Ethan Wright, Director, KICK.Media isn’t just evolving. It’s being redefined.
The recent bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery between Netflix and Paramount Skydance is a sign of that shift. Rather than paying to license Warner Bros.’ enviable catalogue, Netflix went after owning it. It also saw a chance to take Warners-owned HBO global – with Netflix generating 50 per cent of its revenue outside the US. While Paramount won the bid, it remains to be seen whether it can beat Netflix in streaming. Consumers will benefit from Paramount coming out ahead, as more movies will be released to theatres. Warners’ CNN, however, stands to lose; the deal compounds AI’s growing threat to truth.
Broadcast media was meant to reach the greatest numbers of people and then monetise that audience through ads. While scale still matters – having powered the industry’s many mergers – content matters even more, as consumption habits are changing drastically. Media is no longer just responding to reality. Reality itself is being shaped by media. Producers and consumers must adjust for two reasons.
First, production is being decentralised and deinstitutionalised. Aided by AI, creators no longer ask for permission but, occasionally, for forgiveness. Creator Camp is a case in point. It’s turning production on its head – from top-down to bottom-up – inviting creators to produce movies outside the traditional studio infrastructure. In doing so, the ambition isn’t to replicate Hollywood but to reinvent the Hollywood model, shifting power from institutions to communities.
Second, audiences are no longer passive consumers. With digital devices always within reach, audiences can now produce as easily as they consume. That connectivity changes the expectations people have of content. There’s a fast-growing preference for live, interactive, and malleable formats that not only entertain but engage, involving audiences in ways that used to be unthinkable.
AI is no doubt accelerating this media revolution. It democratises creative ability, speeds up the creative process, lowers production costs, and makes possible the rapid release of vast volumes of content. But as content becomes near-infinite, attention comes under strain. The creators best placed to capture and sustain that attention, monetise community, and come out on top in this new media age are those who push boundaries and put their audience in the driver’s seat.
Hollywood doesn’t constitute the frontline in this quest for attention. To spot the movers and shakers of today’s media revolution, look East. Few societies are as youthful and hyperconnected as the Gulf states. Take Saudi Arabia, for example. Over 70 per cent of Saudis are under the age of 35 and – in a country where internet penetration sits at 99 per cent – nearly 80 per cent of people watch videos online every day. That level of connectivity means consumers are spoilt for choice, which makes them uniquely powerful in determining both the content they choose to watch and the perimeters of the content that gets made in the first place.
That Paramount’s acquisition of Warners was backed by Emirati, Qatari, and Saudi sovereign wealth is no coincidence. It’s part of a broader strategy to future-proof the media and entertainment landscape. Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group, for example, is planning to invest $38 billion in the industry. It’s also doubling down on gaming – from the Qiddiya giga-project to the Esports World Cup. The Gulf is capturing audiences by recognising their leverage.
This audience-first approach to media is embodied by livestreaming. Whereas on-demand platforms are built with consumption in mind, live content blurs the line between production and consumption. It enables engagement in real time and creates a novel setting in which audiences both consume and shape content.
Livestreaming succeeds where traditional media falls short: it enables agency. That agency, in turn, builds community; community rewards loyalty; and loyalty creates value – for audiences and creators alike. What is taking shape is a categorically new model of media, one that forges and empowers communities, one that doesn’t only interpret reality but also shapes it. Such an audience-first media model is naturally being embraced by hyperconnected societies such as the Gulf states, with profound implications and important lessons for the rest of the world.
In more ways than one, the Gulf states have become centres of gravity, with the capital and experience to envision and build bold futures. As the link between technology and entertainment grows, the Gulf’s advanced energy and digital infrastructure, along with strategic investments in AI, are creating uniquely fertile ground for the Silicon Valleys and Hollywoods of tomorrow to emerge.
Succeeding in tomorrow’s media landscape means putting audiences first. It means building not just platforms, content, and formats that deliver what audiences want, but also creating communities united by their agency. To lead the industry, rather than be left writing their own obituaries, brands must convert audience agency into loyalty, knowing that the future of media is topsy-turvy.
By Ethan Wright, Director, KICK.
