Six Shifts Changing the Future of Media

Investment capital is flowing into start-ups and new technologies to meet the evolving demands of media and entertainment consumers.

By Nicole Magoon, James Wright, and Andre James

Media is blurring its shape. Lines between media types are disappearing, consumers are creators, and entertainment is daubing tech and retail all over itself. Content is ever present, consistent across platforms, and individually personalized. As our physical world blends with virtual worlds, entertainment realities are changing, too.

The media and entertainment industry doesn’t have a choice; it must change. Consumers have upped their baseline expectations as technology has evolved, and competitors for consumer time aren’t limited to traditional media. If we look across current forms of media, consumers multitask with other media more than 55% of the time. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated many of the trends of the past 5 to 10 years, including the outsized growth in digital media consumption and consumers’ ability to access content from just about anywhere. Increases in consumer participation and the exponential development of technologies like 5G will accelerate the disruption, driving six big shifts in media and entertainment. Some build on existing trends, and others read like sci-fi. All of them are very real, and they’re reshaping our world.

01

Omnipresent delivery

Faster download speeds on phones have raised the bar on “I want all of it, right here, right now.” In the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic, streaming viewership on phones grew more than 40%. Think about that. At a time when people were sitting at home in front of their huge screens, they still wanted to watch video on the tiny screens they carry around all day. In addition to demanding the content they want, where they want it, and when they want it, consumers also expect that content to be interconnected. That’s where we start to see cohesion become critical across media platforms, and media start to blend into other sectors, such as retail. Because we love lists of three, let’s consider three aspects of omnipresent delivery.

02

Me! Everything is about me. Or, actually, everything is about the individual consumer and his or her niche communities. Companies that can use data to personalize and customize their content and delivery will win hearts and minds (and money). This shift, like omnipresent delivery, isn’t a new one, but it’s increasingly becoming a baseline expectation, and the subshifts are growing stronger.

My media

AI will take recommendations to the next level, with features like mood-matched recommendations that are not just right for you, they’re right for you right now.

03

Global aperture

One of the most exciting things to come out of a more connected world was, well, the world. Content exposure increased, global connections increased, and a demand for authenticity and an understanding of the diverse world we live in increased. A more interconnected world means the ability to reach niche audiences with locally tailored content—and the ability to hold the media accountable for diverse, global representation.

04

Digital media doesn’t just mean the big guys have more nimble ways of delivering content—the little guys have it all, too. Are you a dancer? Show off your moves on TikTok. Take great photos? Upload them to Instagram. Need to fund your writing career? Find a paying audience for your stories on Wattpad. Not only are individual creators leveraging increasingly professional tools and easy uploads to pour passion into platforms they’ve never had access to before, but established content also lives on. Creators can edit, remix, and mash content, post it on social feeds, and watch it evolve as other producers put their own spin on it for the world to consume.

Consumer producers

Creators can edit, remix, and mash content, post it on social feeds, and watch it evolve as other producers put their own spin on it for the world to consume.

05

Emerging metaverse

If you hear “metaverse” and think video games, you’re not wrong, but it goes beyond that. (If you think Superman, then we applaud DC Comics for their effective content delivery.) Nearly two decades ago, Linden Labs’ Second Life became an early leader in showing how powerful and compelling online communities of avatar residents can be, and myriad online communities have emerged as gaming worlds have become more complex. The idea of living in a metaverse has only increased as commerce, culture, and multiplayer role-playing games have converged in virtual worlds. This includes day-to-day interactions in popular games such as Animal Crossing and Minecraft, and in one-off events such as Fortnite’s Travis Scott concert, Astronomical, which attracted more than 12 million live viewers and over 45 million total in-game views. As virtual worlds have developed, they have incorporated concerts, shopping, and other experiences that were once thought of as only physical. These worlds create alternate lives for their users, and the idea of alternate virtual environments will slowly infuse daily life beyond gamers.

06

Beyond reality

Virtual environments exist online today, but they’re beginning to merge with our physical reality. Augmented reality (AR), in particular, supported by AI, is likely to be more transformative than virtual reality (VR) in the near-term, given the ability to seamlessly layer AR on top of our daily life. The next wave of technology will expand the potential for human-machine interactions, blending on-screen experiences with our physical world. For example, in April 2021 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art teamed up with Snap to offer five AR-enhanced exhibits around the city, allowing viewers to see virtual art displays through their phones. Although nimble software and consumer-friendly form factors are still a barrier to widespread consumer adoption, particularly for VR, those issues won’t last forever. After all, Apple’s original personal digital assistant, Newton, was too clunky to capture the world’s attention. Then Apple invented the iPhone.

Our digital and physical lives will lose their separateness as we expand our definition of reality and digital interactions hold near-equal weight to in-person ones.

Implications

Some of these shifts are happening faster than others. One lens to measure their pace and strength is venture capital (VC) investment, which doesn’t capture investment by incumbents, but can show which technologies are drawing investors’ interest. Categorizing VC investments in 2020 shows that trends like omnipresent delivery, my media, and consumer producers pop more than others (see Figure 1). These should be on every media company’s radar today.

Figure 1: Venture capital investment dollars skew toward omnipresent delivery, but if you exclude Quibi, my media and consumer producers also take meaningful share

2020 VC investment (in $M)

Sources: Dealogic; Crunchbase; Thomson Reuters; Bain analysis

Trends such as emerging metaverse and beyond reality garner some investment, but it isn’t as much—which isn’t surprising. The metaverse is more “in development,” and video game companies are the best positioned to invest there. For instance, in April, Epic Games announced it was raising $1 billion to develop its metaverse. Beyond reality is even further off, and the largest investments are from tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. Global aperture draws the smallest investment, but this may be less about its importance and more about this being a shift in attitude rather than tech-driven innovation.

The investment data shows all six shifts are underway. Whether you’re a media executive, an investor, or an increasingly involved consumer, think about how they’ll affect you. Those who understand how these shifts could reshape markets and open new opportunities will gain a competitive edge, while those who sit comfortably on traditional business rhythms will scramble to catch up.