At a recent industry conference, commentator and analyst Bisson articulated a significant shift underway in the media and entertainment business, identifying streaming as the primary driver reshaping the sector. Speaking to Mi-3.com.au, Bisson highlighted two interconnected forces shaping this evolution: the convergence of all media business models into streaming as the main distribution channel, and a biological analogy—convergent evolution—that describes how audience demands are forcing different parts of the media value chain to adapt in similar ways.
Traditionally, the media industry operated with a clear division between content production and content delivery, often controlled by major conglomerates holding assets in both domains. Different delivery pathways such as theatrical releases, transactional rentals or purchases, subscription services, free-to-air broadcasting, and licensing operated within geographically and temporally segmented ecosystems. For instance, Australian broadcaster Nine Network primarily commissions and produces content tailored for its domestic audience, relying on "windowing" strategies where content moved through successive stages of distribution to extract incremental revenue over time.
Bisson explained, “We used geographic segmentation and windowing, so moving content through different windows of exploitation, each one extracting more money from that piece of content. And we did that in a very linear fashion.” However, he remarked that the arrival of streaming platforms has disrupted this model fundamentally. With streaming services operating on a global scale and releasing content without the traditional time or location restrictions, the segmented windows have compressed “into increasingly a single segment.” While theatrical cinema largely remains distinct, Bisson noted that everything else—subscription-based platforms, free-to-air, licensing and transactional models—has effectively converged into streaming, often consumed on a single screen. This convergence has brought new competitors into direct competition, with YouTube now available on televisions and increasingly challenging established entertainment formats.
Despite the upheaval facing legacy media models, Bisson expressed optimism for opportunities in the transformed market landscape. He outlined a new framework of four “simple ecosystems” categorising how content creation and distribution can operate in the streaming era: global production and distribution through streaming platforms, regional production coupled with regional distribution via local media outlets, regional distribution alone, and global distribution through platforms like YouTube and social media.
This new environment, he suggested, presents possibilities for local media companies to reposition themselves effectively to capitalise on the growth of global streaming platforms and social media giants, by combining, collaborating, and perhaps adopting strategies from one another. The essential challenge and opportunity lie in adapting traditional structures to this rapidly converging streaming reality reshaping the entire media landscape.
Source: Noah Wire Services