The overall market is down, but Fox is up.
Fox has won more deals for its sports, news and entertainment businesses than last year, despite expectations that advertisers’ budgets will be tighter than usual as Madison Avenue puts pressure on TV’s annual “upfront” ad sales market, according to people familiar with recent negotiations.
The person said that even though commercial ad buys related to scripted entertainment on the Fox broadcast networks were flat with last year’s totals, Fox was able to capture double-digit growth rates in ad volume related to both Tubi and Fox News Channel, and “record” amounts of sports and news. Overall, advertising commitments across Fox’s broader portfolio increased by a high-single-digit percentage, the person said.
“Fox delivered another strong performance on Upfront, reflecting the value of our portfolio across sports, news, entertainment and Tubi,” Jeff Collins, Fox’s president of advertising sales, marketing and brand partnerships, said in a statement. During the “upfront” period, U.S. media companies attempt to sell large portions of their commercial inventory ahead of the next programming cycle.
The key to Fox’s success? Unlike its competitors, the company has more of what advertisers want and less of what advertisers don’t want. Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery have sports to sell as well, but they also have large amounts of ad inventory tied to cable networks like TNT, E!, MTV and Freeform, which has waned the attention of marketers. Advertisers are rushing to raise money for big tent (and even small tent) sports television broadcasts that are watched by large audiences at the same time. Advertisers are also seeing value in streaming, which allows more consumers to watch their favorite videos on their own time.
Fox sold FX and other assets to Disney in 2019 in a deal estimated to be worth more than $71 billion and shed its cable assets. Since then, FOX has devoted more resources to live programming such as news, sports, and spectacle, leaving only a small portion of its schedule devoted to traditional entertainment programming.
Fox set aside nearly $6.9 billion in advertising spending in fiscal 2025, according to company disclosures.
Fox impressed advertisers in May with a direct showcase of its interest in sports and digital advertising capabilities. The company brought Chief Technology Officer Melody Hildebrandt to the stage. This is unusual in a format that has long been dominated by executives who control drama and comedy. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch also spoke publicly, something no member of his family that controls Fox has done in the recent or even distant past.
Fox’s previous results were supported by additional commitments from pharmaceutical marketers, technology advertisers and financial services companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Eight of the company’s 10 highest-spending advertising categories have increased market commitments, the person said.
Like its rivals, Fox faced a tough market in 2026. Ad buyers once again demanded significant “reductions” in fees, especially for streaming inventory that is seen as representing the future of media. The supply of streaming ad time is huge, especially in the Amazon and Netflix markets, but much of that time is not considered high value to advertisers as consumers watch movies and shows on demand whenever they want. This means that the audience at any given time is usually quite spread out.
There is also pressure to shrink cable inventory as more consumers abandon cable contracts in favor of streaming services. Many media companies are resisting, leading to a stalemate in some preliminary talks, according to five executives familiar with the current negotiations.
A person familiar with Fox’s preliminary negotiations said that Fox had “never written about a rollback.”
Fox was able to secure a rate increase of 1,000 viewers, known as the “CPM,” which is key in the annual haggling between media companies and Madison Avenue. According to the person, Fox was able to capture CPM increases in the mid-single-digit to low-double-digit percentage range for sports and in the mid-single-digit percentage range for Fox News and Fox Entertainment schedules.
Many of the major video companies will be forced to use sports and other big-ticket properties to try to shift advertising sales tied to less desirable properties. A person familiar with the negotiations with Fox said Fox had a “simple story” to tell and only had a “small and limited amount” of traditional scripted TV programming available for sale. The company “does not need to continue negotiating to obtain fair value for cable entertainment.”
