On Monday afternoon, FOX held its annual Upfront event at the Manhattan Center to showcase its growing portfolio of sports, entertainment and news content. The event was standing-room only, and included a surprise appearance from new Major League Baseball analyst Derek Jeter. As the headliner for this year’s event, Jeter stood alongside NFL analyst Michael Strahan and expressed his excitement about joining the FOX Sports team.
“I love the sport,” Jeter said. “I’ve been part of Major League Baseball for 30 years, whether it was as a player, owner or executive. I want that to continue. Then you watch the FOX Sports Team [and] they have a blast. When they reached out and asked me to be a part of it, I couldn’t wait to do it.”
Jeter most recently served as chief executive officer of the Miami Marlins, a role he worked in for four years where he helped make key business decisions to grow the team and foster a connection with the local community. Additionally, Jeter launched The Players’ Tribune in 2014 and helped amplify the voices of professional athletes and connect them with fans, an early foray into the “new media” movement permeating sports media today.
Shortly thereafter, Jeter was joined on stage by his former New York Yankees teammate and current MLB analyst on ESPN and FOX, Álex Rodríguez. Strahan asked about his excitement in adding Jeter to the deep lineup of analysts.
“I played with Derek for almost 15 years,” Rodríguez said of Jeter. “He brings his five-championship pedigree to FOX. I think this October is going to be incredible.”
FOX Sports also highlighted its prime NFL package, America’s Game of the Week. It will be the home of must-see matchups, including a clash between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving and a Christmas Day battle between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles. The network welcomed a new primary broadcast team of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen into the fold last year, and reported an average Super Bowl LVII viewership of 115.1 million households – making it the most-watched television program in American history.
The 2023 NFL regular season is the first of a new, 10-year media rights deal, and FOX highlighted that it will broadcast a total of nine Dallas Cowboys games over the eighteen weeks of play.
“Cowboys games are the most powerful hours of content in television every single year,” NFL on FOX sideline reporter Erin Andrews told the audience.
Rob Gronkowski, who began to make regular appearances with the NFL on FOX throughout the regular season and the playoffs, spoke to the crowd about the importance of commercials following a presentation where the network touted the size of its audience and viewership numbers. In fact, FOX reported a total reach of more than 225 million people and an accumulated 347 billion minutes of content watched across its platforms.
“I can always be myself no matter what the situation is, and you know this is my kind of crowd because I love commercials,” Gronkowski said. “I think everyone in this room has called my agent just a few times.”
Gronkowski, of course, received notoriety for his live “Kick of Destiny” commercial with FanDuel, which promised to give its bettors a share of $10 million in bonus bets if he made a field goal kick. Unfortunately, he missed the kick and was chided for it by FOX Corporation’s President of Advertising, Sales, Marketing and Brand Partnerships, Marianne Gambelli.
“How did you miss that kick at the Super Bowl last year?,” questioned Gambelli. “Come on – seriously, you cost me money.”
Gambelli mentioned the vision of FOX Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch of creating a company focusing on live sports, premium entertainment and news. She subtly addressed Netflix – which chose to cancel its in-person upfront presentation and opted for a fully virtual experience instead – along with Paramount Global which is not holding an upfront event altogether.
“We didn’t cancel. We didn’t move out of upfront week,” Gambelli said. “We’re here for you.”
Much of the event was centered around Tubi, an ad-supported streaming service and over-the-top content provider (OTT) that experienced a 44% growth in viewership year over year. The platform delivered during Super Bowl LVII, amassing over 1 billion views on TikTok, 4.2 million video views minus TikTok and generated 6.8 billion potential impressions.
“Tubi is the No. 1 AVOD in the US, and they’re just getting started,” said FOX Sports host Charissa Thompson. .We’ve just heard about the connections Tubi builds with its users. Connection with audiences is what FOX is all about.”
Podcasts produced by FOX Sports, Outkick, FOX Entertainment and FOX News Media were also in the spotlight. The catalog averages 30 million monthly downloads in the United States and contains over 100 titles – including Undisputed, Hot Mic and Flippin’ Bats. According to measurements from Podtrac, FOX Audio Network ranks 10th in unique podcast listeners.
At the start of the event, Strahan appeared alongside celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay where there was no shortage of explicit language as attendees eagerly anticipated announcements and showcases of what is to come. FOX unveiled a variety of new content in its entertainment division; however, it has yet to release its schedule, which it will reportedly do on June 6. Yet there were two broadcast dates to be announced – both in college football.
Andrews revealed that FOX will broadcast Deion Sanders’ debut as head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes in the team’s matchup against the TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday, Sep. 2. Additionally, FOX will bring viewers the traditional college football clash between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, Nov. 25. Kickoff times for these matchups have not yet been revealed, but both are likely to be part of Big Noon Saturday, which is the top window across all of college football with ratings that continue to rise.
Amid the ongoing acquisition of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) and Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc., no mention of WWE Friday Night Smackdown was made at Monday’s event. The current media rights deal between FOX and the WWE expires after 2024, and there have reportedly been no conversations regarding an extension. Additionally, the WWE was not included in the network’s slate of new programming this fall, some of which includes a new music guessing game show, the return of Kitchen Nightmares and a celebrity holiday “bricktacular” on Lego Masters.
The sports portion of the event also included an appearance from Carli Lloyd, an analyst for the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023. Lloyd was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team and played a pivotal role in the team winning two FIFA Women’s World Cup championships in 2015 and 2019. She recently worked with FOX Sports as a studio analyst on soccer coverage, including the international FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament.
“The growth of women’s soccer has been amazing, largely due in part to what we did in 2015 and 2019, and with the coverage and the support of FOX,” Lloyd said. “America loves a winning team and [we] captured, in my opinion, two of the greatest World Cups that have been won. It was truly amazing. Let’s see if they can do a three-peat.”
Over the course of the 55-minute presentation, there were multiple occurrences where the crowd did not seem into it, much to the chagrin of Andrews who threatened that they would not get to drink at the bar afterwards. As Andrews concluded the event, FOX Sports analysts Michael Strahan, Rob Gronkowski, Álex Rodríguez and Derek Jeter received the loudest ovation of the day when they began tossing autographed baseballs and footballs to the crowd, capping off a presentation with few announcements about new programming. There is seemingly more to come amid the Writers Guild of America strike, uncertainty with the WWE and hints of an increased move into the digital space. Nonetheless, FOX looks to build off of a record year of viewership and continued growth in the digital sector as it gears up for Super Bowl LIX and the prime time debut of impending NFL on FOX analyst Tom Brady.
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
