Advertising, and Yahoo!, the largest players in the game at that time, joined in to host. Today, leading media publications such as Adweek, Digiday and Ad Age give as much weight to the Newfronts as they do the Upfronts.
Did you know that the average TV viewer in 2021 had 5 or more streaming subscriptions?1 If you look at the graph below, that number has steadily increased since 2018. This is probably due to both more streaming options becoming available and the increase of culturally relevant and prestige TV being offered exclusively through streaming services.
Take, for example, the viral Netflix docuseries, “Tiger King.” The show was exclusively on Netflix and spawned a flurry of memes, media commentary and is currently being adapted into a dramedy starring SNL’s Kate McKinnon. Hulu exclusive, The Handmaid’s Tale, is also a pop culture mainstay. With passionate voters on both sides of the aisle invoking it to illustrate their political concerns.
The ultimate point being that in 2022, consumers need access to some kind of streaming service in order to participate in pop culture. The same just cannot be said for broadcast television in this particular moment. Just as the number of streaming subscribers is consistently rising, the number of people canceling their cable subscriptions is steadily increasing. In 2019, 4.9 million people canceled their cable subscriptions and in 2020, 5.1 million followed suit. Experts predict that around 5 million will “cut the cord” in 2022.2 CTV is also the preferred channel for younger consumers. With studies finding that nearly all Americans aged 25-34 access TV content through the internet and 90% of them prefer to stream content.3
Someday there might not be a difference between the two. The rise of CTV and streaming services means that the wall between the two forms of entertainment might fall. In fact, it’s already started. Streaming giant Hulu announced they would participate in the Upfronts, instead of the Newfronts in 2022.4
In 2021, advertising revenue reached $52.9 billion for non-linear video achieved across CTV devices5 and companies are looking to grab their share of the pie in 2022.
Want to learn more about how to advertise on CTV and get your brand noticed? Download our CTV advertising playbook and sign up for our CTV webinar on June 15th.
1 https://thestreamable.com/news/the-average-viewer-in-2021-had-5-or-more-streaming-subscriptions 2 https://www.zippia.com/advice/cord-cutting-statistics/ 3 https://techjury.net/blog/cord-cutting-statistics/#gref 4 https://www.adweek.com/convergent-tv/disney-upfronts-week-return-virtual-event-hulu-exits-newfronts/# 5 https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/02/streaming-ad-spend-grew-57-in-2021-reaching-15-2b-market-to-more-than-double-from-2020-to-2022/ 6 https://chart-na1.emarketer.com/256129/streaming-platforms-which-us-brandadvertising-professionals-allocating-upfront-spending-april-2022-of-respondents 7 https://variety.com/vip/newfronts-recap-2022-key-trends-1235260778/
As Content Marketing Manager, Natasia is responsible for helping strategize, produce and execute Data Axle's content. With a passion for writing and an enthusiasm for data management and technology, Natasia creates content that is designed to deliver nuggets of wisdom to help brands and individuals elevate their data governance policies. A native New Yorker, when Natasia is not at work she can be found enjoying New York’s food scene, at one of NYC’s many museums, or at one of the city’s many parks with her two teacup yorkies.