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The Medium delivers in-depth analyses of the media marketplace’s transformation as creators, tech companies and 10 million emerging advertisers revolutionize the business models for “premium content”.

Each fiscal quarter, The Medium identifies three or four new trends that have momentum and seem poised to play out at a larger scale in 2023. These key trends pinpoint dynamic and constantly evolving developments in the media marketplace that are emerging from incremental shifts or fundamental changes. The bi-weekly mailings analyze these trends as developments emerge in real-time. 

Read the three key trends The Medium will be focused on in Q4 2023. This essay focuses on all three. 

A week of headlines about in-market experiments from YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon promised exciting new futures for their media businesses. We are iteratively headed in the direction of post-wholesale, consumer first, retail first media business models. But, the incrementalism of these experiments also feels risky, like the future promised by these experiments not only is not here but may not get here. In particular, they may not justify the billions in current and future sports rights deals. 

In a four-minute video, YouTube Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie announced a long list of new features and design updates to the interface and platform. YouTube also announced a package for advertisers called “Spotlight Moments”. These leverage AI to automatically identify the most popular YouTube videos related to a specific cultural moment — like Halloween, or a sporting event, for example, and the advertiser can serve ads across videos referencing the topic or event across a branded YouTube channel with videos curated into dynamically updated playlists.

The experiments from Netflix and Amazon are bigger, more expensive and higher stakes. 

Key Takeaway

Amazon's and Google's experiments in sports streaming create uncertainty around technology’s ability to not only redefine traditional TV broadcasting, but match its creativity. That may be what makes Netflix’s push into gaming seem unsettling: It is now looking at Hollywood’s definition of creativity in its rearview mirror. 

Total words: 1,400

Total time reading: 6 minutes