With Upfronts and NewFronts having wrapped up in late May, we now have a good sense of where advertisers are placing their bets (they committed over $9 billion just to broadcast network shows). More will be revealed later this month at Cannes Lions, but connecting the dots between the big trends so far, here’s what we see:

Real Deals in Virtual Space

If one thing stole the show at the NewFronts, it was VR. Just about every digital media company showed off its VR plans, stirring interest among advertisers about the opportunities for truly immersive brand experiences. Content coming soon includes episodic VR series from The New York Times, CNN and The Economist, as well as a partnership between Hulu and Live Nation to stream a VR concert series.

Out with the New

“Watching sizzle reels at the Upfronts is like meeting your brother’s new girlfriend at Thanksgiving,” joked Seth Meyers at NBC’s presentation. “She seems great, but you don’t want to get too attached because chances are she won’t be around next fall.”

Such was the sentiment at this year’s Upfronts: networks rolled out replacements for a whopping 35 shows, many of them axed after only one season. In their place this fall are shows that network chiefs suggest offer more stability. What does that mean? More reboots, cop shows and, oddly enough, four shows that feature time travel.

YouTube — Bigger than TV?

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki raised some network eyebrows when she remarked, “On mobile alone YouTube now reaches more 18- to 49-year-olds than any network — broadcast or cable. In fact, we reach more 18- to 49-year-olds during primetime than the top 10 TV shows combined.”

While her comparison wasn’t quite apples-to-apples — watching a 30-second YouTube video maybe isn’t equivalent to an hour-long episode of “Empire” — it still drove home her point: YouTube is huge. Its NewFronts presentation flaunted its reach across existing entertainment brands, trotting out CBS’s James Corden, Big Bird from “Sesame Street” and NBA commissioner Adam Silver among others to tout the benefits of spreading sharable content through YouTube (and monetizing it through Google’s ad network).

Competitors or Frenemies?

Negotiations between networks and advertisers following the Upfronts are only becoming more difficult as agencies must increasingly account for digital spending in their budgets. This has underscored the need for legacy broadcasters to partner with digital media.

Last year Disney invested $400 million in Vice and NBC put $200 million into BuzzFeed and Vox Media. That buying trend is still underway this year with Univision’s purchase of a 40% stake in the satirical news site The Onion and Verizon and Hearst’s recent joint acquisition of digital publisher Complex Media.

These investments let legacy media companies tap into digital publishers and studios that already have traction with millennial audiences. It also gives them access to nimble, forward-thinking studios to produce content.

For digital companies, such collaborations provide greater resources, as well as expanded promotional and ad opportunities. Mashable’s recent partnership with Turner will, for example, help the site increase its video offerings and improve its tech and data platforms.

Who’s Driving this Show Anyway?

With increasing collaboration between legacy media and digital upstarts, how long will it make sense to keep these annual ad-sales events separate?

“Organically it’s already starting to happen,” observed Jordan Bitterman, one of the founders of the NewFronts. But that doesn’t mean there’ll be an actual merger, noted co-founder John McCarus. “I really think that the question now [is]: Will the upfront process fold into the NewFronts? Because as … convergence really accelerates now, the NewFronts are poised to really drive the conversation.”

TMZ’s Harvey Levin drove the point home further in his remarks at the Recode Code Conference this week. “To me, in 10 years you’re not going to go to television, you’re not going to go to the internet. You’re going to go to the box…it’s the blend of the two. You go for the content. You don’t go for an experience online or broadcast.”