
At this year's upfront, brand safety was an important topic to media buyers and advertisers, but it wasn't emphasized by the networks, according to a new study by Advertiser Perceptions.
Andy Sippel
The study found other differences between what was important to buyers who attended this year's upfront and newfront presentations and what was said from the stages of Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and other venues.
Despite the disconnect, the networks had one of their best upfront market, with most network getting percentage price gains in the teens and volume increases at a time when viewership is shrinking.
The market operates on its own supply and demand dynamics, noted Andy Sippel, executive VP at research company Advertiser Perceptions. And of course everybody looks smart when the market is strong.
According to the Advertiser Perceptions study, the most important topics for advertisers attending the 2019 upfront were audience reach, composition and engagement, return on investment and return on spending, brand safety, integrated solutions and viewability and strategies to ensure ads are seen and cross platform measurement..
For the 2018 upfront, many of the same issues were top of mind among buyers, with ROI/ROS at the top of the list, followed by audience reach, cross-platform measurement, brand safety and better ways to measure advertising effectiveness.
Marketers still love TV. They believe it still moves the needle on brands and sells product. But they're really worried about declining reach, said Sippel. The need reassuring that they're making smart investments.
Sippel said that his marketer clients said what they wanted to hear was an eat your vegetables message.
Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for WarnerMedia
But what the buyers said they heard emphasized by networks executives speaking at their upfront presentations were integrated solution on TV, digital and mobile screens, technological innovations like apps and virtual reality, audience reach and composition, strategic partnerships and branded entertainment and other marketing capabilities.
They didn't provide a big enough signal to the marketers that they hear them and they understand them and they want to help solve their problems. That's what comes through for me in the research, Sippel said.
A year ago, the networks did a better job in addressing buyers concern. Topics emphasized at the upfronts, according to the 2018 survey were brand safety, data-enhanced TV buying, audience reach, composition and engagement, commercial loads and the power of TV as an ad medium.
Standing up on stage and talking about audiences and ROI is really not the kind of thing that dazzles, Sippel said. Those things are really best tackled in face-to-face meetings, and these guys do talk about it in the face-to-face meetings.
Sippel said that most buyers still seem to see value in the expensive upfront presentations, even if the speakers on stage don't always address their primary concerns. They get to network with their colleagues. They get out of the office. They go to a party or two. I creates some excitement around the industry, he said.
Advertisers do appear to be buying the media company strategy of getting bigger to be able to provide their customers with greater scale. In the survey, said that when it came to what influences media selection, the strength of a conglomerates portfolio was cited by 38% of those responding compared to 20% who said it was the power of individual media brands.
Sippel said that marketers like increasingly bigger media companies because those bigger media company can provide reassurance that they'll get the reach they need and be less risk.
When they're making investments in the television market, they're able to buy the portfolio and spread their chips around, he said.
For its study, Advertiser Perceptions interviewed 395 marketer or agency executives in May and June. The executives were responsible for spending at least $5 million on TV or $1 million in digital video.
North America Stories
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
21/07/2026
In a time of disarray in regional sports broadcasting, the league will provide c...
21/07/2026
When NEP designed one of its largest recurring mobile production unit fleets for PGA TOUR
coverage, the leading media services provider faced a familiar challe...
21/07/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery's unbroken lead is interrupted as sports and live mus...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/07/2026
Across the TV and streaming ecosystem, industry players face mounting pressure to do more with less. They must simplify operations, protect premium content and ...
21/07/2026
Tuxera, a leading prover of quality-assured file systems and networking technologies, is bringing its latest advances in connectivity performance to the media w...
21/07/2026
COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
HIRING: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP ...
21/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, will use its presence at IBC2026 (stand 7.A01, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) to...
21/07/2026
Calrec will be located in Hall 8, on Stand C47
Beyond bigger
For years, broadcast facilities were built around one assumption: provision for the biggest pro...
21/07/2026
Pebble, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, will discuss its future-facing developments for the new generation of medi...
21/07/2026
nxtedition returns to IBC2026 with its consolidated production platform, showing how scripting, editing, graphics, AI-assisted tools and automation can work wit...