Seven steers the course at 2026 upfront presentation
Jeff Howard addresses the crowd at the Seven Upfront
Much like Nine’s upfront this time last week, Seven’s 2026 presentation, held at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, was largely a reminder to advertisers that it controls one of the biggest and most-trusted media networks in the country — and it’s locally owned, to boot.
In terms of this article, let’s rip the band aid off early: there was no real talk of the impending merger with audio company Southern Cross Austereo. That news came less than three weeks ago, and was likened by Seven’s chief content officer Brook Hall, in a conversation with Mumbrella before the event, to “when someone announces they’re pregnant at your wedding”.
There were also no off-the-wall programming announcements, or major upgrades to Seven’s advertising offering. The message — again, as with Nine — was “it’s business as usual, and business is good'”. That’s paraphrased, obviously. Only a mob boss could get away with a one-liner like that in public.
