In 2022, media and entertainment companies notice a familiar landscape influenced by consumer behavior dynamism, technological innovation, competitive intensity, and industry reshaping. Add the outcomes of the pandemic on business conditions and the workforce, an inflationary economy, plus a charged social and political landscape, and company leaders are steering through unpredictable terrain. Allow me to share five trends to watch in ahead as the industry works to reframe its future.

1. Content distribution gets (more) complex
Purchase of new original content shows no indication of slowing even as move into 2022. Content articles are the fuel that drives consumer interest and engagement across platforms - streaming, broadcast and cable networks. What sort of content reaches consumers, however, often involves a complicated decision-making process.

The direct-to-consumer (D2C) pivot will continue to be the key strategic priority for that industry within the coming year. Operators and investors alike are centered on subscriber growth and retention because the key performance indicators for services where switching costs for individuals are minimal. Despite their rapid growth throughout the last couple of years, most D2C services run by media companies remain unprofitable and consume cash, devouring resources from the overall enterprise.

The funding intensity connected with streaming highlights the benefit for media companies to harvest the financial together with your linear ecosystem. At the same time cord cutting gradually shrinks the universe of traditional video subscriptions, broadcast and cable networks remain earnings engines. To avoid a dislocated unwinding in the legacy pay-TV environment and its valuable monthly subscriber fees and advertising revenues, network owners must carry on and direct fresh content, including sports, on their linear channels to keep viewers engaged.

Around ahead, operators (in particular those without the scale or capital resources to travel truly “all in” on streaming today) will probably be confronted with challenging decisions around programming their streaming platforms to operate a vehicle growth, whilst remaining profitable but structurally declining linear businesses to create income. This can be a tricky balanced exercise.

Working on these decisions will need sophisticated modeling and disciplined business planning that spans creative and executive priorities to own optimal mix of growth and financial outcomes.

2. Simplified and customised experiences take center stage
In 2022, consumers continually search for unique experiences and ubiquitous access to entertainment content. Companies which solve the discoverability puzzle and aggregate content in the more intuitive and accessible way will popularity.

Consumers expect effortless interactions through the end-to-end customer journey, from sign-up to usage and billing. Accordingly, we will see more companies playing the streaming value chain. Network owners, broadband providers and connected TV manufacturers will probably be making plans to simplify, optimize and integrate layers and compatibility tools across platforms to enhance the user experience.

Content discovery is becoming increasingly hard for consumers as they bounce between streaming services searching for new series and old hits one of the avalanche of accessible programming. Tech-savvy businesses that harness valuable viewership data to provide customers more of the content they need will relish a competitive advantage. In 2022, streamers playing catch-up will refine their recommendation engines based on demonstrated subscriber preferences and usage history, and tailor their marketing - in-platform as well as over external channels - to create consumers conscious of every one of the viewing options.

Bundling may also increase the consumer experience. The scaled digital-native streamers give you a number of integrated offerings for their video subscribers - shopping, gaming, devices, and other digital services. Media companies with diversified businesses or innovative partnerships with any other companies - including inside the digital asset arena (e.g., non-fungible tokens, or NFTs) - will try to create their very own “flywheels” that supply a portfolio of offerings to their streaming subscribers, driving new sign-ups and adding stickiness on the D2C revenue model, extending living from the customer relationship.

An in-depth lineup of desirable programming is table stakes for the streaming game. In a environment where rrndividuals are juggling an evergrowing variety of services and switching costs are low, media companies need to deliver an event that keeps subscribers connected and engaged.

3. Movie night will go back to the theatre
The effects in the pandemic on the movie business have already been severe. Cinema owners struggled to be open as moviegoers stayed away due to virus concerns and limited option of fresh film product. As the emergence with the Omicron COVID-19 variant is adding uncertainty, you'll find signals pointing into a constructive path forward for that box office in 2022.

In 2021, 13 films grossed over $100 million in accordance with Box Office Mojo, down from over 30 in 2019. Nonetheless, leads to 2021 indicated a permanent audience appetite for “blockbuster” features as reopening in the united states gained steam, prompted simply with the distribution of effective vaccines. Looking ahead, a sturdy slate of long-anticipated tentpole movies will help drive the recovery in theatre admissions.

A big change that may hold in 2022 could be the abbreviation of the exclusive theatrical window to approximately 45 days and, for some mid-size films, a day-and-date release approach that enables people to view new movies within the theatre or in your own home. From a difficult series of negotiations between theatres and studios, the movie industry offers aligned while on an approach that preserves the attributes of the theatrical window while acknowledging view of streaming popularity.

The shorter first-run window enables studios and theatres (and artistic talent) to make use of successful major releases - namely the large ticket sales that come about on opening weekend and the following a few months, plus the ability for studios to leverage marketing spend for a film’s premiere into future distribution windows, specifically fast-following D2C availability.

4. NFTs have entered the media chat
Excitement is building around NFTs as being a vehicle for media companies to grow engagement using content and IP and might give a future monetization model as the market matures.

Early adopters are getting NFTs related to sports, art, collectibles plus more, acquiring one-of-a-kind digital assets which might be easily tradable and whose ownership and authenticity are recorded via blockchain technology.

To join encounter, media organizations are forming relationships with NFT technical specialists and marketplaces to formulate offerings that enable people to be involved in a totally new way using farvorite cartoon characters, movie and TV show scenes as well as other content. NFTs allow media industry players to make cross-platform consumer interactivity anchored in proven IP and also to build new communities by extending the individual relationship into emerging digital areas.

In 2022, the press and entertainment industry will undertake lots of NFT innovation and experimentation. The cost-effective return of the efforts is unclear; today, NFT projects on tv and entertainment space are essentially marketing investments supposed to power engagement and also to access fans - particularly those active in crypto - needing to deepen their connection to popular content. In the future, media companies could generate royalty income linked to secondary sales of NFTs… perhaps in transactions tied to activities happening in the metaverse.

5. M&A remains a trendy item around the menu
Over the past Twelve months, the press and entertainment industry saw the greatest players execute on the selection of transactions - landscape-shifting megamergers, bolt-on acquisitions of smaller studios including properties positioned in international markets that leave localized content, targeted deals for niche IP assets which can be leveraged to generate fresh programming, and innovative joint ventures designed to accelerate global streaming growth with a capital-efficient basis.

In 2022, the consolidation of studios and networks will keep as companies attempt to build the information, capabilities and scale needed to battle the digital-native behemoths who gain from tremendous financial and operational advantages.

After deal headlines fade, management teams will face the heavy lift of integration, right-sizing and realigning front office operations, IT systems and corporate infrastructure to realize ambitious efficiency goals. Cost savings realized through integration will fund future growth investment and boost profits, a vital objective because the industry transitions in the stable, high-margin linear world to some streaming ecosystem that drives less-profitable revenue (for now).

Robust conditions in private and public capital financial markets are enabling companies to trade non-core businesses as well as other corporate assets that not fit their evolving growth strategies or capital allocation priorities. Accordingly, asset divestitures would have been a key trend in 2022 too. Activist investors will have a task in most of the transactions, being another catalyst for change.

The press and entertainment industry has always been a whirlwind of strategic activity as companies build, renovate and dismantle business portfolios in response to market developments, and 2022 will be no different. These five trends indicate how the media companies are poised for another year of exciting change, as companies drive innovation, tackle new challenges and capture possibilities to position themselves for growth.


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