With NBA playoff action fully underway -- and advertisers currently paying higher prices for that programming -- some believe that an expected soft TV upfront advertising market set to commence soon might look better for legacy TV media-owned networks that own premium sports content in the 2024-2025 TV season.

“We are excited that the upfront is talking about sports,” says Jon Diament, executive vice president of advertising sales for Warner Bros. Discovery -- which along with ABC/ESPN shares the TV rights for the NBA playoff games.

Diament adds: “The sports marketplace is unique and quite healthy right now.”

How healthy? In response to a pricing question -- specifically for that of NBA playoff game action climbing by double-digit percentages from a year ago -- Diament says: “CPMs [cost per thousand viewers] pricing is up, and is primarily because of the high sellout levels that can garner a premium.”

This may have the effect of boosting upfront ad pricing in a marketplace set to commence in a few weeks -- which typically is focused on scripted and unscripted entertainment and other programming.

Higher current pricing for sports overall, says Diament, “is because more inventory has been sold in the upfront in multi-year deals as opposed to just seasonal deals.”

Because of “cord-cutting,” advertisers have scrambled to find solutions for lower TV reach, pushing them to now include higher-priced sports content -- as well as including more connected TV/streaming ad inventory.

Traditionally, sports TV deal-making has had its own TV ad marketplace, which occurs before a specific TV sports league’s season starts. Currently, for Warner Bros. Discovery sports-focused networks, Diament says: “We are virtually sold out in our playoffs.” 

On the flip side, traditional upfront TV marketers say big consumer packaged-goods companies that don’t traditionally buy sports for most of their brands targeting an audience of women and families are now considering buying into sports programming. This would be in addition to those male-oriented brands that do buy sports TV.

For example, consumer product companies -- Procter & Gamble, for its Gillette brand, and Unilever, for its Axe brand -- are traditional male-centric brands that get exposure on sports TV programming.

Now, Diament sees other brands from those companies also buying into sports programming through upfront deals.

Diament says this is especially true now with growing advertising interest in women's sports TV viewing. With regard to legacy TV networks sales efforts, according to analysts, they will need all the help they can get this year in what is expected to be a softer upfront ad marketplace.

For this upfront market, one veteran industry analyst, speaking with Television News Daily, estimates total upfront volume to be down by around 5% with CPMs pricing somewhat stagnant, perhaps inching up 1% or so from a year ago.

Last year the combined broadcast/cable TV 2023-2024 upfront advertising market had an estimated revenue of $19.1 billion, according to Media Dynamics -- down 5% from the upfront market the year before.

In addition, streaming platforms -- owned by those media companies that also own broadcast/cable networks -- posted a sharp 31% increase to $8.03 billion. For the total 2023-2024 TV upfront marketplace, there was a 3% gain to $27.1 billion.