Content Bubbles and Streaming Peaks Media And Tech Trends That Will Shape 2018 And Beyond

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The 20,000 Foot View:  This report is a write up of key themes from one of MIDiA’s 2018 keynotes looking at the key trends, innovations and disruptions that will shape media and technology over the coming years. The full presentation is published online alongside this report.

Key Findings

• Much of the vast amount of content, brands and experiences built for Gen Zs (digital’s ‘Baby Boomers’) are a product of the VC bubble, which will contract when the tech majors are regulated
• The tech majors (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook) each dominate their respective markets—a sign of overall market immaturity
• Regulation of the tech majors could result in forced spin offs of divisions such as YouTube, Instagram and Prime
• The FCC’s decision to roll back Obama-era net neutrality laws highlights that telcos are becoming the squeezed middle between media and distribution
• While media incumbents fight a rear-guard action to defend against distribution insurgents, telcos will now start imposing their own rules and tariffs 
• Binge watching reached critical mass fast and is now at the later stage of the growth curve, but playlisting is topping out much earlier and at lower rates
• Both curated playlists and user generated playlists are flat, indicating that innovation is needed to push adoption further
• Sports rights are peaking, with the drop in English Premier League domestic rights the first evidence of the impending bubble burst
• Pay-TV budgets shifting to drama will catalyse the burst, in turn fuelling another content bubble for drama that will also burst at some stage
• Until then though, TV will enjoy a renaissance period, with unprecedented creative freedom and ever bigger canvases to paint on

Companies and brands mentioned in this report:        Century Fox, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, BT, DanDTM, DirecTV, Disney, Facebook, FCC, Instagram, Logan Paul, MySpace, Microsoft, Netflix, PewDiePie, the Premier League, Prime, Sky, Snapchat, Spotify, Sprint, Tidal, Windows Media Player, Zoella