🎬 YouTube at the Upfronts

Please silence your Disney stock alerts.

YouTube walked into the 2025 TV Upfronts, looked around at NBC, Disney, and the rest of the TV crowd, and basically said,
“Yeah, this is cute.”

No sitcom slates.
No bundles.
Just a flex.

Analysts now think YouTube might out-earn Disney in ad revenue this year.
Turns out people actually like watching creators yell into cameras on their living room TVs.

Meanwhile, traditional networks tried to make “programmatic flexibility” sound exciting.
YouTube just pointed to the scoreboard.

🤖 Amazon’s AI Ad Magic

Now streaming mid-episode mind-reading.

Amazon just announced its new Prime Video ad system.
The twist? It uses AI to analyze what’s happening in the scene and drops in context-aware ads.

Rom-com kiss? Boom — perfume.
Car chase? Boom — energy drinks and sneakers.

No cookies. No personal data.
Just a robot that knows what you’re feeling and sells accordingly.

This is personalization without asking permission.
The robots are officially writing the commercials now.

📈 Video Ad Spend Goes Brrr

Advertisers to wallets: you good?

Video ad spend is projected to hit $72.4 billion this year.
That’s up 14% from 2024.
And approximately $72.4 billion more than you spent on your TikTok strategy.

Where’s it all going?
To CTV, YouTube, TikTok, and anything else people stare at while dinner gets cold.

Retail and CPG brands are leading the charge.
Because when your fridge is smarter than your media buyer, you better be advertising in video.

🎁 Shareables

Unboxing the multiverse.

A creator unboxed a vending machine.
Inside it? More vending machines.
Inside those? Products.
Probably containing even smaller vending machines.

It’s the content equivalent of a dream within a dream.
It’s ridiculous. It’s brilliant. It’s viral.
And it works because people just want to see chaos they don’t have to clean up.

Watch the madness.

We are living through the most expensive game of “Guess What Works,”
And somehow YouTube, Amazon, and a guy unboxing vending machines are all winning.

Make something smart.
Make something dumb.
Just make sure it moves.
And maybe add a robot voiceover for good measure.

📩 Forward this to someone who still thinks Upfronts are a cable-only club.

Also…get some more people to follow our shenanigans 👉 SUBSCRIBE

🚀 See you next week,
REEL BASIC TEAM