Upfronts week is all about talking a big game, and YouTube closed it out eager to talk the biggest.
The platform hosted its annual Brandcast event Wednesday evening for the second consecutive year at Lincoln Center—but this year, the stage, the scene, and the brand promises were much grander. As YouTube celebrates its 20th anniversary, it spent as much time talking about its history as it did its future, with the platform now ranked the No. 1 streaming platform in terms of watch time two years in a row, according to Nielsen.
“YouTube has become the epicenter of culture,” CEO Neal Mohan told the audience. “But what comes next is even more exciting…This isn’t about YouTube becoming more like traditional TV, this is about TV becoming YouTube.”
Mohan pointed to YouTube’s creator series, gaming livestreams, sports content, podcasts (of which the platform has 1 billion monthly listeners), and music videos as evidence of its wide-ranging content and cross-screen influence. Perhaps there was no better example of its cultural pull than the closing act of the night: a no-holds-barred set from Lady Gaga, the first artist to reach 1 billion views on the platform.
Keep on uploading: Building off last week’s NewFronts event, YouTube continued to emphasize its creator connections during the presentation, beginning with a red carpet pre-show outside Lincoln Center featuring creators Haley Kalil and Julian Shapiro Barnum. Creator Brittany Broski kicked off the event inside as host, and MrBeast, Sean Evans of Hot Ones, and IShowSpeed were brought onstage during the presentation to discuss their podcasts and video series.
Sporty spice: Like just about every other presentation during this year’s upfronts, sports were emphasized as a key selling point. For YouTube, the big announcement came in the form of the 2025 NFL kickoff game in Brazil between the LA Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs, which was announced by Mohan and celebrated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell onstage later in the show. (Goodell also made an appearance at Netflix’s upfront just a few hours earlier.) Former NFL players Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman were also present to participate in one of MrBeast’s tug-of-war challenges.
News you can use: YouTube announced new advertising options for brands to seize on its pitched cultural and streaming dominance, including:
- Cultural moments sponsorships, which allow advertisers to place ads at the top of searches related to cultural moments like the Oscars or Black Friday, in addition to creator takeovers
- Peak points, which use Google’s generative AI tool Gemini to identify the most important part of a video and place ads immediately after
- Redesigned, full-screen Masthead ads on the YouTube homepage
- And new CTV shopping options, like a “send to phone” feature where consumers can continue browsing products on mobile using a QR code
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How Bad Do U Want Me? While Lady Gaga stuck to her more recent songs (plus “Shallow”) in her set, her closing performance pushed forward the theme of new and enduring legacies. She certainly wasn’t the only one there living for the applause, ’plause.
“The energy in this room and what you just saw outside is really a testament to what we’ve built at YouTube over the past 20 years, and the next 20 promises to be even more transformational,” Mohan said. “We can’t wait for you to join us as we shape the future of entertainment and culture together.”