Future of TV Briefing: The upfront glossary, 2026 edition

TV and streaming advertising’s upfront cycle has its own patois. Everyday words like “flexibility” and “fluidity” take on new meaning. And each upfront sees certain buzzwords come to the fore. So on the eve of this year’s annual haggle, which officially kicks off with next week’s presentations in New York City, here’s a brief guide to what people are talking about when they talk about the upfront.

Agentic AI

An AI tool equipped to make decisions and complete tasks. In the context of the upfront, this likely refers to AI agents assisting buyers and sellers with negotiation prep, like analyzing data and making planning recommendations. It’s unlikely to refer to ChatGPT or Claude hammering out deal terms and cancelation options, though I’m all ears if that turns out to be the case.

Co-viewing measurement

The count of how many people are in a room when a TV or streaming program or ad plays on a TV screen. Because there’s currently no deterministic way to count exactly how many people were in every room in which a show, sporting event or ad aired, co-viewing measurement is just taking some sample of viewers and projecting them across the entire audience base. You know, like panel-based measurement.

Currency

The measurement metric(s) used as the basis for transactions between ad buyers and sellers. Historically, this has referred to Nielsen’s Gross Ratings Point metric that gauges how many people may have seen a brand’s ad on TV, but it can also apply to other types of measurement. For example, since Google sells search ads on a cost-per-click basis, clicks are the currency for search advertising.

Dynamic ad insertion

A method for carving up ad slots to show different ads to different audiences. This usually means a given brand tailoring ad creative to show a warm-weather version of an ad to people in California and a cold-weather version to folks in Minnesota. But it can also mean taking that single ad slot and opening it up to multiple advertisers so that Jack in the Box can advertise to the Californians and Whataburger advertises to the Texans.

Flexibility 

A pliable term that most concretely refers to cancelation options, i.e. the terms allowing advertisers out of some portion of their upfront commitments. That usually means advertisers being able to cancel X% of their quarterly ad spend commitment up to Y days before the quarter begins. Upfront deals are pretty firm by nature, but the nature of the economy since 2020 has spurred ad buyers to seek out ways to loosen their commitments in case “macroeconomic headwinds” intensify.

Fluidity

Another supple expression to describe ad sellers’ abilities to move campaigns – and by extension, ad dollars – between inventory sources. This is most useful for media companies with traditional TV and streaming ad inventory given the decline of traditional TV audiences and growth of streaming viewership.

Order

The actual upfront deals. As the name implies, these are the pen-to-paper annual commitments that advertisers and agencies make to TV and streaming ad sellers after the initial escrow-like “registration” period (see below).

Outcomes

Business outcomes, to be exact. The tangible results – such as in-store traffic, sales lift, etc. – a brand can attribute back to the ads it ran on a TV network or streaming service. One day upfront deals could be transacted against outcomes – making outcomes a currency – but for now, they are secondary measurements meant to help marketers gauge the impact of their ad buys.

Registration

The initial upfront agreements. These are effectively pre-deals between upfront sellers and agencies over how much money the agencies will commit to spend with a TV and/or streaming company over the following year and how much money the seller will charge for those ad placements.

What we’ve heard

“The data from the API allows you to underwrite a creator the same way you’d underwrite any other media placement.”

— Precisify’s Christian Dankl on YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API

Numbers to know

$9.88 billion: YouTube’s ad revenue in the first quarter of 2026.

$613 million: Roku’s ad revenue in Q1 2026.

$546 million: TelevisaUnivision’s total ad revenue in Q1 2026.

38.5%: Percentage of Paramount-WBD that will be owned Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.

700,000: Number of streaming subscribers that Paramount added in Q1 2026.

1 million: Estimated number of subscribers that Roku’s ad-free streamer Howdy has.

-51,000: Number of pay-TV subscribers that Charter lost in Q1 2026.

What we’ve covered

Some micro influencers find promising security in brand ownership over sponsorships:

• Instead of compensating creators through traditional payments or gifting, some companies are starting to push equity deals, or ownership-driven partnerships.
• Sweat equity is gaining traction, but it’s a long-term, high-risk play and scarcer for mid-tier and micro creators.

Read more about micro influencers’ brand deals here.

YouTube’s creator data play is an on-ramp, not a destination:

• The platform’s Creator Partnerships API, announced at the NewFronts earlier this spring, opens up creator performance data to a select group of third-party ad tech companies for the first time.
• Creators can opt out of being included entirely, and brands must actively opt in.

Read more about YouTube’s creator data play here.

Inside the current state of generative AI in the creator economy:

• Platforms are cracking down on AI generated content and adding tools to protect creators.
• Some creators are using AI in place of creative teams.

Read more about generative AI in the creator economy here.

TikTok recreates its ads for billboards through Vistar partnership:

• TikTok is no longer asking brands to repurpose their mobile content for billboards, it’s building the billboard creative from scratch.
• Rather than a simple copy-and-paste version of a TikTok ad appearing on a big screen, brands use Vistar’s in-house creative studio, to explore how to recreate their app ads in different environments.

Read more about TikTok’s out-of-home strategy here.

Baller League knows not all creator fans are equal:

• The six-a-side indoor soccer league has creator-managed teams stream free on YouTube and Twitch.
• The league is averaging over four million views on matchday live streams, according to its organizers.

Read more about Baller League’s creator strategy here.

What we’re reading

Amazon’s outcomes-based upfront pitch:

Amazon is pouncing on “outcomes” being one of this year’s upfront buzzwords by pitching measurement upgrades like Prime Video Insights, according to AdExchanger.

Roku’s outcomes-based pitch:

The CTV platform has signed deals with retailers, including Best Buy, Instacart and Kroger, for advertisers to evaluate their campaigns against business outcomes, according to Variety.

AMC’s upfront pitch:

The recently renamed AMC Global Media used its upfront presentation to tout a deal to make AMC+ availabel through Meta’s VR headsets, according to Adweek.

Netflix’s TikTok-style feed:

The streamer has added a TikTok-style feed of vertical short-form clips to its mobile app to promote shows and movies on the service, according to The Verge.

CW Sports’ ESPN streaming deal:

ESPN gets around 800 hours of sports programming — including college football, WWE and NASCAR — and The CW gets to sell the ad inventory, according to Variety.