The Colour Bar is where creativity, content, culture, tech, brands & humanity collide. This week, in the first dispatch for the year, the main thing is my 25 reflections on Media & Entertainment for 2025 (which started as 24 reflections from 2024).
Plus takes on the big story from Meta, a great read on Netflix’s content library, and Riot’s response on Arcane.
Lets go!
Reflections from 2024
Everything needn’t be video. Everything really shouldn’t be video. Everything is becoming video.
Content means so many things now. Everything is content.
Pop culture seems diffused. Scattered. I think there is still a ‘mainstream’, though. But it is accompanied by more flowing streams than ever before.
“We need more consolidation in media” (desperate industry leaders and insightful analysts). “We have been seeing consolidation in media for way too long” (weary industry people).
IPs are amazing for the entertainment industry. IPs are stymying the entertainment industry. Both are true depending which part of the industry you’re in, or what kind of consumer you are.
Sport is a true pillar of our age. The efforts to elevate / reduce it to mere entertainment will never cease.
I’m so glad there is more money in more sports. I so wish sports weren’t so dependent on it.
Music: genres have never been less relevant, their lines never more blurred.
Anime seems perpetually to be on the cusp of being a global phenomenon.
Gaming is still hard to crack for brands, in many regions. As a bright young strategist said to me, most are still in the “let’s try something small and see what happens” mode.
Movies are dying. Movies are in revival. Both are true depending on who you speak to, and when.
Prestige TV has retreated into its cave. Some will still make the effort to seek it out, others will prefer the ‘mid-TV’ party on the beach outside.
Streaming & TV is no more global today than it was 5 years ago. Some might argue it is less so.
Youtube and social media help us find/share/watch some good ad spots. TV channels ensure we don’t forget the general morass of mediocrity that ads still are!
There is so much worthy content out there- newsletters, podcasts, youtube videos, shows… Curation is invaluable; curation is often lazy. I really enjoy the curating aspect of my own newsletters, and responses to it.
In almost every social media platform, it is becoming harder & harder to find quality content. With scale comes slop. (Hello AI, please usher in orders of magnitude more volume, thank you very much).
Youtube seems to be on a path to becoming a multi-tiered platform. So much of it now resembles TV, or as I like it being called, “Independent TV”.
Crossovers between Youtubers and TV/streamers are fascinating. Who offers the other more? Who needs the other more? How much of a genuine overlap is there anyway?
Alternate news sources are blossoming. This is heartening, this is also unnerving. They need to take another step or three to become more meaningful and more credible, gaining relevance beyond newsletters and IG feeds. The classic problem of the alternative needing to become more mainstream.
All those individuals and organisations trying to ensure we see the good news, the better news, the positive stories out there, are doing work that is desperately needed.
A lot of podcasts are now just interviews. I am not complaining, but the simple interview format threatens to take over the podcast space. Not as much of a threat though, as the push to make all podcasts video-first.
Generative AI is doing amazing things. GenAI is frighteningly good. GenAI will get better. GenAI will scare many young-ish creatives away from the space. GenAI will convince many they are more creative than they might be.
Generative AI has many issues around safety, rights and ethics. The vast majority of people don’t really care.
Everyone in media is unsure of the state of their organisation, and/or their role. Many are figuring out what can be next, and how to get there. Most probably should be.
2025 is probably the trickiest time for young people entering the wider creative/content/media space. There is too much about to be turned on its head. Those graduating in 2030 or later, will probably see a better pathway
Let’s talk about Meta.
In news you are most certain to have heard of, Meta has decided to do away with fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram, replacing them with X (Twitter)-style "community notes"- basically gauging accuracy of posts is left to users. This is US-only for now, but that is already a huge deal for the world. It is likely to lead to some sort of confrontation between Meta and the European Commission, where regulators have strongly pushed for content moderation. Though The Zuck has also said Meta will work with a certain Donald Trump on pushing back on foreign governments that pressure the company “to censor.”
It is certainly cause for pause, with misinformation and extreme views already a significant concern for us and our children.
The Information calls it a “seismic event for social media”, CNN says it will “reshape the internet”, but the The Shovel chooses shock value in a, erm, novel way to comment on this.
How Everyone Got Lost in Netflix’s Endless Library
Coming in toward the end of last year, here is a riveting piece on Netflix’s ‘Endless Library’- its genesis, how it grows, how it (probably) works, and what it means for entertainment, culture, and the individual viewer.
Its a journey across funding, the “Debtflix” days, venture capital 101, Uber, creative hits, cable channels, peak and mid-TV,
It includes also this insightful 1993 quote from David Foster Wallace,
Television is the way it is, simply because people tend to be really similar in their vulgar and prurient and stupid interests and wildly different in their refined and moral and intelligent interests.
And so says, "the SVOD model (subscription video on demand) liberated TV from the law of averages and the prison of time and made it seem as if our refined, moral and intelligent interests might now be found on the other side of the screen."
Plus this take on how Prestige TV is giving way to something not dumber, but less particular.
"The rise of so-called Mid TV: shows that look expensive, are reasonably smart and packed with talent and somehow manage to be, in the Times TV critic James Poniewozik’s words, “ ... fine?”
Selling skins to make Arcane.
We spoke recently that the popular and critically acclaimed Riot Games/Netflix show Arcane's two seasons cost a stupendous $250 million to produce/ market. Riot’s co-founder Marc Merrill responded on Reditt to chatter about the show not being commercially viable.
“People who look at the world through a short term, transactional, cynical lens, really struggle to understand Riot. This has been true with various people trying to claim that high quality free games won't work, that esports will never work, that our music was insane, are now saying that Arcane wasn't awesome and worth it. These people think we make things like Arcane to sell skins, when in reality we sell skins to make things like Arcane.”
Welcome again to 2025, do subscribe to this if you haven’t and ping me if you have any feedback, reccos or ideas!
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