NEW YORK — Hollywood jack of all trades Seth MacFarlane opened NBCUniversal’s 2025 Upfront Presentation at Radio City Music Hall on Monday (May 12) the only way he knows how: with a profanity-laced song-and-dance show tune. The creator of “Family Guy” and the “Ted” franchise took shots at competitors Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Max and Paramount, boasting that NBCU has the stuff advertisers are after and remains “the only place where the content doesn’t suck.”
The rest of NBCU’s upfront looked to make good on that promise, laying out a mammoth year in content that includes sports, scripted TV, reality shows, major films and an advertising-focused competition show hosted by Jimmy Fallon. With the first presentation of upfronts week, the media conglomerate looked to put itself in pole position among media companies.
“The media landscape is more fragmented and competitive than ever, and you need partners who can reliably produce great content and meet the audience where they are in order to earn a share of their time, their attention and wallets,” said Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal, on stage.
Among the content highlights are the return of the NBA to NBC, featuring new special contributor Michael Jordan; a live “Wicked” special in November; and a six-hour variety special to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary. To meet the audience where they are, NBCU again focused on Peacock, the company’s streaming service that — unlike competitors such as Netflix — was built with advertisers in mind since its launch in 2020 at the peak of the pandemic.
“We’ve invested in the technical infrastructure to support our competitive zones of performance, security, reliability and consumer experience to ensure that your brands are part of our success,” said Langley.
There’s no place like NBCU
Amid a star-studded lineup that included Snoop Dogg, Tracy Morgan, Keke Palmer, NBA star Victor Wembanyama and plenty of on-screen talent, perhaps no one had more fun than Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising and partnerships. In a pre-recorded video, the executive dropped in to properties, including “Love Island,” before descending on-stage like Glinda in an homage to Universal Pictures’ smash hit “Wicked.”
“When you’re allocating where are you going to put your dollars, there’s only one ad chief that was in the rafters of Radio City, risking his own life,” Marshall deadpanned. “So you decide where the money should go.”
After joking that NBCU had solved the tariff issues in advance of the show — nodding to the morning’s development of a rollback of U.S.-China tariffs — Marshall noted that in a time of economic headwinds, brands that stay on the air are 98% more likely to retain their customers.
That wasn’t the only statistic on display. NBCU’s reach will grow to 286 million people a month this year, with over 95% of that reach backed with advertising and consumers watching 99% of those ads to completion. Plus, advertisers will still be able to reach NBCU and its spun-off cable channel entity, recently named Versant, through one sales team and the company’s OnePlatform offering.
“Whether it’s our sports content, our movies, our trusted news or any of our entertainment programming, this isn’t just about one day, one big show, one big event,” Marshall said. “This is a canvas to tell your brand story, and this is what drives $1.4 trillion of consumer spending every single month.”
‘The greatest month in sports history’
Live sports have remained a focus of media company offerings and advertiser budgets, as they represent one of the last bastions of video viewing across TV, streaming and mobile devices. Along with the return of the NBA to NBC (alongside iconic theme song “Roundball Rock,” performed at the presentation by composer John Tesh), the company is preparing for a February 2026 sports slate that includes Super Bowl 60, the Winter Olympics and the NBA All-Star Game — a period the company believes will be the greatest month in sports history, according to Karen Kovacs, president of advertising and partnerships at NBCU.
“Over that next two-year period, we’ll own nearly 40% of big event viewership in the U.S.,” Kovacs said in an interview ahead of the upfronts. “We think we’re really tremendous at storytelling at NBCU… Clients have seen how we tell these stories, and they want to be a part of the major moments.”
While NBCU did not host its annual technology showcase, the company is continuing to develop tech-driven solutions so that it can turn TV into a performance media channel. Along with offering Versant through OnePlatform, NBCU last week expanded its partnership with full-funnel marketing agency Tinuiti with a new collaboration around first-party data strategies. Plus, parent company Comcast this year launched a Universal Ads platform that looks to bring the next 100,000 buyers of TV into its ecosystem.
“Media and tech are converged now,” Kovacs said. “Our ad-tech capabilities are really integrated to everything we do, and we’re going to continue to infuse that technology offering throughout the year.”
