Fuse Media is capping off a wildly successful upfront season.
Today, in the midst of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Latinx-owned entertainment company confirmed to Adweek that it has closed its upfront negotiations with double-digit growth in volume. Fuse Media also reached high single-digit growth in CPMs (cost per thousand viewers reached) across its linear and digital platforms.
According to the company, the increases were driven by original programming on both linear and streaming as well as growth in FAST, which offers scale to advertisers looking to reach young, diverse viewership.
“Our success with this year’s upfront is a validation from advertisers of Fuse Media’s mission to connect young, culturally diverse audiences with inclusive programming that shares their experiences,” Miguel Roggero, Fuse Media chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “The results also underscore how important the rapidly growing, and increasingly intersectional, sets of underrepresented consumer segments are to marketers and the future of brands.”
The company’s current FAST channels, which include Shades of Black, Backstage, Latino Vibes and OUTtv Proud, have continued their strong viewership growth, reaching nearly 2 billion minutes year-to-date. According to Fuse Media, each channel posted “double or even triple-digit growth in viewership in 2023.”
Notably, Shades of Black has more than tripled its viewership minutes year-over-year for the first half, and Latino Vibes reached a 50% uptick from the first quarter of 2023 to the second quarter.
Some of the company’s popular programming includes the return of Big Freedia, Fuse’s highest-rated series of the year; Big Freedia Means Business; and Like A Girl, which premiered in March.
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With Fuse Media’s upfront announcement of growth in volume and CPMs, the company bucked industry trends.
Recently, buyers told Adweek that the overall upfront market was even softer than expected, with rollbacks hitting everything but sports. However, buyers also noted the importance of DEI for client spending, which is evident in Fuse Media’s results.
For this year’s upfront season, Fuse Media hosted in-person and virtual meetings with clients to showcase its growing roster of DEI-focused channels and programming. And with Roggero noting that one in two new Americans is Latino or multicultural—plus that growing audiencehaving a buying power of around $6 trillion—authentic messages in programming are becoming increasingly important.
