Everyone Panics While the Work Gets Better

The entertainment industry is having a meltdown. Netflix is circling Warner Bros. Discovery like a shark. Century-old studios might vanish by Christmas. The trades are writing obituaries.

I'm watching something different happen.

The industry is a reflection of culture and what society is going through. Technology drives content creation now. That's not new. What's new is how everyone interprets what that means.

People think streaming killed cable, so now streaming will kill studios, and AI will kill everything else. It's a tidy narrative. But it’s missing the point.

The Palette Expanded

Here's what actually changed: we have more formats now, not fewer options.

Yes, attention spans are shorter. Yes, people watch videos wherever they live instead of ABC 7 News. But movies still get made. Television shows still get made. People still watch Garage Squad for a full hour.

The palette expanded. It didn't replace anything.

We created Discovery Channel's first short-form series, One-of-A-Kind Cars. Short-form made sense for that story. When you're telling a character-first, human-first story in a docu-series, you need time with people. The format follows the story, not the panic.

The IP Conversation Gets Interesting

Platforms care about IP. Warner Bros cares about IP. Netflix cares about IP. Everyone's obsessed with established audiences because that's the safe bet when budgets tighten.

But there's a runway where you run out of IP. Everything can't be a rehash.

That's why you're seeing the pivot to creators and influencers. For some companies, it's just cheaper. You capture audiences creators already built instead of investing big dollars in something new. That's the cynical read, and sometimes it's accurate.

On the other hand, everything is just people. There are creators out there with amazing ideas. The creator economy might hit $480 billion by 2027 because some of those people are genuinely good at what they do.

What Consolidation Actually Means

Too much consolidation probably isn't great. The number of people hired to work on shows has declined. When major studios shrink to four, that creates pressure.

But different platforms have different motivations. Apple TV still wants prestige projects. Others just want viable product that gets eyeballs. The industry is practicing strategic and measured investment now, focusing on quality over the content deluge that overwhelmed everyone.

Here's the part that cuts through everything: best story always wins.

Whether it's a creator sitting in their house with a phone or a full production with craft services and a crew of fifty, the question is the same. What's the funniest thing? What's the most compelling thing? What's the best story?

That hasn't changed. The ownership structures are transforming dramatically around us, but the fundamentals remain constant.

The Clarifying Moment

This reset favors studios that understand specific audiences and can produce distinctive work without excessive costs. It favors creators who know how to tell stories that land.

We bring strategy, storytelling, and production under one roof. That combination matters more now, not less. When platforms want quality without waste, they need partners who can think clearly and execute cleanly.

The industry isn't ending. It's clarifying.

All the noise about acquisitions and consolidation obscures a simpler truth. If you can build character-first, human-first content that earns attention instead of demanding it, you're positioned exactly where you need to be.

The fundamentals win. They always do.