Digital consumption habits How tomorrow’s audiences will reshape entertainment

The 20,000 Foot View:  Digital-first access has shaped mainstream consumption, but for digital natives, it has also shaped their core behaviours. Music consumption is now fragmented across artists, becoming a personalised, anytime anywhere activity – making the value exchange more niche and personal. Video streaming services have oversaturated the marketplace, competing directly for attention time with social video among younger consumers. Meanwhile, games and sports have managed to capitalise on engaged digital habits by developing cross-platform value – highlighting an emerging cultural trend of lean-in participation as the next expression of fandom. This is the culture of creation as consumption. 

Key insights

• Music listening            now largely correlated to activity,                       of consumers discovering new music            mood and activity-based playlists in           
• While streaming            commodified music – fragmenting fandom            relegating it to a background            activity, it remains a very            form of entertainment
           of            year olds discover music regularly through personalised playlists, rising to            of 20-24 year olds and dropping slightly to            of            year olds
• While fragmented            listening allows for niche fan            for creators, fragmented video services            viewing have led to direct            and attention saturation 
• One way            mitigate against increased subscriber churn            the face of a recession            be to bundle subscription offerings
• However, while            video viewers may prefer the            of bundled streaming propositions, younger            may not be interested in            the bundled service model which            now appearing in digital media           
• Digital native            habits are fragmented across platforms            social and streaming, and the            cases for video differ from            of digital migrants, i.e. using            TV shows as background entertainment,            concurrent viewing, or lean-in favourites 
• Gaming and            have successfully navigated the cross-lateral            landscape, offering game video streams,            function like live sports events,            sports leagues in video game           
• Cross-media games            with sports, film and music            now made ‘lean-in’ participative content            a dominant feature among younger            native consumers
• Advertisers must            carefully assess the context of            brand placements, such as whether            ads are being seen in            or tertiary attention locations
• Rights holders            also become more aware of            content placements and partnerships. For            it is beneficial to compete            different entertainment formats e.g. games,            and audio all related to            same IP

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Amazon, Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV+, Call of Duty, Discovery+, Disney+, ESPN+, FFA, GameStop, hay, HBO Max, Hulu, Madden NFL, MUBI, NBA            Netflix, Peacock, Star, The Witcher, Tubi TV, Twitch, YouTube, TikTok