Category: Entertainment

A few months ago, I sat in a room where a product manager from a prominent TV operating system explained how an algorithm had reorganized their entire home screen. No human had approved the change. A show that a studio had spent two years, and a $100 million making, was now buried three rows down, behind a row of AI-generated thumbnails tested against 12 variants in real time. The show didn’t fail. It just disappeared.

Entertainment is a software industry now.

The tension we feel isn’t about content volume, business models, or even consolidation. Those are simply symptoms of an industry getting eaten by software when it’s still running the old playbook.

The cause: Every layer from production to distribution and monetization is now software. Cameras capture to hard drives. Editing happens in the cloud. Algorithms decide what viewers see, and ads are bought and sold in milliseconds by auction systems that do more daily transaction volume than a credit card company does in a year. Shows don’t compete on quality alone, but on code. A lot of this is good news: more stories from more voices, faster. But only if we acknowledge the shift and learn the new rules.

New Rules of the Game

Acting like a software industry means moving faster. It means building feedback loops that give the craft its best shot. Understanding audiences earlier. Testing assumptions before committing hundreds of millions of dollars. Learning what’s working while the project is still in motion, not after its release. The goal isn’t to create quick, cheap content; it’s about giving projects that creatives pour years into a real chance to land, commercially and culturally. Right now, we make huge creative bets in entertainment and hand over the outcome to algorithms that are not ours. That’s not protecting the craft. That’s gambling with it. The entertainment industry needs to invest in owning its future.

AI is the clearest example. Used well, it’s the most powerful creative tool in a generation. Writers can test story structures. Producers can previsualize entire sequences before committing a dollar to production. And marketing teams can find the right audience before launch, not after. The studios and streamers that build these capabilities through internal investment and trusted partnerships will make better work. The ones that wait will rent these tools from the same technology companies already controlling their distribution and often bulldozing their IP.

How Leverage Has Shifted

In every corner of entertainment, from gaming to movies, intermediaries have inserted themselves between creators and their audiences. A handful of companies control the operating systems apps run on and unilaterally decide which apps get prominent placement, and their cut of the subscription money. They decide what data flows and to whom.

Within streaming TV, another layer of software decides which shows get the home screen treatment and which disappear into the abyss of the infinite scroll. A streamer can invest hundreds of millions of dollars into content, build a beloved product, earn a loyal audience and still be at the mercy of whichever operating system owns the home screen.

The streaming industry spent the last decade fighting for subscribers while operating systems quietly gained an advantage. It’s the same way tech played out: If you own the OS, you’ll capture the leverage. It happened on mobile, in search and on social. Now it’s happening in media.

AI Raises the Stakes, Again

Platforms now use AI to generate quick content. This is not meant to replace the shows that spark culture and conversation, but to create a new category of programming: replaceable entertainment. It’s content designed to be sufficient — good enough that most people won’t notice the difference, and cheap enough that it doesn’t matter if they do. If that layer of programming sits more prominently atop an OS or a social platform, with no visibility into how other work is surfaced or monetized beside it, what leverage do we have?

Software and AI done right can mean more opportunities to grow and find new audiences and better tools to make great work. But that only happens if the systems are transparent. Right now, some of these systems are black boxes controlled by gatekeepers with conflicting incentives. The industry needs to come together around open tools for creation, distribution and monetization.

The next 18 months will determine who controls the stack. The AI layer isn’t locked in yet. Neither are the platforms. There’s a window, but it won’t stay open for long.

Here’s what we can do: 

I’ve spent my career in both worlds: building products at some of the world’s largest platforms, as well as working with the studios and creators who make the media people love. I know the impact that technology can have on entertainment. I also know what happens when an industry waits for someone else to figure it out. With these learnings, we’re focused on providing creators and entertainment companies with access to a streaming ecosystem that includes the tools and systems required to keep making great content that audiences love. We’re not fighting the future of technology — we’re ensuring the people who make the work have a seat at the table when the rules get rewritten.

If you run a studio, a streamer or a production company, this is your problem now. Not next year. Now. The window is open.

Let’s move.

One of the marquee panels at Mip London drew a full house as executives revealed that microdrama platforms are devoting as much as 90% of their budgets to marketing rather than production, underscoring how the fast-growing short-form storytelling sector is evolving into a user-acquisition business that increasingly resembles mobile gaming.

“Ninety percent of the budget goes to marketing,” said Timothy Oh, general manager of COL Group International, describing how companies test thousands of trailer variations across social platforms to drive downloads.

Oh said the economics of the sector closely mirror gaming models, where success depends primarily on acquiring and retaining users rather than on production scale. “Promoting short drama is the same as promoting any games,” he said, noting that teams continuously experiment with large volumes of advertising clips to optimize performance.

Anatolii Kasianov, co-founder and co-CEO of Holywater, said acquisition costs can reach $20 to $30 per install, forcing companies to rely heavily on data analytics and artificial intelligence to manage spending efficiently. “You need to be extremely efficient,” he said, explaining that AI tools are used to automate trailer creation and analyze marketing performance.

The discussion, part of the “MicroDrama 2026: The Global Breakout” session, focused on the business mechanics behind the rapidly expanding format of one- to two-minute narrative episodes designed primarily for mobile viewing.

Maria Rua Aguete, head of media and entertainment at Omdia, said the format’s growth is tied to broader shifts in viewing behavior. “Seventy-five percent of video consumption takes place on a smartphone,” she said, adding that even older audiences are increasingly watching video on mobile devices.

She also noted that monetization relies heavily on microtransactions, with viewers often discovering microdramas through free clips on social media before paying incremental fees to unlock episodes.

Executives said these payment structures further reinforce parallels with gaming economics, where revenue is driven by frequent small payments rather than traditional subscription models.

At the same time, panelists said the sector is evolving beyond its early focus on low-cost romance content and is beginning to attract higher-profile creative partnerships.

Alex Montalvo, co-founder and chief content officer of GammaTime, said platforms are expanding into genres such as thrillers and true crime while collaborating with established creators and adapting premium intellectual property. “This really is just the beginning of what is possible in this medium,” he said.

As competition intensifies globally, executives said the next phase of growth will depend on balancing aggressive user acquisition strategies with broader content ambitions.

“Don’t shun the format, embrace it,” Montalvo said.

Warner Bros. Discovery reported record-breaking streaming performance for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, with the company posting triple-digit growth across its HBO Max and Discovery+ platforms compared to the Beijing 2022 Games.

The return of the Olympic Winter Games to Europe, combined with what the company described as a highly innovative streaming experience, drove significant growth in viewership and engagement across WBD’s services.

Total hours viewed on its streaming services grew 103% versus Beijing 2022, with three times as many subscribers (234% growth) tuning in via HBO Max and Discovery+. The milestone came quickly – total subscribers streaming Milano-Cortina content surpassed the entirety of Beijing 2022’s streaming audience within just the first three days of full competition (Feb. 6-8).

Social video views on Eurosport’s European accounts and TNT Sports’ U.K. and Ireland accounts exceeded 4 billion, representing a 580% jump versus Beijing 2022.

“The success we witnessed in the opening days has translated into an outstanding Olympic Winter Games for Warner Bros. Discovery with substantial streaming viewership and engagement growth in addition to highly robust linear audiences,” said Andrew Georgiou, president and managing director of WBD Sports Europe.

A feature of this cycle was Olympics Multiview, a new offering that allowed streaming subscribers to watch up to four events simultaneously on a single screen with their choice of audio commentary. Roughly a third of users – 32% – made use of the feature. Viewers could also set personalized watch lists, receive gold medal alerts, track live action via timeline markers, and select from up to 21 commentary languages.

The platforms carried all 246 live sessions across the 19-day competition window, which peaked at 11 concurrent events and featured 116 medal contests with 2,900 athletes competing. Triple-digit streaming growth was recorded individually in France, Germany and Italy on HBO Max, as well as in the U.K. on Discovery+.

“Watching the Olympic Games on HBO Max and Discovery+ clearly resonated with audiences in the U.K. and Europe with three times as many people choosing to stream the Games with us compared to Beijing 2022,” Georgiou said. “Viewers being able to curate their own Olympics, selecting from all 116 live events and using innovative features such as our one-screen Multiview, drove significant increases in time spent by fans watching on our streaming services.”

Linear performance also held strong, with WBD’s Eurosport (Europe) and TNT Sports (U.K. and Ireland) channels posting a 3% increase in total viewers versus Beijing 2022 – a reversal of the broader decline in linear TV consumption seen over the same period. Total linear hours viewed climbed 51% versus the prior Winter Games. Country-level linear gains on Eurosport included France (+47% hours viewed), Germany (+50%) and Poland (+32%), while TNT Sports in the U.K. and Ireland climbed 60% in hours viewed.

Georgiou added: “This Olympics has set an incredibly strong foundation as we look to Los Angeles 2028 and the Olympic Winter Games returning to Europe again for French Alps 2030.”