Hot Takes: What We Learned At The Upfronts And NewFronts This Year

Every year the Upfronts and NewFronts offer clues as to what the coming year in television might bring. Especially, as was evident this year, the difference between the two gets harder and harder to discern. 

To help us better understand what was going on, we turned to our TVREV Thought Leaders Circle members for their takes. 

First up was Tony Marlow, Chief Marketing Officer, LG Ad Solutions, who focused in on the rise of CTV, both the content and the advertising. 

The key takeaway from this year’s NewFronts and Upfronts is clear: the CTV-first era has arrived. First for viewers, drawn in by world-class content across streaming platforms. And now for marketers, who recognize CTV as the most powerful way to connect on the biggest screen in the home.

This year’s events reinforced what the industry is already feeling. Great content brings people in, and smart, relevant advertising is now a seamless part of that experience. The brands winning today are those showing up with creativity, purpose, and relevance.

Craig Chinn, SVP of Advertising, Americas at TiVo took us to the home screen, where TiVo is turning content discovery into a prime ad opportunity.

The Smart TV home screen is quickly becoming prime inventory — not just for reach, but for real viewer engagement. For Pay TV operators, TiVo effectively serves as the de facto operating system — and that gives us a unique advantage. We’ve always prioritized viewer experience, and our legacy allows us to present content in a way that feels intuitive and curated. Our current advertising focus is exclusively on media and entertainment, which means what viewers see on the TiVo home screen isn’t noise — it’s discovery. For advertisers, that creates a powerful opportunity: visibility in a premium, content-first environment at the exact moment a viewer is actively looking for something to watch. In today’s attention economy, that kind of contextual relevance and intent is incredibly valuable.

Drew Kane, Chief Transformation Officer, Prisma by Mediaocean zeroed in on attention as the new currency—and how buyers and sellers need smarter tools to follow it.

Attention has our attention. With an ever-expanding range of offerings, those which garner the most attention win, extending beyond measurement to insights, supply chain efficiency, and return on investment. From a Mediaocean standpoint, the challenge and opportunity is discerning what delivers the best value to our buy side customers and publisher partners so we can focus our attention on the right noise over the white noise.

Daniel Spinosa, President of Premion spotlighted how local agencies are getting national-level tools—and why unified buying is key to future growth.

Coming off the Upfront season reinforced one big truth: the future is CTV‑first, with choice, convenience, and control at its core. Consumers have fully embraced streaming for the freedom it offers, and advertisers now expect that same flexibility—whether through managed services or programmatic buying—to optimize spend and performance across channels.

At Premion, we’re unlocking local CTV growth by giving small and regional agencies the tools once reserved for national players: precision targeting, advanced attribution, and streamlined workflows that put choice and control directly in their hands. And as omnichannel strategies become the norm, our “one buy, one report” model makes cross-platform execution and measurement—across CTV, linear, digital, and beyond—seamless. It’s all about delivering unified, full‑funnel solutions that drive real outcomes.

Michael Scott, VP, Head of Ad Sales and Operations, Samsung Ads laid out why performance is now table stakes—and how Samsung Ads is closing the loop between TV ads and real-world results.

The biggest takeaway coming out of this year’s NewFronts is that performance has become a table stakes expectation for TV advertising, and it’s now clear that brands and advertisers want more than just reach and awareness. They’re looking for measurable outcomes like retail conversion, website visits, app engagement, and brand consideration, and that demand for accountability is reshaping how campaigns are planned, bought, and evaluated.

 As a result, at Samsung Ads we’re focused on delivering solutions that connect the scale and impact of premium TV with real, trackable results. Whether it’s through new ad formats, commerce-enabled experiences, or advanced measurement, our goal is to close the gap between impressions and conversions. That’s the standard moving forward—and it’s where we’re investing.

Paramount Advertising took aim at the flash-over-substance mindset, emphasizing that scale without strategy is just noise—and that premium today is all about outcomes and innovation.

Scale without strategy is just noise. The future of advertising isn’t about who can throw the biggest party, it’s about who can have the most meaningful conversation. Premium isn’t just about star power or splashy sizzle reels; it’s about measurable outcomes and innovation.

Matt Van Houten, SVP, Product, Operations, and Business Development, DirecTV Advertising honed in on the role of creative innovation, stressing that the future belongs to marketers who can evolve not just the message, but the medium.

Creativity isn't just about what we say, it's about how, where, and when we say it. For example, innovation in ad formats like pause ads can turn an otherwise empty moment into a unique way to spark a connection. The future of marketing belongs to those who can creatively evolve not just the message, but the medium. 

John Ganschow, CEO of StreamLayer made the case that certainty sells—and why predictable, in-show formats are winning over buyers tired of experimental pitches.

The biggest takeaway from this year’s Upfronts? Certainty sells. Media buyers are done experimenting – they want guaranteed, measurable impact in streaming environments. For us at StreamLayer, that means doubling down on in-game and in-show ad formats that deliver guaranteed exposure at key moments, not just contextual relevance.

It’s not enough to say, “We can trigger ads when something interesting happens.” Advertisers want to know how often, how it looks, and how it performs – especially when those ads are shoppable, interactive, and built to drive action.

So we’re turning our AI-powered units – like Player Spotlights, Trivia, and Game Insights – into sponsorable modules with predictable delivery and lower-funnel accountability.

Abbey Thomas, Chief Revenue Officer, Anoki broke down the rise of FAST—and how smarter, AI-powered contextual targeting is turning CTV into a precision game.

What do David Letterman, 50 Cent, and The Bachelor all have in common? They each have their own FAST channel — a testament to how rapidly the FAST ecosystem has evolved. If the NewFronts were any indication, this format is no longer on the sidelines. It’s surging — driven by economic uncertainty, subscription fatigue (farewell White Lotus), and breakout moments like Tubi’s Super Bowl spotlight. With cable now reaching fewer than half of U.S. homes and legacy players consolidating, CTV platforms with full-service FAST ecosystems are emerging as the next wave of winners. But the real challenge — and opportunity — lies in navigating the complexity and competition for ad dollars.

Advertisers aren’t just looking for more inventory — they’re seeking smarter ways to connect with the right content and context. That’s where AI-driven, multimodal solutions come in. By analyzing video, audio, metadata, and on-screen signals, platforms can move beyond static, genre-based buying and instead surface moments that truly align with brand messaging. Contextual targeting, dynamic brand safety, and scene-level intelligence are becoming the new standard. The platforms that win will be those that don’t just serve content — they understand it, and use that insight to drive more effective and creative outcomes for advertisers. 

And Field Garthwaite, CEO, IRIS.TV drove home the demand for real-time transparency—and why content-level signals are now critical in a post-identity world.

What we're hearing from advertisers who attended this year’s Upfronts is that advertisers are no longer satisfied with show and episode reporting with no ability to plan or target against that data. They’re demanding real-time transparency and accuracy at scale. That’s why our focus this year is expanding the adoption of our content ID, the IRIS_ID, which is increasingly in demand from leading advertisers. In CTV where identity signals aren't as valuable because smart TVs are shared devices, content is the most important signal for targeting consumer mindset and driving outcomes from media buys.

Our TVREV take: tariffs aren’t the only reason for the massive uncertainty in the industry. (Though they certainly are not helping.) 

We are at a crossroads right now and everyone is waiting to see how it all shakes out: which SVOD services (Amazon aside) are able to draw in substantial numbers of ad-supported subscribers (in the US, anyway), who is going to merge, who is going to fold.

The mass of ad inventory is still on linear and no matter how often we hear it’s either dead or the province of the poor and the elderly, it’s still a cash cow. Linear works in other countries, Europe in particular, adding to the sense that death may be premature… or are we just keeping the body on life support?

It’s all contributing to a lingering sense of uncertainty, which is why our best advice is to watch carefully, know all your options and get ready to jump when the time is right.