The upfront market ended up being stronger than many expected thanks in large part to networks that utilized data-optimized targeting (advanced TV).

What is advanced TV? Advanced TV is the optimization of traditional linear TV ad buying against customer data (CRM, etc.) versus traditional age/gender demographics.

A few examples from the upfront market:
1) Turner (Audience Now): +100%
2) Fox (Audience Insights Manager ): +40%

Advanced TV targeting through set-top-box data has been around for 5+years but has recently built adoption and scale.

Roughly 10–15% of linear TV advertising is transacted currently against customer data. Most of the focus is on the shift to addressable advertising for TV, but the bigger opportunity is combining the scale of linear TV optimized with customer data.

More on this topic. Why AT&T Could Put the TV Advertising Revolution on Hold