Companies should understand the big media and entertainment industry trends to succeed in 2023, growing their revenues, and avoid falling behind their competitors.

16 Trends in the Media and Entertainment Industry to Watch

2021 has been pivotal for many businesses, but it’s time to have a look at how the latest trends in the media and entertainment industry will change in 2022. The global pandemic is still impacting buyer behavior. As tech keeps on advancing, industries have to adapt, modify, and innovate to meet new consumer expectations. Many are wondering whether 2022 will bring new seismic shifts and whether media and entertainment consumption will grow.

The M&E industry is making a serious headway regarding representation on-screen because of a rapid media and entertainment digital transformation. OpenGeeksLab would like to share our most prominent forecasts on digital media trends with you, from video sharing mobile apps, on-demand streaming TV, OTT content marketing to artificial intelligence solutions.

Media and Entertainment Trends: Brief Market Outlook

According to MarketWatch Report, by 2030, the entertainment and media sector is predicted to achieve roughly $6709.4 billion, with a CAGR of 10.40 percent. This industry has the largest share and popularity in the United States.

At 717 billion dollars, the US media and entertainment market represents a third of a global M&E industry. This field contains radio, book publications, games, ads, TV shows, movies, music, ancillary goods and services. In general, despite the consequences of COVID-19, this industry is showing a rapid return to growth. Thus, trends in the media and entertainment industry are changing.

Global revenues in US dollars can point to trends in the media and entertainment industry for the upcoming three years.

Source: PwC

This graph above proves that M&E is rehabilitating pretty well.

Other data shows the shift to personalized experience in a dynamically shaping industry. As stated by FIFA, for instance, 1.12 billion people watched the World Cup match between France and Croatia in 2018. However, now, one of the prevailing digital media consumption trends is for consumers to come up with their media menus, consuming media at their own pace.

More people start putting on their headphones everywhere, wearing some kind of a hermetically sealed bubble. They can access any type of content hassle-free, should it be from a mobile phone or tablet. Thus, it stimulates the growth of mobile video consumption.

Top Technology Trends in the Media and Entertainment Industry for You to Consider

Our team examines 16 media and entertainment trends, defining a path to post-pandemic recovery in the media and entertainment industry. Check these entertainment industry trends along with the most vivid examples for each category.

1. Current Trends in Digital Media: D2C Video Streaming

One of the latest trends in the media industry has been witnessing a rise since the initial introduction of global lockdown. During that period, users found it necessary to access diverse video content of premium quality. This need has triggered a drop in pay-per-view TV subscriptions in the United States, but raised overall digital video consumption.

Over-the-top stepped in to offer a variety of choices. OTT platforms include Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more. They all offer cross-platform compatibility necessary for most modern consumers. After all, an audience today prefers multiple platforms and devices for watching videos. Another outcome is streaming warfare.

D2C alone stands for direct-to-consumer marketing, and this strategy implies that a company promotes and sells goods and/or services right to its customers. It allows getting back control over the manufacturer’s marketing efforts and sales strategies. When it comes to future trends in the media and entertainment industry, here is how D2C video streaming works.

Consider the example of Disney. This company was a pioneer in D2C video streaming after it decided to retract content from Netflix and offer it in D2C channel via one of its major business projects, Disney+. That is when leading media houses started to recede content and hit third-party apps brutally.

The good question is how forthcoming watchers are in subscribing to digital media entertainment. Are they willing to pay for a great variety of streaming applications or not? One of the studies provides an answer. It says that 58 percent of US citizens subscribe to more than one major streaming media and entertainment software solutions (Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime).

Bucking emerging trends would be possible by reorganizing content and providing numerous content formats aggregated on a universal platform. For instance, Roku can come up with pay-as-you-go packages for availing the music/game libraries.

One of OpenGeeksLab’s clients has come up with an application for iOS, Android, and Smart TVs that allows consumers to access premium-quality videos, as well as options like content segmentation, personalized tips, and a browser of religious content. They named this app Experience Jesus, and it targets people of faith. Our team has created this video-sharing mobile solution in React Native, using the most efficient streaming protocols.

As of today, our company is also done with Sticks, catching up with all the latest trends. This one is a good solution for gaming gurus. It serves like Twitch with a more consumer-oriented strategy. Sticks is focused more on social aspects. For instance, it allows keeping in touch with broadcasters’ communities, arranging contests, and creating posts.

2. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality as the Top Digital Media Industry Trends

When it comes to current trends in digital media, ignoring augmented reality and virtual reality does not make sense. AR and VR content has conquered all lights in the media and entertainment businesses. They both strengthen relationships between content creators and watchers. Consumers today are catapulted into an environment with blurred borders between digital and physical realms.

These two technologies have been available for years because of the cost ramp down. Celebrities and artists realize that keeping in touch with their fans is essential for their activities. Distributing new releases is still complicated in the age of COVID-19.

Musicians can use VR entertainment content to bridge the gap caused by the pandemic’s consequences and their followers with live entertainment events canceled because of social distancing. The connection between artists and their fans has never been more profound than now, thanks to virtual and augmented worlds.

One example of these two trends working together is Pokemon Go. Popular social networks think that augmented reality and virtual reality provide affordability and mobility, whether live streaming or story-based videos. AR and VR entertainment software development boost experience more than ever. It’s necessary to optimize VR and AR content so that users of different devices can use them.

 

3. eSports Broadcasting Trends

Here is one of the new trends in television broadcasting. The global COVID-19 pandemic prevents fans from watching their favorite matches at the stadiums. However, it is not an obstacle any longer. eSports as one of the latest digital media trends is a way out; these industry revenues used to hit more than one billion dollars by 2021-2022. The most significant share is retrieved from media rights and sponsorships.

One more promising area involves legalized sports betting. It is expected to profiteer off the incoming 5G tech. Players have to place bets over telecommunication networks.

Gaming content services will also provide a space for recent augmented reality and virtual reality tech solutions. Such giants as WinZO and Mobile Premier League (MPL) have invested into real-money gaming quite a lot. Media and entertainment app development can be switched to this direction to foster software development. 5G technology is the key to success in this area.

4. Gaming Boost

eSports usually go hand-in-hand with gaming, so it’s time to consider gaming boost as one of the latest digital media trends as well. In 2020, the global pandemic forced the masses to cancel most sporting events due to the possible health risks. That is when gaming and eSports saved the situation, offering people worldwide to watch their favorite matches without attending stadiums.

By 2021, this solution has turned into a main driving force for interest in interactive gaming, tech, and boosted user experience. Most probably, gaming will stick to a trajectory and development plan similar to other digital tech innovations. In particular, the gaming industry will completely change how we communicate with each other.

Even such categories as mental health games apps will be developing further. This trend may even heavily impact the entire world wide web, just like mobile applications development, free social media apps, and eCommerce.

Experts share that more digital media industry trends will be introduced inside games. They are betting and live events, for example. Some non-gaming events for gamers could be an example too.

Based on some recent studies, most in-person entertainment events fell under the category of live in-game concerts; 40 percent of users call them more preferable than other in-game activities like virtual simulations of social life or film previews. That is one of the new trends in digital media that can boost the gaming business.

Some examples of game video streaming platforms include Nvidia GeForce Now, PlayStation Now, and Google Stadia.

5. AI Trends

One of the new trends in the media industry is artificial intelligence, which is impacting TV, VFX, radio, and so on. Entertainment organizations possess a sizable unstructured digital data repository that can be organized and analyzed using AI instruments. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing are equally effective in predicting user engagement with content.

M&E organizations have an extensive repository of user digital data, which is unstructured. Artificial intelligence has added a human-like dimension to mining and filling this digital data.

AI is effective for quickly estimating and retrieving emotional changes – information necessary to understand customer behavior and digital media consumption trends better. Thanks to this accurate data, it’s possible to provide customized recommendations on how content can be improved.

Various streaming applications apply AI technologies along with smart machine learning algorithms, offering videos, audio podcasts, and high-quality streaming music that their audience will most probably add to their favorites.

AI tech innovations assist with classifying digital data as per mutual features. This way, a company can predict user engagement, allowing for better monetization opportunities. For instance, Spotify applies different AI solutions when deciding on recommendations for new music that users eventually fall in love with. These recommendations will soon become more specific because of Big Data’s fast expansion, as well as the complexity of new algorithms.

Different statistics collected by various research centers and magazines prove that there are many AI-driven entertainment benefits for media conglomerates.

Sources: Analytics Insight, Business Insider, Gartner, McKinsey

 

So, here are several advantages of tailoring content to specific audiences:

  • Average content consumption through the same platform is growing.
  • Content relevant to specific groups of consumers is more easily found.
  • Users feel that you care about their preferences, becoming more loyal.

The result of it all is the significantly increased subscriber retention rate.

AI technologies assist with realizing how entertainment will impact users on an emotional level. It prevents retail media organizations from a PR crisis or embarrassment.

 

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6. Blockchain

When we speak about new trends in the media business, blockchain is the technology to pop in our minds. Blockchain is related to crypto in the minds of most people. This media and entertainment technology can simplify intricacies associated with intellectual property rights.

Blockchain tech can save and process large portions of digital data. That is how it assists with defining the NFT digital content author. It helps to avoid issues with duplicate content and plagiarism. Digital information kept in the blockchain is rather tough to alter.

NFTs are one of the new trends in digital media and entertainment, allowing to make good money on different digital artworks, such as images, videos, or GIFs.

Source: qiibee

 

Also, ignoring the sudden rise of NFT digital content is impossible. This abbreviation stands for non-fungible tokens. They bring scarcity to digital products. NFT content drives new models of customer loyalty and provides more digital good innovation. Examples of NFTs include William Shatner’s memorabilia, Nyan Cat, Jack Dorsey’s first Tweet.

7. Music Streaming Services

A wide range of live music streaming apps and services is known. They include Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Music, offering unrestricted access to large music libraries. Streaming tracks over the web or mobile network or downloaded right to a preferred device is definitely a trend. Most of these services require paying a set subscription fee per month.

Another client of OpenGeeksLab, an experienced media and entertainment app development company, has invented Terox, an application for those looking for audio-streaming services. It allows distributing music across main music platforms. Artists can easily check statistics on records, platforms, and revenue.

8. Sport and Mindfulness

More people get rid of bad habits, switching to a healthy way of life. That’s why fitness apps are a “meta trend” impacting many aspects of human life. Inside, you have Zwift, Peloton, and garage gyms. Even ax throwing has been taking off. Thus, you can find a fitness application for rather rare purposes.

Bikepacking is another “hot trend.” Such sports activities are not new to the business, but they’re becoming more popular in 2022. You can check out some fitness video-on-demand platforms like Uscreen Basic, Memberspace, Teachable, and more. As for a gym application or a workout tracker app, users often choose Map My Run, Fitness Buddy, JEFIT Workout Planner App.

Finally, some top mental wellbeing apps include Youper, Sober Time, Letgoh, and Innerhour Self-Help & Therapy. On the whole, there are many categories of software that assist with supporting our health, including mental health diagnosis app, apps that are good for mental health, AI mental health app, mental health monitoring app, and more. They are different by their functionality, but all have a single aim – supporting our health.

By the way, let’s introduce Solid Fit, a fitness social network created by OpenGeeksLab. We have developed this solution for those who need home workout apps, tracking tools, and nutrition applications all in one. While working on this business project, our team consulted the best industry experts like pro coaches.

 

9. Online Dating Services

This industry has benefited from a myriad of tech innovations, as well as shifts in buyer attitudes. Popular dating apps for mobile generate the most revenues in the dating industry.

Tinder, Badoo, Bumble, and Tantan are currently the most popular dating apps in the global dating app market.

Source: BusinessofApps

 

Market players have started catering to the increasing inclination toward digital services and comfort by adding various functionality like GPS, allowing users to find possible partners in their area. Some renowned apps for couples include eHarmony, Tinder, Jdate, Hinge, Bumble, OkCupid.

10. Mental Health Applications

Mental health is just as important as physical health. That is why mental health application development matters. Various tools assist with overcoming depression, anxiety, anger, and so on. Experts forecast that global investment in mental health mobile apps will achieve something around 500 million dollars by 2022.

Mental health tracker app solutions are also popular because of the affordable costs. Accessing mental wellness apps and integrating them into daily life is very easy. Some known examples include MindShift, Just a Thought, IMoodJournal, eMoods, notOK. In many cases, users can communicate with real experts, getting the necessary professional help, or use mental health journal app to keep an eye on their therapy progress.

11. Popular Social Media Apps

In 2022, TikTok will have all chances to become the most robust social network. This social media application has one billion monthly active users (MAU’s). Consumers also start spending more money on shopping on social media. In fact, 76% of consumers purchase products seen in social media posts. Finally, businesses will start spending huge ad USD on relatively small networks.

Our company is well-aware of social media’s role in 2022, so we have developed The H Hub. For creators, it’s an opportunity to obtain support, recognition, and make money. Brands can use it when hiring the best influencers when the best-branded content is needed.

12. Event Apps

The events business will not go back to the way things used to be. Now, placing event tech at the center of your event strategy is critical.

Because of social distancing, virtual platforms took over the event venues. We can see an amazing surge in event applications. The most successful examples are virtual and hybrid event apps that are like venues to host one’s events.

Some other tools from this category are focused more on management instruments, video on-demand streaming solutions, sign-up procedures. Some top popular examples of event management apps include Eventmobi, Whova, Super event, EventX.

 

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13. In-Person Event Safety Technologies

Once it is fully secure, people will return to in-person entertainment events. They include festivals, gigs, movies, concerts, and so on. Still, event managers should ensure safety for each of these events. Several tech solutions can help with this issue:

  • Crowd monitoring technologies;
  • Contactless payment methods;
  • Contactless admissions;
  • Devices for temperature assessment;
  • Distant meal and merchandise ordering.

These tech innovations are a must-have in the event industry as they allow people to return to the good old times, having fun.

14. Digital Data Privacy

Companies should keep on updating their strategies as privacy laws modify and less digital data is available for collection. Introducing privacy protection measures ahead of regulations is necessary.

Increasing focus on user privacy, as well as recommending goods through personalization by leveraging top quality first-party data, is a change on the horizon for many businesses.

Media entertainment companies should consider user digital data privacy rights along with making sure that such info as scripts, geo-location, and sources stay confidential. Users, in their turn, require access to their personal data on-demand to comply with digital data privacy regulations.

15. Content Personalization

Many factors impact consumers’ preferences and moods at different day times. Recommendations for users should come in a clean, seamless user interface. The challenge for businesses is to win and retain users’ trust, persuading them to obtain unbiased information. Still, their tastes may change dynamically.

That’s why recommendation systems should try to encourage the discovery of new content, enriching the cultural life of customers. For instance, those looking for an educational video on demand might be interested in various informative content like science, history, or literature.

Some examples of personalized content include gamification, interactive quizzes, surveys, GPS-based map applications, retargeted ads on social media platforms, personalized emails.

16. OTT Content Advertisements

With on-demand streaming services soaring in popularity, over-the-top is the next stage in the television ad evolution. It is one of the major video content trends.

That is because, unlike in the case of linear television, consumers who choose OTT content can watch their favorite shows and movies without being disturbed by an ad break every 10-15 minutes. This way, they are less irritated. This is a premium viewing experience for consumers, still being one of the best features of platforms like Amazon Prime.

Remaining competitive is possible through adopting advertisement-supported content business models. Most leading media and entertainment firms understand that, but some may lack experience or necessary technologies.

YouTube was one of the first content services to launch this type of monetization model. Interestingly, users wait patiently for YouTube ads to watch their favorite shows to the end. On the contrary, linear TV consumers will probably quit watching, or switch the channel, avoiding the annoying commercials. YouTube is not the only successful example.

Netflix, for instance, bounced back in 2021, adding 4.4 million subscribers worldwide. Another popular example of a video-sharing application is HBO Max, with 73.8 million subscribers globally. Nowadays, many households seem to be tuning into on-demand live TV streaming apps like those mentioned before. Traditional TV broadcasting is undergoing a gradual decrease. Other examples of popular video sharing apps are Vimeo, TikTok, Dtube, Facebook Watch, Vevo.

On-demand streaming is there for people who wish to control when they want to quit watching the previous show, starting to watch a new one. Thus, it makes no wonder that OTT’s popularity is proliferating.

PwC projects that total OTT video content revenues will achieve more than $70 billion mark.

Source: PwC

 

Over-the-top content is about creating interest in your product or service by solving issues for your target audience or offering entertainment. So, you should consider OTT when developing a TV application for Smart TV. OTT marketing is about pointing consumers in the direction of content they might like, based on such factors as lists of favorite shows and browsing history.

As you can see, media conglomerates or television studios will benefit from penetrating OTT space. It allows for a more extensive viewership of their advertisement slots. In its turn, it means charging more to organizations searching for ways to advertise with these media conglomerates or TV studios. This digital streaming trend will only keep on emerging throughout 2022.

How Can OpenGeeksLab Assist Media and Entertainment Industry Players?

While 2021 was about perseverance, 2022 will probably be about taking bold bets and experimenting with content. We can notice profound shifts in consumer tastes. Media and entertainment industry players should be ready to face new concepts, storylines, faces, and, of course, implement or upgrade technologies covered in this post. Should it be VR, AR, or AI, you should not underestimate the role of every trend offered by experts.

OpenGeeksLab, a digital transformation company, intends to assist media and entertainment market players with staying ahead of their competitors through utilizing all necessary technologies. Our team leverages various digital product engineering opportunities powered by cloud systems, mobile, and analytics. Our team conducts in-depth research to provide solutions towards boosting client experience and enhancing business efficiency.

So, what exactly can our team do for you? First, OpenGeeksLab assisted top entertainment companies with legacy modernization by leveraging different opportunities provided by cloud and mobile technologies. That is how we boost customer experience using cloud transformation.

One more thing that our team can do for your business is custom entertainment app development using the latest tech solutions. We create powerful software systems for your business using Agile development approaches, testing services, and a DevOps strategy.

OpenGeeksLab has been delivering top-quality goods and services to the top media and entertainment companies that feel like they need a helping hand. Your digital journey is about to begin – contact our team now!

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