Tallying Digital Video Spending at the Upfronts

The amount of money committed to digital video ads during the US TV Upfronts and Digital NewFronts season will reach $3.64 billion in 2018, according to new estimates from eMarketer.

That's a 25.4% increase over last year. Upfront video spending will further grow by 20.6% in 2019, eMarketer projects.

The upfront spending data is highlighted in a new eMarketer report, "Q2 2018 Digital Video Trends: Monetization, Audience, Platforms and Content," which also digs into subscription revenues, new audience estimates, and video content trends.

Upfront dollars make up a considerably smaller share of total US digital video and rich media ad spending compared with TV, noted Paul Verna, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the report.

"The TV Upfronts have been ingrained for decades as a marketplace for primetime TV ad inventory," he said. "Buyers get a discount on ad rates in exchange for making upfront commitments to TV networks."

By contrast, the digital space is more fluid and unpredictable, he said. Shows don’t have regular schedules or uniform lengths, and a large portion of ad inventory is transacted programmatically.

eMarketer Live: Digital Video Advertising—Best Practices

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On the latest episode of eMarketer's "Behind the Numbers" podcast, Paul Verna discusses video ad spending trends plus other key developments in the video ad market.