2022 Digital media trends: Toward the metaverse [REPORT]

This year’s Digital media trends survey revealed that media companies in the United States are now feeling more turbulence from the deeper currents shaping consumer behavior. After 15 years of growth, streaming video on-demand (SVOD) services have successfully unbundled video, lowered costs to consumers, and ignited fierce competition among providers. Top SVOD services are consolidating content and taking the competition for subscribers into global markets. But they face greater pressure to attract and retain subscribers who have grown savvier about their subscriptions and more cost-conscious.

In that same 15 years, screen-based entertainment has evolved beyond TV and movies. Streamers and studios are challenged to attract and retain younger generations who have grown up with smartphones, social media, and video games, which deliver finely tuned experiences that are social, interactive, and immersive. So, while SVOD providers may have disrupted TV and movies, the medium—and its business models—still looks much the same as it did when they were created 15 years ago.

Since then, social media has expanded and evolved dramatically. Social media services now deliver finely tuned and personalized feeds of images, video, music, news, gaming, and shoppable media to billions of users, all lit up by social networking and provided for free. Top services are adding new lines of revenue by becoming retail destinations and leveraging influencers and creator economies to reinforce engagement and purchasing.

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