Vevo goes big on reach in Australian upfront

In terms of viewership, music video network Vevo claims to be Australia’s largest ad-supported video brand. It just hasn’t made that big of a deal about it, until now.

For the uninitiated, Vevo offers a library of over a million music videos, artist interviews and live clips on Youtube, as well as a variety of genre and era-themed FAST (free ad-supported TV) channels which are available in Australia through Foxtel and Samsung.

Combining audiences across connected TV, mobile, desktop, free ad-supported TV (FAST) and Youtube, Vevo says it reaches a whopping 11.74 million Australians each month. That would make it bigger than the entire ad-supported BVOD market put together (9.2m), and bigger than the ad-supported subscriber services of the major streamers: Amazon Prime Video (5m), Netflix (4m) and Kayo (2.7m).

That Sabrina Carpenter clip you keep watching is probably hosted by Vevo. The network is owned by a raft of heavy hitting music companies, with Universal Music Group (UMG) Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and Warner Music group the principal owners.

Rob Christensen, the executive vice president of global sales for Vevo, is in Sydney this week to push the network’s case with Australian advertisers. He’s also here to present Vevo Evolve, the company’s AI-powered advertising suite, which launched in the US in April, and is now available in Australia.

Christensen and Vevo’s local head of sales Tim O’Connor spoke to Mumbrella on Thursday morning, ahead of their upfront presentation in Sydney that evening.

“We’re a little more than 15 years old now, so have a great runway of data and viewership history when it comes to our users on Youtube,” says Christensen.  “So the AI technology is helping us better source what those engagement patterns are, but also being able to predict big moments in pop culture.

“I think one of the hard things is that, when you invest in sports as a buyer, you know when the big games are. You know when the big moments are. But, for the most part, within music and pop culture, that’s not always the case.

“And so one thing that Evolve is going to be able to help us do is bring those big moments to the market in a more predictable fashion.”

With Evolve, Australian advertisers can now buy direct or programmatic ads, strike sponsorship deals, or launch ‘always-on’ campaigns. The “advanced targeting” tools use Vevo’s in-house contextual insights to offer advertisers an AI-built library of more than 700 contextual targets, and hundreds of “intent-based audience segments.”

As a premium Youtube publisher, Vevo can also leverage Google tools like Instant Reserve and apply proprietary Google targeting and measurement across its inventory. All programmatic spend on Vevo counts towards a brand’s Google VIP commitments.

“It’s hyper-targeted,” O’Connor says. “We’re launching literally hundreds of new audience segments. So whether it’s overlaying household income data, those in markets for SUVs, we can get hyper-targeted to find those audiences across vast scales.”

Rob Christenson tells Australian advertisers that Vevo is big business

Christensen says that, in this era, artists are recognised as “a really premium, primetime intellectual property”, citing a move away from appointment television shows, to “individual people as the new intellectual property”.

“What used to be the primetime day-part, like dramas and comedies, over a decade ago, that drew really impactful audiences over short periods of time is truly today a mix of the top athletes, the top creators, and the top artists, right?

“Those are the types of audiences and fandoms that those pillars create. And so for us, I think it’s earning our way at the table in the same way that, you know, effectively sports and athletes do when they garner investment.”

Christensen says he is not eager not to pit music against sports, despite continually doing so during the interview. He says the two should be married together in a brand’s year-long marketing mix, taking advantage of pop culture moments, album release cycles, and tour schedules in the same way a sports-based campaign is timed around tentpole sporting events.

“We sit on a lot of this data and viewership statistics,” Christensen says.

“When you look at the viewership scale of the average sporting telecasts or even the biggest games of the year —  and those events deserve a seat at the table for being pre-planned for — it’s not just because of the context that brands want to associate with, but because of the audiences that they generate.

“We look at here in Australia, a few of those telecasts, you can look at an average of like 500,000 to 600,000 viewership levels.

“We can deliver up to 1.1 million every single day. That has to do with the constant flow – having access to over a million videos in our library, and ultimately being able to predict — with Evolve — when artists are in cycle, when they’re in the headlines, when content’s being released, and what that means for artists libraries and viewership spikes.

“Sometimes it’s not even just about that particular artist and that video, it’s about their library also being rediscovered … creating that halo effect. And, when you dig deeper into the algorithm, artists that are like that [other] artist are also rediscovered. So it’s this cycle of, not only a big viewership daily, but viewers coming back time and time again to watch the same content, the same artists.”

O’Connor points to the plethora of younger fans at the two Sydney Oasis shows over the past weekend as a ready example.

“There’s no way they were born when Oasis were in their heyday,” he says. “So, they’re going back and they’re discovering these amazing catalogues. We look at those viewership spikes all the time, internally, as a business. So whether it’s Snoop Dogg playing the AFL grand final, Oasis touring, we’ll see surges in their back catalogue. Old fans going back and enjoying that nostalgia, and new fans discovering that for the first time.

“That’s a really cool aspect about our business: that it truly is an evergreen catalogue.”

Those are impressive numbers

Vevo has also benefitted from a bit of local luck.

This June, Paramount decided not to renew its deal with Foxtel to air the linear MTV channels on its platform. The channels were moved to Ten’s FAST channel offering, before being shut down completely last month. With the removal of MTV channels from Foxtel, Vevo was able to effectively plug the music video channel gap.

O’Connor says this Foxtel deal, as well as one with Samsung has helped the consumer-facing aspect of business, as well as introducing Vevo’s channels to reach new audience segments.

“Both those partnerships —  meeting consumers where they want to consume our content off YouTube, in those connected TV environments — have really been a great addition to our inventory. And. it has helped drive a lot of the growth that we have seen in 2025.

“Having our logo, our channels in those environments has certainly helped raise the awareness amongst Australian consumers to know when they tune in on their television, that there’s that great optionality about content in those environments as well.”

Before we wrap up, Christensen takes one last swipe at sports.

“OK, we all know about sports and its dominance within the media landscape, rightfully so,” he begins.

“But I’m here to say music doesn’t get its fair shake. It’s as impactful, and it is the through-thread to all of the things that drive pop culture. And, ultimately, brands are looking for ways to attach to the most impactful stories or intellectual property throughout any given day or year.

Take that, sport!

“We firmly believe that a good way to move the needle when it comes to brands getting their brand sold is having a great strategy when it comes to both sports and music.”

After all, there are plenty of people who profess to hate sports, but nobody hates music.

“We say that a lot in meetings,” O’Connor laughs. “Bobby and I are both big sports fans as well … but we all know a person in our life that just isn’t into sport.

“You very, very rarely find someone that doesn’t like music.”

Related Content

News Yahoo tells advertisers to call off the search

News Foxtel to remove music channels