This year’s Upfront season is all about self-actualization. Not for any one of us as individuals but for our industry.
With AI ushering in a new era for marketing and advertising, we’re no longer chasing the bare necessities of media — wading through unwieldy spreadsheets, hunting for individual data points. Modern marketers can actually pursue the higher-order optimizations that move business forward.
This was central to our reimagined hierarchy of business needs — in line with Maslow’s famous pyramid — and why we decided to offer agencies free access to investment-grade, TV Ad Intelligence through ChatEDO™, our agentic AI interface. It’s all about making the gruntwork easy, so we can spend more time solving strategic problems that require human ingenuity. And as expected, it seems to have upset the status quo.
After the teasers of great new programs and their famous stars at the Upfronts presentations, we expect to hear conversations about how all of us can unlock the extraordinary potential of our creative and media might with new AI tools — combining outcomes, optimization, and the thrilling TV moments that inspire us every day.
Here are three trends to watch at the 2026 Upfronts.
1. Outcomes Take the Stage by Storm. Just Make Sure They’re the Right Kind.
We’ve been focused on outcomes measurement longer than anyone in TV, and we’re thrilled that so many are now making it a real priority. Ahead of this year’s Upfronts, the calls to make TV marketing accountable to its stakeholders are reaching a fever pitch. But don’t just take it from me…
- Adweek recently reported that “adtech professionals at Possible largely agreed that advertisers are increasingly demanding measurement — and in some cases, pricing models — calibrated according to outcomes.”
- Amazon’s VP of Global Ad Sales, Alan Moss, told Campaign that “delivering measurable outcomes” is a top priority among his clients.
- And WBD’s Ryan Gould told Ad Age that his organization is “evolving from being great at selling inventory and impressions to delivering impact and driving outcomes.”
Of course, outcomes measurement only delivers when it’s done correctly. Marketers must ask: Are my partners measuring the consumer behaviors that are proven to predict sales, or are they relying on non-outcome attitudinal metrics or (potentially worse) claiming credit for sales that would have happened anyway?
That last point is critical to underline — you should insist on incremental, ad-driven outcomes. Any partner that cannot articulate how they show incrementality should be suspect. And these metrics must be fast and predictively stable enough to optimize at the speed of programmatic and streaming. If they’re not, you could be falling victim to another pretender hopping on the latest trend.
And you certainly won’t have the confidence to leverage this next (and most exciting new) trend…
2. The “Easy Button” Continues to Transform Advertising. Check the Ingredients on Your Optimizer.
AI-powered automated optimization is powering swaths of programmatic — and has the potential to take Convergent TV into the future, enabling advertisers to purchase premium video with the same targeting and outcomes optimization we’ve become accustomed to in digital. It’s the “Easy Button” for TV advertising.
EDO’s clients have been doing outcome-based planning and optimization for many years now, but it’s been largely manual. That’s changing thanks to innovation from many partners and parts of the ecosystem. Amazon Ads has been growing rapidly with its outcomes focus and its powerful DSP optimizer. FOX’s new AdStudio is giving clients real-time, cross-platform insights and enabling them to deliver the optimal message at the right moment. And Paramount’s Precision+ is delivering AI optimizations and recommended plans in real time. The more TV’s adtech stack evolves, the closer TV gets to the elegant, self-perpetuating ROI of search and social.
3. Live Sports Are the Center of Everything
Live sports have long been the centerpiece of the Upfront season, across linear and increasingly streaming. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The upcoming World Cup on FOX, Telemundo, and Peacock is expected to send streaming ad rates through the roof — and our team is excited and ready to measure the impact. When we spoke to our friends at Disney at Possible, they were rightfully fired up about their first Super Bowl of the streaming era. And a whole host of partners — Disney, Amazon, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Versant, and Scripps — are eagerly anticipating what could be the biggest WNBA season yet (welcome to New York, Satou!).
Media — and everything else — might be fragmenting around us, but there’s more than just media value in the (sports) moments that bring us all together. And for me, there’s also The Bear.
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By the time you read this, you might be in line outside of a famed NYC venue, or logging into a live feed to see what your favorite network or streamer has planned. Our team is with you, and we’re looking forward to watching our partners — on both sides of the table — move our industry closer to its full potential.
And if you’re landing in New York this week, let’s make plans to catch up. Our team would love to grab a drink, talk shop, and show you how ChatEDO™ can get your teams further up Maslow’s pyramid this season.