Ten years on from the credit crunch, the global economy could be poised to enter another economic recession. Many of the underlying causes of the credit crunch remain in place, due to governments lacking the appetite for the structural reform required to right the faults in the global financial system that catalysed the slowdown. Many of those adverse factors remain unchecked, and with growing volatility in geopolitics a perfect storm could be brewing. A succession of potential unintended consequences could reshape a digital economy that has grown in an era of abundance and easy access to capital. This report does not tackle the underlying causes of a potential recession – we will leave that to the economists. Instead we explore how digital media can be impacted, how it can weather the coming storm and how it should prepare for a post-recession economy.

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Amazon, Amazon Prime, Apple, Arcade, Crackle, DAZN, Disney, Disney+, the Economist, ESPN, ESPN+, the Financial Times, FloSports, Fortnite, Google, Hulu, Microsoft, Microsoft All Access, Netflix, the New York Times, Playstation, PlayStation Plus, Pluto, Softbank, Spotify, Stadia, the Telegraph, Uber Eats, Viacom, Xbox, Xbox Live, Yo, YouTube 

Recession impact research: This report is the first of a long-term series of research reports from MIDiA that will explore the potential impacts of an economic recession on the digital media landscape. Additionally, MIDiA reports will also now feature Recession Impact sections at the end of standard reports. The next report in this series will present new data on how consumers expect to change their media spending in a recession.