Chris Brooklier

Published June 3 It’s been a records-setting season for the NBA, and the momentum is rolling straight into the finals. The playoffs have drawn its largest audience in 28 years and the regular season delivered the highest viewership in 24 years. The second round of the playoffs drew its largest audience in 29 years. A combination of factors has driven those results.

TV built its empire on reach. Now it must prove its impact. Enter outcomes. They were on full display as the core tenet of virtually every upfronts presentation, from NBCUniversal to Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery. WBD is even partnering with Paramount, Fox, NBC and others to provide standardized outcome data across linear and streaming TV. The TV networks know there’s strength in numbers. By collaborating, they hope to build credibility and trust with advertisers around measurement.

Netflix’s advertising ambitions are going even more global. It’s expanding its ad plan to 15 new countries in 2027, the streaming giant announced at its upfront event on Wednesday. Viewers in Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Indonesia, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Thailand will be added to the 12 countries where the plan is currently available.