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Disney’s upcoming Super Bowl broadcast is already scoring big ahead of the annual TV upfront.
Heading into the ABC and ESPN broadcast of Super Bowl 61 on Feb. 14, 2027, it’s a slightly different buying market for potential Super Bowl advertisers, with Disney having its first Super Bowl in two decades. Because of that, there’s potentially more opportunity for advertisers to get in the game.
Typically, Super Bowl broadcasters have a large portion of ads accounted for early in the year due to incumbent advertisers claiming their slots in the game, with as much as 40% of ads already earmarked from companies like NBC or Fox by the time the upfront market gets into high gear in May. However, with Disney not having a game in years, there are more slots available, which changes the strategy for Big Game ad sales.
“I realize we haven’t had a Super Bowl in 20 years, but the reality of Fox and NBC having 40% of the units sold out or demand against it because of incumbencies—it is unbelievable the amount of asks we have to be part of the Super Bowl even before we get to the upfront,” Rita Ferro, president of global advertising at Disney, told ADWEEK. “We’ve been very thoughtful in terms of how we’re talking to brands.”
Disney is selling ads as one broadcast across ESPN and ABC, as it does with Monday Night Football games, which will help provide reach across its platforms. And the company wants those ads to be the highest quality possible.
“People weren’t super dazzled with the advertising in the [last] Super Bowl. That was a lot of the buzz around it,” Ferro said. “We want to make sure that there’s a variety of advertisers in the show, but also advertisers who are thinking about the creative because it’s really important as we work with our partners at the NFL to make sure that it reflects the audiences that are watching, and those are diverse audiences across many products and categories.”
Ferro said it’s “not only major marketers” making the asks, with new and up-and-coming businesses also interested.
“Whether they’re AI companies, technology companies, small businesses that are now trying to make a splash for themselves in that window,” Ferro said. “Just based on the asks from brands, of, ‘Hey, I want to be part of the Super Bowl. What can I do there?’ I think you’re going to see that in terms of what our lineup looks like from an advertiser base.”
Heading into Disney’s May 12 upfront presentation, the Super Bowl will be the crown jewel of its offerings; however, the company also has several other priorities and tentpoles ahead. Ferro previewed what Disney has in store.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What can you tell us about early Super Bowl negotiations?
I’m not going to share much, other than to say we have a lot of demand, and there are some businesses done already, but we are, as you can imagine, in active conversations. I’m sure it’s no surprise. When you have the Super Bowl, there are a lot of people who want to have conversations with you early. So we’re having those conversations with brands and with our agency partners to make sure we get to a good place with everybody who wants to be part of the show.
Along with the Super Bowl, what are the priorities you have heading into the upfront?
This year, we are going to have four of the biggest moments across the entertainment and sports space, that usually sit across four different companies. We have the College Football Championship, which we’ve always had. This year, we will have the Grammys, they’re coming to ABC. We will then have the Super Bowl, and a couple weeks later, we will have the Oscars. So in a matter of six weeks, we will have four of the largest live culturally defining moments on television across our Disney platform.
That’s everything from ESPN, ABC, Disney+, Hulu, all of our platforms. And so those are big moments for brands to come and be part of driving culture conversation in entertainment and music, but also in sports.
It’s a lot of live opportunities, which are something brands are clamoring for amid increasing fragmentation.
Live content and storytelling across our platforms is a driver of culture and conversation, and we have so much of that across so many of our shows. When you think across our entertainment lineup historically, not only award shows but also when you think of things like American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, etc. And then you have all of that across sports, not only football.
The reality is, just because we now have the NFL Network and RedZone for linear, plus all of our college football and our NFL, 40% of the football impressions that are going to be in market next year are at the Walt Disney Company.
Wow. Yeah, 40% of football impressions is huge.
That’s a really powerful message that we want to make sure brands understand and can take advantage of in a way that is different and exciting. There are new properties with the NFL Network and everything that the NFL Network will be as part of our ESPN platform. You can imagine the extent to which that will actually only get better, and the opportunity to do things with RedZone. Last year, brands were all over it. I was talking to the team yesterday. They were like, “Oh my God, we have a waitlist of people who want to be part of that.”
Where do you see the biggest area of advertiser growth this upfront season?
Streaming continues to be an incredible focus and opportunity for us. We are the leaders in ad-supported streaming. There’s no question. Hulu, Disney+, ESPN Unlimited—huge platforms, huge audiences, huge engagement. And we want to make sure advertisers are feeling great about being there and what the value is as part of that advertising opportunity.
Obviously, we’re going into a huge sports year for ESPN. I couldn’t be more excited to have the Super Bowl as part of everything we’re bringing to market. But I’m super excited we’re the exclusive home for the NBA Finals. We are the exclusive home for the College Football Playoffs and Championship Game. We have MLB TV, which is new to the platform. We have NFL Network and RedZone. Some of the best golf and tennis in the business. There’s NHL. This year, we have the Stanley Cup.
We’re very excited about what that continues to be, and will continue to be, to drive fandom across our Disney platform.
Can you talk about your strategy around fandom?
That’s the theme for next week’s show. Because fandom is what our movies drive, what our sports drive, our shows. Think about All’s Fair. Think about Love Story. The fandom that’s created around the series from Ryan Murphy. We’re going to have some exciting announcements from him next week, too. There’s just so much to talk about on that stage.
We have had extraordinary movies across our theatrical studios, and those movies are coming to Disney+. We are excited for brands to be part of those stories when they come to the platform.
Speaking of the stage, you’re going to have 3,700 people attending your event, and it’s your fourth year in the Javits Center. Do you see Disney coming back for next year’s upfront?
We will be in the upfront until there’s no upfront. If Disney’s not in upfront week, why would you do an upfront week? That’s how I look at it. There is no storytelling for upfront week that is more exciting or no stage that people want to go to. And the number speaks for itself. I don’t think anyone else has 3,700 people showing up for their presentation at upfront week. And that’s a testament to the incredible storytellers across our company and the richness and diversity of our platforms that advertisers want to be part of.
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