Advertising executives who entered Radio City Music Hall on Monday for NBCUniversal’s upfront presentation were greeted by an orchestra playing the familiar themes of the network’s landmark shows, such as “Law & Order” and “NBC Nightly News.”

It was a nod to broadcasting’s rich history, which for the rest of the week would be relegated to the distant past.

Streaming video now makes up 37% of U.S. television viewing, better than either broadcast or cable TV, according to Nielsen data. The May presentations by media companies, meant to entice advertising sales commitments for the 2024-25 TV season, reflected the shift, with Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix joining the in-person annual festivities for the first time.

Ad buyers had to leave their ride shares and walk down FDR Drive on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to join the overflow crowd gathered for Amazon’s presentation, which opened with a performance by Alicia Keys, followed by appearances from Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Across town, Netflix exhibits re-created sets from “Bridgerton,” “Squid Game” and “Wednesday.” At its reception, the streamer served food from chefs featured on its cooking shows.

Competitors did not let Netflix slide on the reversal of its original opposition to running ads with its programming.

“Remember when Netflix thought they were above all this?” ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel asked in his annual monologue at the Walt Disney Co.’s presentation at the Javits Center. “They came in, destroyed commercial television and now, guess what they want to sell you? Commercials on television.”

But the cow is out of the barn. Here are some of the highlights of the week.

Amazon Prime time

The addition of an advertising tier to Prime Video could be the most significant change to the TV ad marketplace since streaming emerged. The company said Prime’s ad-supported service reaches 115 million viewers a month in the U.S.

“By introducing ads on Prime Video, we’ve created the largest ad-supported premium streaming service in the world,” said Alan Moss, vice president of global ad sales for Amazon.

One senior media company executive who attended the event calculated that if Amazon were to sell out commercial inventory across its platforms, which include its free ad-supported channel Freevee, it would take in $6 billion. That would probably take a chunk out of traditional TV, which took in around $19 billion in last year’s upfront market, according to research firm Media Dynamics. Streaming services attracted around $8.3 billion.

Media buyers say one possible risk is that adding so much commercial inventory to the marketplace could depress pricing.

The addition of Netflix’s commercials will have less of an impact, as the number of U.S. subscribers for its ad tier is estimated between 10 million and 13 million, although that is expected to grow steadily. The company said 40% of new sign-ups are choosing the lower-priced ad tier.

But even with Netflix’s smaller footprint, advertisers are eager to buy title sponsorships, in which brand names can be placed adjacent to the streamer’s most popular shows.

Live sports rule

The NFL and other major sports properties have become the last reliable way for advertisers to reach large audiences on traditional TV, so it’s not surprising they were given more attention at the upfronts.

Fox trotted out legendary quarterback Tom Brady, who will join the network’s play-by-play booth for football coverage. Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce bounded onto the stage at Disney’s affair to announce he is joining ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” as an analyst. Shaquille O’Neal got laughs at Warner Bros. Discovery’s event, where executives said they hope to retain NBA rights for cable network TNT as NBCUniversal makes a strong play. NBCUniversal has the backdrop of Paris for the Summer Olympics.

But the incursion of tech companies into live sports is in full swing. Netflix, which has long been cautious about competing for pricey sports rights, landed two Christmas Day NFL games for 2024 and has the rights to at least one a year in 2025 and 2026.

Netflix has maintained that it does not want to get into the bidding wars for sports media rights. But the company was willing to pay $150 million for the two games because of the promotional platform it will provide for World Wrestling Entertainment, which joins the streamer next year, and other new shows, including a series from producer Kevin Williamson and one starring Ted Danson.

The NFL’s willingness to make a deal with the service is rooted in the league’s desire to get its games in front of younger viewers who are not watching traditional TV, where the bulk of its contests air. The median age for Netflix viewers is 37, and 60% are described as cord-cutters.

Ready, aim, target

The upfronts were once the place where networks promoted their dominance in the ratings, especially in the 18-to-49 demographic that was long the sweet spot for advertisers.

But the overriding message this week was the ability of streaming services and their technology to get content in front of specific consumers.

“While reach is ever-important, the business is more and more focused on connecting to the right customer in the right way,” said Ric Prentiss, an analyst for Raymond James.

Nearly every company prominently featured streaming efforts in their presentations. But Disney, Comcast and Fox reminded ad buyers that they can still deliver audiences on traditional TV.

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger told the audience that his company’s networks and streaming services, which include ABC and Disney+, account for 11.5% of all U.S. TV viewing, according to Nielsen.

Mike Cavanagh, president of NBCUniversal parent Comcast, reminded buyers that the company still has a full range of platforms, even as it is focused on building the streaming service Peacock.

“NBCUniversal is the only company that has it all,” he said.

In the first, “The Death of R.M.F.”, Jesse Plemons plays Robert, a man who appears in thrall to Raymond (Willem Dafoe), who sets Robert’s agenda, from his diet to his sexual encounters.

In the second, “R.M.F. Is Flying”, Plemons plays Daniel, a cop whose wife Liz (Emma Stone) has gone missing; when she returns, he is convinced she is an imposter.

Finally, in “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich”, Stone plays Emily, a woman who seeks out a cult leader (Dafoe) for a spiritual and sexual awakening.

Inevitably, as is the case with most portmanteau films, one episode stands out – in this case “The Death of R.M.F.”, which has an unnerving quality to it.

The second instalment is the most shocking, featuring Liz and Daniel sitting around with friends (Mamoudou Athie and Margaret Qualley) watching a highly explicit sex tape the four of them made.

Bringing up the rear is the final short, which rather drags with its depictions of sweat lodges, bodily contamination, and Stone skidding around in her cool-looking Dodge Challenger.

Stone, now on her third movie with the Greek director, seems to relish the extremes she gets to go to.

Quite what it all means, however, is another thing entirely. The characters seem to be in states of crisis, with miscarriage a common theme.

Looking at humanity in all its weirdness, Kinds of Kindness is a baffling film to take in, as abrasive as its musical score from Jerskin Fendrix, who performed similar tricks on Poor Things.

Certainly, compared to his more accessible films, such as The Favourite and Poor Things, this feels like Lanthimos at his most elusive and frustrating.

The New Orleans-based filmmaking brothers Bill and Turner Ross have made a name for themselves over the past 15 years with their lyrical, poetic documentaries. But with 2020’s “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets,” they blurred the line between fiction and nonfiction, setting up an imaginary scenario in an actual dive bar on its last night of business, observing a curated group of regulars as they shut it down for good.

The new “Gasoline Rainbow” is their first official narrative feature, informed by their documentary roots and eye for capturing spontaneous beauty. During the Covid-19 quarantine of 2020, Bill and Turner Ross dreamed up a wild road film, which they loosely scripted and cast with five young first-time actors from Oregon. They play a group of friends from a small town called Wiley, who hit the road with the only things you need for an adventure: a dream, a posse, a van and the abiding belief that “anywhere’s better than here.”

The dream is to see the Oregon coast, 513 miles from their landlocked town. The posse is three boys — Makai Garza, Micah Bunch and Tony Aburto — and two girls, Nathaly Garcia and Nichole Dukes. The van gets them started on their adventure, but they soon learn that it’s not a necessary component. After spending the night partying in a cow field with a guy they meet on the side of the road, they return to find the van on blocks, vandalized, the tires stolen, and that’s when things really get interesting. They have to rely on each other and the kindness of strangers and community to make it all the way to the beach, to the Party at the End of the World, a mysterious event they hear about that becomes their ultimate destination.

Though the events on this journey are planned and produced by the filmmakers, the relationships are real, the interactions and conversations undeniably authentic. If pioneering English documentarian John Grierson’s definition of nonfiction filmmaking was the “creative treatment of actuality,” “Gasoline Rainbow” could ostensibly fit under that umbrella.

But this is not a documentary and it’s far more productive to consider the ways in which the Ross brothers have synthesized their influences and inspirations — such as “My Own Private Idaho,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Easy Rider” and the 1984 documentary “Streetwise” — into their own unique form that exudes a singular kind of ragged, unpredictable vitality.

Each actor is a discovery with a special presence, but there is no one star or standout, which feels intentional. While “Gasoline Rainbow” is a heady slice of pure, uncut youthful energy, it is also a portrait of collectivism, caretaking and a celebration of mutual aid.

It’s apt that a film like this was born out of the isolation and confinement of 2020. There was a desire for freedom and movement, combined with the progressive value of taking care of each other that rose out of quarantine and the Black Lives Matter movement. In “Gasoline Rainbow,” the kids come by this sense of mutual protection naturally, but the value is reinforced along the way by the heavily-pierced punk hitchhikers who teach them how to hop a train to Portland in exchange for their leftover food, and the middle-aged rockers who provide a party, a couch to crash, breakfast and a boat ride. Micah’s cousin Noah underscores the importance, telling them, “I like the way you treat each other.”

These values of care and respect threaded throughout are why we never fear for their safety. They make decisions as a group, look out for each other and demonstrate their awareness by asking the strangers they meet, “Are you cool?” The film isn’t about the risks of a harrowing journey. In turn, it gives us a freedom as viewers to focus on their life stories that emerge in snippets of conversation, and those of the people they meet along the way. Their guides are fascinating in their own right, like Gary, a Portland skater who shepherds them through the city for a night, and later ferries them to the party.

This age — not kids, not quite adults — is such an impossibly short time, and it’s poignant to drink in their openness and pliability as people, their youthful trust and imperviousness, to watch them blossom and bond. They haven’t hardened into grown-ups yet and they know they have this one moment in time to enjoy fleeting youth, before jobs, bills and responsibilities. Nichole says that she fears not having enough time to figure things out, and this film is a celebration of that moment.

“Gasoline Rainbow” is also stunningly gorgeous, with carefully composed shots capturing the vast Oregon landscape, raspberry sunsets, golden fields, the beach at night and in the misty morning. The gritty urban space of Portland is so wildly different from their one-stoplight town, it’s intoxicating, the gang drawn in by the all-night parties, skate parks, rock festivals and free-flying freak flags.

Though a larger cultural commentary is not overt, certain realities necessarily come through, with jokes about cops, corporate logos emblazoned on train cars, discussions about parents in rehab and what it’s like to be the only black kid in small-town Oregon (“It sucks”). It’s a depiction of today’s youth, shaped by contemporary culture, but there is also a timelessness to their experience. The Ross brothers capture those universal feelings of a certain age: possibility, togetherness with your tribe, unmoored from traditional family structures.

The structuring destination of the Party at the End of the World speaks to this idea of time running out, and it imparts a sense of existential dread that hovers around the edges, but forces the characters, and the audience to remain in the moment, to embrace serendipity, surprise, and coincidence. As it all coalesces, there is a sense of visceral, emotional catharsis that could only be achieved at the end of a long journey. That the Ross brothers manage to impart this feeling to an audience after an hour-and-48-minute cinematic adventure is a true triumph. This wild, vicarious ride through youthful adventure is absolutely worth taking, for your own nostalgia and for the reminder that the kids are indeed alright.