Pre-upfront talks at CES reflect increasing optimism—and competition—in ad-supported streaming

For decades, marketers have made the pilgrimage to Las Vegas for CES each January for a number of reasons. Among them: They just can’t wait for upfronts season.

With many media companies, brands, and agencies gathered on the strip, it’s inevitable that they’ll discuss advertising plans for the year ahead, and CES serves as a logical place to hold pre-upfront talks. Last year, economic uncertainty clouded those conversations. This year, the tone was brighter.

“The vibe check around our partnership discussions has gotten increasingly optimistic,” SVP of Disney Advertising Sales Wendell Scott told Marketing Brew at CES.

Other media execs agreed, citing not only a more positive vibe in their pre-upfront talks, but also a focus on maturing ad formats and measurement options, as well as increased competition in the ad-supported streaming space.

“Halftime with streaming”

One reason for the optimism during this year’s CES conversations was the fact that last year’s anticipated recession never really came to be. Recession or not, the ad-supported streaming space at the beginning of 2024 was even more crowded compared to a year ago: Last January, Netflix with ads was in its infancy, while Disney+ didn’t announce its ad-supported streaming offering until March. And while ads still haven’t hit Amazon’s Prime Video, its own ad-supported tier is set to go live by the end of this month.

Last year, “advertising was not a major point of discussion” for Prime Video, Andrew Bennett, the company’s VP and head of global video partnerships, said before the conference. This year, he said it would be “the focus of our advertising conversations with partners.”

While there were more voices in the pre-upfronts mix at CES, more competition also means it’s increasingly difficult for the big media companies to “overperform” in the streaming space, according to Chris Vollmer, a managing director at media and marketing consultancy MediaLink.

The competition seems to have sparked some ad innovation. Shoppable ads are becoming more popular across platforms, including Peacock, and ahead of last year’s NewFronts, Roku opened its Roku City screensaver to brands. Advertisers are starting to be more proactive about trying new formats like that, Kristina Shepard, Roku’s VP of global advertising sales and partnerships, told us at CES.

“We’re at the halftime with streaming where, up until this point, everyone we work with is mostly doing whatever they did in traditional TV on streaming,” Shepard said. “We’re like, ‘But there’s so much more that you can do here.’”

(Measuring) cup half-full

Given the maturity of the streaming space compared to early last year, perhaps it’s no surprise that data and measurement were at the forefront of many CES conversations this year. If CES is marketing’s “agenda-setter” for the year, as Vollmer said, then the industry can expect more movement on that front in 2024.

Disney put on its annual Global Tech and Data Showcase in person at the conference this year, whereas last year it was shot from studios and held later in January. The event is known as Disney’s own upfront preview, and hosting it in person makes for a more bubbly atmosphere (not just because there were glasses of champagne floating around).

The company focused largely on ad tech, like its first shoppable ads for streaming, clean rooms, programmatic capabilities, and new measurement partners. Meanwhile, NBCUniversal, which has used CES in previous years to roll out updates to its audience-based ad buying options, unveiled its own AI-powered media planning tool during the tech show this month.

For Shepard, measurement often dominated her conversations at CES, and she noted that it’s been a bit of an obstacle with clients in past years.

“Clients want standardized measurement; that’s been a hurdle for streaming,” Shepard said. “They’re so used to the interoperability and standardization of linear. It’s a big priority of ours to partner more with VideoAmp, and Comscore, and all these different providers.”

The increased emphasis on measurement and automation in the streaming space is a response not just to what advertisers are used to on linear TV, but also on digital platforms like Google and YouTube, where automation in ad buying and selling is more common, according to Kevin Krim, president and CEO of measurement company EDO.

“That is where most of these people are starting from as their default now, and if you can’t make it easy and effective inside of their workflow, inside of how they like to do business, then you’re going to, on the margin, lose share to people who make it easier,” Krim said. “Smart players like Disney are getting ahead of that. Amazon is in an incredibly strong position. Netflix is in a strong position, though they have a lot of growth to go.”