2025 Media Predictions
Predicting what the state of media will be in 2025 is no small feat. Fortunately, at Crowd React Media, we published three comprehensive reports on the state of media in 2024. They were The State of Media 2024 (our keystone publication), The State of Sports Media 2024, and The State of Spanish-Language Media 2024. Our three whitepapers demonstrated significant shifts in overall media usage towards digital streaming platforms and video-based social media, with a few exceptions, namely Radio’s continued resilience in the face of rampant tech adoption. Audio, overall, is as popular as ever, especially with younger demographics.
Here are our predictions:
- Traditional Radio persists in the digital age
- Our whitepapers serve to demonstrate the remarkable resilience of traditional radio in the age of streaming and social media. The localism and community inherent to radio, particularly with sports talk and Hispanic radio, give it a foothold in a turbulent period of legacy media upheaval. Radio broadcasters are also not tech-shy. Digital streams of local stations are musts for any broadcaster hoping to survive in this environment. And the good news is, people are listening. More than half the country regularly listens to traditional radio. The trajectory of cable and radio in the streaming era couldn’t be starker. An artist having a song in regular rotation on radio stations lends credibility to that artist in a way that streaming does not. Among the first stops for any reputable publicity team are the station heads for new music formats. Radio airplay simply confers credibility and will continue to do so.
- Cable is just streaming now
- Cable will rise again, albeit in the form of streaming. Cable companies are in for a rough 2025 with continued cord-cutting into the latter half of the 2020s. However, streaming will increasingly resemble broadcast cable, especially with regards to cost. Investors will be pushing hard to recoup their initial investment into streaming, resulting in price-hikes, increased ad-visibility, tiered ad plans, and expensive pay-per view special event offerings. The increasingly byzantine package-deals within pre-existing subscriptions to streaming platforms will have many customers feeling they traded out their cable boxes for a near-identical experience with streaming boxes and smartTVs.
- Podcasts are primarily a video-based medium, an on-demand version of Daytime TV
- Whether it’s Joe Rogan, Call her Daddy, New Heights, or virtually any True Crime series, what you’re basically consuming is a newfangled version of The Ellen Show, The View, or Nancy Grace. There will be an audio component to podcasts, but that is for the audio ‘purists’. Parasocial relationships are the norm nowadays, and podcasts, especially video podcasts, offer a level of intimacy with the consumer that surpasses the limitations of broadcast daytime television. Podcasts were originally thought principally to be a threat of talk radio. Today and in the future, podcasts are a threat to roundtable television programs.
- Music streaming platforms will stagnate
- When everyone and their mom has a Spotify or Apple Music account, what is the growth strategy for music streaming platforms? How do you make more money on a product as ubiquitous as music streaming? Wall Street requires constant innovation and profit growth, and year-on-year stagnation of profits will not fly. Expect a mild consumer backlash to music streaming and some worrying reports on flagging user growth for these platforms.
- Wherever Sports goes, the entire media industry will follow
- The carrier disputes between Disney/ESPN and Charter Communications and Dish TV, essentially hastened cord-cutting. Being able to watch SEC football games outstripped any loyalty to cable carriers. They switched to streaming alternatives like YouTubeTV…and stayed there. Millions made the switch and fundamentally altered the trajectory of the broadcast industry.
- Pat McAfee, a viral YouTube personality, effectively disrupted the nature of daytime sports programming, with his bespoke fusion of bonhomie, betting tips, irreverent banter, insider takes, and sophomoric charm. He is an influencer that cracked the mainstream and changed expectations for what sports programming looks and sounds like (YouTube, basically).
- NIL’s implications will be more keenly felt in 2025, with College football stars climbing out of their Lamborghinis in Armani suits and Gucci shades with paparazzi in their face at the stadium on game day. The production, presentation, and audience reach will gradually resemble that of the professional leagues.
- Artificial Intelligence
- Expect one thing about AI to really heat up in 2025: More think-pieces on AI.
We at Crowd React Media would like to thank all who downloaded our whitepaper reports and regularly read our weekly roundup. We hope to hear from you in 2025!
Best,
Sean Bos
Co-founder at Crowd React Media
Vice President of Research at Harker Bos Group
