Why the Upfront has become a performance decision

For years, the Upfront was a reach-buying exercise. Brands committed early to lock in pricing, secure inventory, and guarantee access to tentpole programming before the scatter market tightened. Price and access were the whole game.

That’s changing.

Ahead of the 2026 Upfront season, JamLoop surveyed 120 brand and agency marketing leaders about how they’re approaching premium live-event CTV. The results point to a clear shift: marketers no longer treat the Upfront as a reach play. They treat it as a performance decision.

The money is moving, but the reasoning has changed

73% of marketers plan to increase their Upfront allocations in 2026. The drivers are familiar on the surface—premium live inventory, especially sports and tentpole events, and concerns about rising CPMs and marketplace volatility.

67% cited price protection against projected CPM increases as a primary reason for committing early. Nearly half (49%) said locking in access to premium live inventory is now a priority.
That part tracks with how the Upfront has always worked. Premium live inventory is one of the most valuable environments in media, and the cost of waiting for scatter keeps going up.

But the bigger shift isn’t about price. It’s about what marketers now expect the spend to deliver.

Live-event CTV is no longer just a reach buy

More than half of respondents (52.5%) said they view live-event CTV as capable of driving both brand awareness and performance outcomes.

That’s a real change for the category. For decades, TV was bought on reach and judged on exposure. Streaming made it possible to run TV on results, and marketers are catching up to that reality faster in the live-event space than most people realize. They want premium audiences and measurable business impact—calls, visits, appointments, sales—from the same dollar.

Measurement is the unlock

The survey makes one thing clear: marketers want to spend more, and they’re waiting on the industry to give them a reason to.
68% said they would increase their investment further if premium live-event CTV offered stronger proof of business performance. 31% said they’re prepared to significantly grow spend if measurement providers can better bridge the gap between live audiences and bottom-line impact.

Read those numbers together and the message is direct. The appetite is there. The accountability gap is what’s holding it back.

The operational concerns track with that same theme. 27.5% of respondents identified limited flexibility once plans are locked in as their top concern, followed by rising CPMs and inventory transparency. Marketers don’t want to commit to a year of spend with no visibility into what it’s driving and no room to adjust.

What this means for Upfront 2027 and beyond

The Upfront isn’t going away. Premium content and large-scale audiences still matter, and committing early still makes sense when the alternative is a tighter, more expensive scatter market.

But the bar has moved. Marketers want transparency about where ads run and who they reach. They want flexibility to optimize as campaigns play out. And they want measurable outcomes tied to real business performance—not just delivery reports.

The platforms and partners that can deliver all three will win the next phase of Upfront growth. The ones that can’t will keep losing share to the ones that can.

As JamLoop CMO Jeff Fagel put it:

“The Upfront is shifting from a buying mechanism to a data decision. Marketers are committing earlier to secure premium live inventory, but they’re demanding more than access. They want transparency, control, and measurable outcomes tied to real business performance. The future of Upfronts will be defined by platforms that can deliver all three.”

See what your Upfront spend actually drives

JamLoop connects streaming TV exposure to real business outcomes—online and offline. If you’re planning your 2026 Upfront commitments and want to see how premium live inventory can drive measurable performance instead of just reach, request a demo and we’ll show you where your ads run, who they reach, and what those campaigns actually drive—market by market.

From screen to store. That’s where the next Upfront gets decided.