Broadcast ratings may be down, but at the upfronts, it's ad revenues rising

This is the first broadcast upfronts following Disney's acquisition of large parts of Fox, and thus the first upfronts outing of New Fox--the part of Fox that remains. Overall, it feels like the networks are trying for an upbeat, hopeful vibe in this year's programming--perhaps as a means of countering the way it feels like things are going in the real world? Or maybe they're also trying to be hopeful as ratings continue to drop across the broadcast networks. And even though that's the case, ad revenues continue to be up--the networks will be billing billions in ad revenue this year, partially because broadcast TV is one of the few places left advertisers have access to a captive audience, unlike the streamers Netflix or Amazon, where there are no ads.