YouTube is an anomaly in the TV upfronts: Unlike other networks and streamers, it doesn’t present a big slate of new programming to whet Madison Avenue’s appetite for buying ads.
Instead, YouTube touts scale others can’t match. And to underscore the claim that the platform drives culture, it invited a bunch of personalities to this year’s YouTube Brandcast upfront presentation to wow the crowd — including Lady Gaga, who brought down the house with a rollicking five-song performance; MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson), YouTube’s most-followed creator; vlogger and podcaster Brittany Broski; Sean Evans, host of “Hot Ones”; and gaming streamer IShowSpeed. Also on hand: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who talked up the league’s deal for YouTube’s first free livestreamed NFL game next season.
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As far as monetizing the zeitgeist, YouTube’s biggest news Wednesday was the announcement of a new sponsorship package for advertisers to buy against major cultural moments such as the Oscars, Emmys and other awards-season events, as well as Black Friday post-Thanksgiving shopping and the PGA Championship.
“Today, YouTube has become the epicenter of culture — culture with a capital ‘C,’” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said in his introductory remarks at the upfront. In a nod to musical guest Lady Gaga, he said YouTube is the place to not only watch her “Abracadabra” video but also videos breaking down exactly how to do the dance moves.
It’s the fourth year running that YouTube’s Brandcast has crashed the TV upfronts, which it held again at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall in New York City. The pitch-fest comes as YouTube has been celebrating its 20th birthday this year.
In other news, YouTube also showed off a new “immersive” masthead for connected TV ads, coming later in 2025, which will give brands a “cinematic” edge-to-edge canvas for ads, said Sean Downey, Google president of Americas and global partners. It also announced a new ad format built with its Gemini AI model to identify and match ads with contextually relevant “peak moments” in popular YouTube content when audiences are most likely to be engaged.
SEE ALSO: YouTube Says It Now Hosts More Than 20 Billion Videos
Another new feature coming to YouTube is the ability to shop directly on connected TVs with an interactive product feed. Powered by the Google Merchant Center, the CTV shopping experience lets viewers discover and purchase directly from their living-room TV. That builds on YouTube’s current CTV ecommerce offering which includes QR codes and send-to-phone functionality.
As announced Tuesday, YouTube will exclusively stream the NFL’s first Friday game of the 2025-26 season, to be played in São Paolo, Brazil, for free worldwide (with the exception of Canada and a few other countries). It’s the first NFL game that will be livestreamed by YouTube, coming after the platform has been the U.S. home of the league’s Sunday Ticket out-of-home subscription package for the past two seasons.
Goodell announced that the Sept. 5 free game on YouTube will feature the L.A. Chargers hosting the Kansas City Chiefs. Also appearing at YouTube Brandcast were former New England Patriots players Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski.
Before the Brandcast presentation, YouTube produced a red carpet preshow co-hosted by YouTube creators Haley Kalil and Julian Shapiro-Barnum of “Recess Therapy.” Additional creators and talent walking the carpet included Adam W, Casey Neistat, HopeScope and Jordan Howlett.
According to Nielsen, YouTube has been No. 1 in streaming watch time in the U.S. on TV sets for more than two years running — ahead of Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon’s Prime Video — as of March 2025. And in February and March, YouTube was the top media company based on watch time across broadcast, cable and streaming in the U.S. on televisions. In the first quarter of 2025, TVs surpassed mobile to become the primary devices for YouTube viewing.
Gaga capped off the evening with a performance of four songs from her new album, “Mayhem” — “Abracadabra,” “Perfect Celebrity,” “How Bad Do U Want Me” and “Vanish Into You” — and her Oscar-winning “Shallow.”
Lady Gaga performing “Shallow” at YouTube Brandcast in NYC tonight pic.twitter.com/p2ENMKLeHB
— Todd Spangler (@xpangler) May 15, 2025
SEE ALSO: YouTube at 20: How the Video Colossus Launched the Creator Economy and Turned From Hollywood Foe to Friend
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