Fight for Attention Underway

Key Points:

• Hollywood and Big Tech are increasingly clashing as technology and AI companies push deeper into entertainment, aiming to dominate TV screens and reshape how audiences spend their free time.
• Traditional media companies are responding with mega-mergers, such as Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of Roku and the proposed $111 billion Paramount-Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery deal, to gain scale and compete with tech platforms.
• YouTube currently leads in TV watch time and continues to grow, while Meta is expanding Instagram’s longform video content on TVs, partnering with Samsung to increase its presence on big screens and challenge legacy streaming services.
• Despite Big Tech’s expansion into media, their support for creative content is inconsistent, as seen in recent project cancellations and content disputes, raising concerns about conflicts between corporate interests and artistic freedom.
• The coming years will witness intensified competition between Big Tech and Hollywood for viewer attention, with both sides leveraging technology, scale, and content to dominate the evolving entertainment landscape.