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:
- Map your landlord. Know exactly which companies sit between you and your viewers. Calculate what percentage of your revenue they touch. Understand their incentives, which may not always align with your incentives.
- Build leverage together. The open internet is not guaranteed. A healthier ecosystem is one where consumers have choices, streamers and creators can own their future, and no single gatekeeper controls all the pipes. This system won’t emerge on its own. It has to be built and defended together.
- Demand the data. If a streaming app can’t tell you how your content was discovered, how many people saw it, and why they stopped watching, that’s not a partner. That’s a landlord who only talks to you on rent day.
- Invest in how things are made, not just what you make. Build AI and software teams that serve the creative process. Use data to test assumptions before greenlighting projects, not just to write postmortems. Treat technology as a creative advantage, not a cost center. Enable the world’s best creatives to realize their vision faster.
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.
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