Skip to main content

Digital Media Era Creates the Perfect Storm

Kagan Research reports that most media sectors have been slumping for years on Wall Street as cable TV, broadcasting and film underperform the broad stock market. Established media companies are unaccustomed to life in the doghouse because for decades they were darlings of the investors.

Are they in a "perfect storm" � a freak confluence of unfavorable trends that will suddenly pass � or has the media landscape evolved into a more hostile environment? It's an interesting debate.

Established media is roiled by digital media's disintermediation (consumers accessing content directly thus bypassing traditional aggregators), personalization and increasing overlap erasing watertight media borders of the analog era.

"I see a lot of uncertainty about the effect of viewer time shifting, the erosion of the 30 second TV spot, and the threat of the Internet for video delivery," observes John Mansell, a senior analyst at Kagan Research. "There's too much up in the air to expect optimism from Wall Street in the near term."

Popular posts from this blog

The Smartphone Market's Premium Pivot

The global smartphone market closed 2025 with a story less about recovery and more about transformation. Premium product, ecosystem lock-in, and manufacturing scale are now the forces shaping competition. For business and technology leaders, the latest IDC market study data confirms that smartphones remain a critical indicator of consumer demand, supply chain health, and AI commercialization at the edge. Smartphone Market Development Global smartphone shipments grew 2.3 percent year-over-year in Q4 2025, reaching 336.3 million units and bringing full-year volumes to 1.26 billion units — a modest 1.9 percent annual increase, according to IDC. This smartphone growth emerged despite a memory shortage crisis, tariff volatility, supply chain disruption, and macroeconomic headwinds. What stabilized demand? Two factors: sustained growth in premium devices and strong foldable momentum, combined with accelerated purchases as consumers bought ahead of anticipated price increases. Buyers weren...