From VAB roots to AI futures: covering the Upfronts

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If it’s your first time here: I don’t just recap headlines. I try to decode what they mean, why they matter, and how they might reshape the way we work.

Legacy to Leading Edge

That's my mom in the top-middle. When I was a kid, she helped co-found the Cable Advertising Bureau, now know as the Video Advertising Bureau. She believed video deserved better measurement, more accountability, and real industry advocacy.

This week, watching the Upfronts unfold, I realized: we’re still fighting that same fight. Only now, the battleground isn’t Nielsen ratings. It’s AI, content signals, and proving that what someone is watching matters just as much as who they are.

That’s what we’re building at Qortex: technology that closes that loop.

Here’s the full story I shared on LinkedIn →

Talk soon,

Zack Rosenberg Get in Touch about engineering outcomes from video!

Upfronts 2025: What Stood Out

Let’s be honest no one came for the measurement panels. They came for the spectacle. But if you read between the showmanship, a few things were clear:

🏈 Live Sports Still Rule the Kingdom

NFL games made up 95 of the top 100 shows last year. Netflix doubled down with exclusive Christmas Day games (yes, Goodell wore a Santa suit), while YouTube and Amazon staked claims on their own high-profile streams. → TL;DR: If you want reach, you still need the NFL.

📺 Streaming Has Grown Up

Netflix's ad-supported tier jumped from 40M to 90M users globally in one year. Amazon’s ad-tier? Now at 130M in the U.S. Even Max is walking back its “rebrand for rebrand’s sake” decision to better reflect how people actually watch.

🎬 Star Power Drives Buzz

Charlize Theron hyped Old Guard 2. Bateman and Jude Law plugged Black Rabbit. Netflix leaned into culture with its now-signature swagger: “Welcome to the center of attention.”

👀 Context Is the New Premium

What used to be called “prime time” is now a floating target. And while fragmentation makes scale harder, it makes alignment way more valuable. That’s why understanding content not just audience is becoming the new differentiator.

The Rest of the Week in Ads

📉 Microsoft Shutters Xandr DSP Microsoft is officially winding down Xandr Invest, its DSP, in favor of focusing on AI-powered tools. → Big tech isn’t trying to fix programmatic—they’re sidestepping it. Full story →

🤖 Amazon Leans Into AI-Generated Creative Amazon introduced new interactive CTV ad formats and generative ad tools—just in time for its Upfront presentation. → Expect other platforms to follow suit, especially as performance scrutiny rises.

📈 Netflix by the Numbers

• 90M global users on the ad tier

• 41 hours of monthly viewing per user

• Claims to reach 50% of U.S. 18–49-year-olds → That’s real scale. And it’s why advertisers are now treating Netflix like a TV network, not just a streamer.

💡 Programmatic Marketing Summit Highlights Digiday’s event emphasized what we’ve all been feeling:

• Retail media is overhyped

• AI is under-explained

• First-party data is the new arms race → Translation: buyers want clarity, not just buzzwords.

Other Signals Worth Watching

• Google is testing ads inside chatbots. You knew it was coming.

• Reddit’s ad revenue is beating expectations. Authentic UGC with real signal? It’s having a moment.

• Measurement fragmentation is a boiling issue. Everyone’s got a dashboard, but no one has the truth.