Amid what has been described as a tepid “upfront” market, Amazon says its Prime Video service was able to notch gains in volume as more advertisers gravitated to sports and streaming.
The digital giant “has closed our Upfront negotiations with all major holding companies for the 2026–27 season,” says Alan Moss, vice president of ad sales for Amazon Ads, in a statement released Wednesday morning. The executive says Amazon was able to sustain “year-over-year growth from new and existing advertisers,” but did not quantify whether any increases in volume were robust or less so. The executive also says Amazon left the upfront “exceeding our volume goal,” but did not describe what that was.
During the media industry’s annual “upfront” market, U.S. media companies try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory ahead of the release of their next cycle of programs. Media buying executives describe this year’s market as tepid, and with spending potentially flat in several areas.
Two programming formats that got a lot of attention, however, were streaming and sports. Amazon has a lot of both.
Moss said “advertiser demand was fueled” in part by sports programs such as “Thursday Night Football,” “NBA on Prime,” and NASCAR as well as originals including “The Greatest” and young-adult titles such as “Off Campus” and “Overcompensating.”
