RESEARCH REPORT
Grounded in global consumer and executive research, these five signals reveal how audiences, technology and transformation momentum are reshaping media growth.
5-MINUTE READ
February 12, 2026
Grounded in consumer behavior and executive perspective
This analysis draws on:
Together, these perspectives surface the behavioral, technological, and economic forces reshaping how media companies create and capture value.
Consumer media preferences are changing, impacting the monetization potential of existing areas. Audience behavior is becoming more splintered across media types. The way they consume media and show loyalty to content increasingly follows context and need rather than a single brand.
2
Media types chosen most by consumers in 10 scenarios, like “when I want to relax” (SVOD 9, Music 1) in 2022
3
Media types chosen most by consumers in 10 scenarios (SVOD, Social Media/Video, Music) in 2023
6
Media types chosen most by consumers in 10 scenarios (SVOD, Social Media/Video, Music, Sports Betting, AI Chatbots, Video Games) in 2025
As consumption splits across categories, growth favors companies that flow with audiences into adjacent categories and expand their portfolios.
SVOD platforms and content formats are under pressure as traditional long-form viewing engagement is losing ground to other formats. Attention increasingly flows to short-form vertical video with creator content viewed.
58%
Consumers say user-generated video such as Tik Tok is just as entertaining as traditional media.
36%
Consumers use a second screen, primarily to scroll social media, during long-form viewing experiences.
55%
Consumers want social features inside their streaming services.
As engagement spreads across experiences, winners will reject rigidity and flow to embrace a diversity of formats and bundles. Vertical content, creators’ spaces, communities and the like are critical for capturing and retaining engagement.
AI adoption is accelerating across media. However, most organizations remain focused on productivity gains rather than reinvention and admit to lacking an AI strategy. When ambition outpaces readiness, that gap becomes a chasm.
90%+
Media executives expect generative AI and new market entrants to significantly reshape the industry within two years.
87%
expect AI to materially improve content production and post-production.
3%
Media executives have a clear view of AI’s impact on business strategy.
16%
Legacy media executives focused on building an AI-Ready Company compared to 74% of media executives at media divisions of diversified tech platforms.
AI’s competitive advantage will accrue for organizations that radically rethink workflows, operating models, and experiences. Incremental changes to optimize existing processes with AI tools will not keep pace.
Media leaders express optimism about their digital maturity, even as legacy systems constrain speed and flexibility and aggressive competitors outspend them.
60%
Media executives believe they are ahead of peers in AI adoption.
88%
Media executives cite rigid tech stacks as a top transformation barrier.
3%
Gap in IT Spend as % of Revenue between legacy media companies (6%) and media units of diversified technology platforms (9-10%).
Technology is increasingly driving the future of media innovation. Plus, technology foundations increasingly determine how fast organizations can adapt. Without a modern digital core and sufficient capital, tech optimism becomes a liability.
Many media organizations are slowing transformation just as competitive pressure increases.
11%
Media executives expecting extreme disruption in the next 5 years after 43% referring to the last 5 years as extreme disruption, believing that the worse is behind them.
52%
Legacy media executives focused on incremental tactics while 84% of the media execs at diversified technology platforms focused on fundamental transformation
The most significant risk is not disruption itself but rather falling behind while more aggressive competitors advance. To thrive, leaders must be able to adapt quickly.
Why reinvention now demands fluidity
Across all five signals, a unifying theme emerges. Growth and resilience will favor media companies that move beyond rigid models and continuously adapt to shifting audience behaviors, evolving technologies, and new economic realities.
Reinvention is no longer a one-time transformation program. It is an ongoing discipline—reallocating investment, redesigning engagement, and resetting operating models as conditions change. In a landscape defined by fragmentation and acceleration, the ability to act and adjust may matter more than the ability to predict.
