Disney Bundles Grammys, Super Bowl, Oscars for Brands
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Rita Ferro, Disney's president of global advertising, previewed the company's May 12 upfront presentation in New York, where she will pitch big brands on bundling Disney's live event lineup.
- Disney will leverage four consecutive tentpole events in early 2027: the college football championship, the Grammys (moving to ABC on Feb. 7, 2027, after more than 50 years on CBS), the Super Bowl (on ESPN and ABC for the first time in over 20 years), and the Oscars.
- Ferro said those four events "would normally sit across four different companies," arguing that concentrating them in one portfolio is a driver of engagement and fandom "no one has really brought to market before."
- The upfront mood is better this spring than last year, when the Trump administration's tariff campaign hit during upfront presentations and made brands cautious, per Ferro; she noted 2025 turned out "pretty strong" with a robust October–December quarter.
- The scatter marketplace continues to move but isn't the most robust it's ever been, with advertisers placing "fewer bets" but concentrating them in confident, long-standing platform relationships during periods of uncertainty, Ferro said.
- Disney is also leaning into the creator economy alongside its live-spectacles push, framing both as core to its company-wide pitch to advertisers.
Why it matters: Disney is the first company to control the college football championship, Grammys, Super Bowl, and Oscars in a single early-year window, giving it an unprecedented cross-platform ad pitch at a moment when brands are returning to the market after a tariff-spooked 2024 upfront. For advertisers, the bundling compresses four of the year's largest guaranteed audiences into a one-stop Disney buy — and the strong October–December 2025 scatter quarter Ferro cites suggests the caution that defined last year's cycle has largely cleared.
