NBCUniversal closed a record-breaking 2025-2026 upfront season on Tuesday, with ad commitments increasing nearly 15% year over year across its broadcast offerings, including news, sports and entertainment. It also touted its largest digital upfront and strongest sports upfront in history, though it offered no hard numbers. “This year, we went to the market earlier than ever to strategically align our powerful content slate with our clients’ goals,” NBCUniversal global advertising and partnerships chairman Mark Marshall said. “The response has been extraordinary, and we are incredibly grateful for our partners’ trust and collaboration.” According to Marshall, NBCUniversal’s portfolio engages 286 million people on a monthly basis. The company’s new 11-year media rights deal with NBA contributed to a 20% increase in new clients compared to the 2024-2025 season and a 45% year over year increase in volume. Over 25% of NBCUniversal’s NBA advertisers will be new to broadcast this year. In addition to the NBA, the Milan Cortina Olympics, Super Bowl LX and the FIFA World Cup drove record volume, outpacing all three of the property’s combined previous benchmarks. Telemundo experienced its best upfront to date, already exceeding the revenue for the previous World Cup with over 10 months until kickoff. Bravo represented nearly 20% of the company’s entire entertainment demand across broadcast and cable, BravoCon attracted record-breaking interest across all key categories and prompted returning sponsors to commit larger investments to secure category exclusivity and elevate creative activations. Peacock saw an over 20% year over year increase, representing nearly a third of the media giant’s total upfront commitments, while Versant saw a nearly 10% increase in clients investing in its brands. The company brought in nearly $1 billion in programmatic advertisements and saw record revenue growth across categories including retail, restaurants, auto, travel, and financial services – with all of them growing by approximately 12%. NBCU also said nearly 60% of ad investments were being made against “advanced audiences.” It also generated 30% “net-new small-medium business (SMB) clients” during the upfront. NBCUniversal sold its entire portfolio across linear and streaming under its One Platform banner. It also struck an agreement to continue representing Versant though the next two upfront cycles.