The Current State of the Industry and the Future Impact of AI
Hillary Lewis April 18, 2024
0 Comments
The Entertainment Industry: How did we get here and what is the future impact of AI?
A pandemic followed by a recession and twin strikes, add the sudden rise of AI, the over-production of original content, changing viewing patterns, potential bundling of streaming platforms the list goes on and on. The entertainment industry is in a state of flux that has not been seen in decades. When the smoke clears, where does that leave us? What really is the future of the entertainment industry? How are networks and studios adopting AI, and what does that mean for the rest of us?
CreativeCOW's Contributing Writer, Hillary Lewis ventured to SXSW 2024 in Austin, TX, one of the country's largest conferences in tech and film, to get a pulse on these questions.
Some of the biggest industry leaders were in attendance, including SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland; CTO of Paramount Global, Phil Wiser; CEO and founder of Roku, Anthony Wood; VP Product of Adobe Express, Ian Wang; Vimeo SVP of Product, Zohar Dayan; and notable writers, directors, actors, media analysts, AI executives, and other leaders in the industry.
First up: What is the current state of the industry? The biggest question on everyone's mind is How did we get here? Why is our industry still in such a disarray? The Hollywood strikes ended six months ago, so why does content production remain at a standstill? Will the industry ever recover?
There were an overwhelming number of panels at SXSW covering this very topic. One specific panel, The Death of Peak TV A 2024 Post Mortem on Production Downturn' led by Tyler Aquilina, Media Analyst for Variety's Intelligence Platform, shed some light on just how we ended up here.
According to a mountain of data, Aquilina says the industry had been approaching a tipping point long before the Hollywood strikes began. So the first thing that we should really take note of here is that 2022 was the year that TV finally actually peaked. The term Peak TV' was coined well before TV output finally crested and then fell.
The Death of Peak TV' presentation shows the gradual shift from cable and broadcast to SVOD, i.e. streaming
The Death of Peak TV' presentation shows the original series output each year by category of content.
As shown above, in 2023 the industry as a whole saw a 20% drop in original series output across all platforms, plunging from more than 2,000 titles in 2022 to just over 1,600 last year. That came after two decades of almost continuous growth.
There were, of course, other years with small dips in content one for the writer's strike in 2007-08, and one for COVID. However, those dips were never more than 7% a sharp contrast to last year's 20% drop. We also saw a spike in production immediately proceeding both of these time periods another contrast to the stagnant production levels we've seen in 2023-24.
The year 2020 also happened to be when the streaming wars really got going. Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, Discovery all of these new platforms started popping up beginning in late 2019. And they all decided to follow the model Netflix built, aiming to entice more and more viewers away from cable to streaming by producing massive amounts of original content. More content than anyone could ever dream to watch.
So in 2021 and 2022, we see an unprecedented influx in TV outputs with these new streaming companies throwing billions of dollars into production and racking up massive deficits in the process. The problem is most of these companies weren't turning a profit. Their main goal, and the only thing Wall Street cared about at the time, was increasing their subscribers.
That is, until something very important happens in 2022 Netflix loses subscribers in Q1 of that year, the first time they'd ever reported a drop in subscribers. This is what starts a chain reaction and triggers the beginning of the fall of Peak TV. Investors begin to pay a lot more attention to how much money these legacy media companies are spending AND how much they're losing.
So while there are many events in 2023, like the twin Hollywood strikes, that bare the brunt of the blame for the current state of the industry, the true death of Peak TV was happening before most of the industry was even aware.
How are networks and studios responding to these changes? So what happens now? Has corporate greed ultimately killed the industry? Or are other factors also at play? How will streaming change in the coming years? The guesses are endless but the consensus seems rather bleak for the entertainment industry for some time.
First, networks and streaming companies are taking a step back from over-producing in all areas, only prioritizing their most successful content. More careful considerations for IP-based blockbusters (think The Last of Us and the newly greenlit Monopoly film by LuckyChap and Lionsgate), prestigious awards-based titles (think Oppenheimer or Dune: Part 2), and a strong focus on bringing more sports to streaming (Disney is refocusing a big part of their budget on this).
The projected global spending in 2024 of Sports programming; Disney is set to invest the most in sports out of all other streaming companies
Aquilina also suggests streaming companies will favor unscripted content in general over scripted moving forward, and we'll see more reruns' returning to platforms.
Streaming has typically been filled more by scripted than unscripted. But that is going to start changing. Streaming will look a lot more like cable, fewer scripted originals being produced. Unscripted is a lot cheaper. In tandem with that, I think streaming will start relying a lot more on reruns' which
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today announced a strategic new integration to deliver ...
16/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Leader in Personal Aviation taps URSA Cin...
16/07/2026
XenData Announces LTO Archive Appliances with both File and S3 Object Storage In...
15/07/2026
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a big deal for DAZN, which has distribution rights in three markets: Italy, Spain, and Japan. Each requires a different editorial app...
15/07/2026
As sports-media organizations manage rapidly growing content libraries and incre...
15/07/2026
HBS director of digital Johannes Franken talks SVG Europe through the operation built to serve FIFA World Cup 2026 rights holders remotely from Stratford, east ...
15/07/2026
IBC has unveiled the conference program for IBC2026, with this year's event ...
15/07/2026
Software-defined wideband RF platform supports 96-kHz monitoring, streamlined fr...
15/07/2026
New AI-powered module enables broadcasters and content owners to extract dialogu...
15/07/2026
Weeklong gathering at EBU headquarters will test new IPMX capabilities and expand certified product ecosystem...
15/07/2026
Force Tech has announced the appointment of Bryan Adams, CTS, as Vice President of Integration. Adams will oversee AV and broadcast integration project delivery...
15/07/2026
USA Sports has announced an exclusive English-language agreement with the Bundes...
15/07/2026
ITV Sport's FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage has been produced from one of the m...
15/07/2026
Program will provide professional camera kits, training, and technical support to participating local newsrooms...
15/07/2026
San Francisco church becomes first U.S. deployment of the 2 M/E production switcher...
15/07/2026
Former ESPN and NFL Network executive to advise startup league on media, distribution, technology, and fan engagement...
15/07/2026
The Houston-based RSN is the live-game home of the Astros and Rockets...
15/07/2026
Launched alongside new FreqSoft installer
Designed to bridge the gap between hardware and software, Freqport's FreqInOut FO1 unit provides a simple way ...
15/07/2026
Save up to 55% on software until 23 July 2026
Expressive E have just launched their Summer Offer sale, with discounts of up to 55% now applied across their ...
15/07/2026
Real-time stem-separation tool updated
zplane have recently released a new and improved version of their real-time stem-separation plug-in which they say ma...
15/07/2026
A new benchmark in bass enhancement
Described as a new benchmark in bass enhancement , Baby Audio's latest release has been designed to augment the lo...
15/07/2026
DMC Production's AR 1 and AR 2 units reverse the conventional OB workflow, keeping all production-critical processing at the venue while operators work remo...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
GigaCloud, a leading Ukrainian cloud service provider, and Cubbit, the first geo-distributed cloud storage enabler, today announced a new Business Alliance Part...
15/07/2026
SMPTE, the global society for media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has announced the launch of the SMPTE 110th Anniversary Campaign, a fundraising...
15/07/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, unveils the new StudioComm Model 762 Stereo Level Control, ...
15/07/2026
COW Jobs: Producer, Virtual Events - Hybrid, Full Time, Salaried
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Producer, Virtual Events (Hybrid | Full-time | ...
15/07/2026
Brazilian media organization builds nationwide CDN with Broadpeak's high-performance software for low-latency streaming and new content distribution service...
15/07/2026
DHD announces a new utility designed to increase the efficiency of its audio mixing systems during initial installation and subsequent configuration.
Anyone w...
15/07/2026
BCNEXXT Brings Next-Generation Vipe to IBC2026, Breaking the 1:1 Channel-to-Server Ratio New innovations liberate broadcasters from legacy playout infrastructur...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
General-purpose robots and autonomous machines are moving from research labs to ...
15/07/2026
Wednesday 15 July 2026
Screeners and press pack now available: Gomorrah: The Or...
15/07/2026
Trinity's Treasures features Ruth Negga, Eleanor McEvoy, and David Norris, a...
15/07/2026
Join geographer Dr Susan Hegarty, Engineer Tim Joyce and Architect Orla Murphy a...
15/07/2026
Home to leading manufacturers, robotics pioneers, infrastructure builders and iconic gaming companies, of course, Japan is one of the world's centers of AI ...
14/07/2026
South end zone videoboard, cloud-based control system will be ready for 2026 football season...
14/07/2026
Redesigned website, enhanced mobile app unify content, ticketing, and personalized fan engagement...
The Current State of the Industry and the Future Impact of AI 
