Media and Entertainment

Digital content and social media have helped to transform the media and entertainment industry into an “always on” and always accessible business. Consumers have more options than ever before in how they read books and articles, rent movies, listen to radio programs, and watch TV. Magazine and newspaper publishing companies have been most affected by the widespread availability of online content. In 2021, print and digital newspaper subscriptions totaled 24 million (weekdays) and 26 million (Sundays only) in the U.S., a tremendous drop from the 60 million subscribers in 2000. Digital-only subscriptions continue to grow, however. There was an uptick in digital news subscriptions early in the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, due to the increased need for updates on the health crisis. Today, the majority of adults in the U.S. (more than 80 percent) get their news digitally, from smartphones, computers, or tablets, according to Pew Research Center findings.

Employment at newspaper publishers has steadily declined over the years, with some years experiencing multiple rounds of layoffs. From 2008 through 2020, there was a 26 percent decline in newsroom employment. In 2008, about 114,000 newsroom employees, including reporters, editors, photographers, and videographers, worked in these news-producing industries: newspapers, broadcast television, radio, cable, and other information services. As of 2020, approximately 85,000 people worked in newsrooms.

Newspapers and digital news sites have experienced fewer layoffs in recent years as the economy has rebounded. Challenges are ongoing, however, for newspaper companies, particularly with lower levels of employment making it difficult to cover live events and uncover stories. To tackle these challenges, newspaper companies have made organizational changes and now offer alternate revenue streams, including digital pay plans. The digital-native news sector is the only sector in the news-producing industry that has experienced growth, from 7,400 employees in 2008 to 18,300 in 2020, the most recent data available. (It should be noted, however, that this growth was tempered by layoffs that occurred in 2017, 2018, and during the pandemic.) In general, the outlook is not bright for newsroom employment due to ongoing consolidation of newspaper publishing companies coupled with declines in circulations and advertising revenue.

Book sales have experienced some modest growth recently in certain sectors and declines in other areas. According to the Association of American Publishers, overall trade sales in 2022 totaled $17.36 billion, more than a 6 percent drop from the previous year. The sector that fared best was PreK-12 Education, growing from 2021 to 2022 by nearly 17 percent, to $5.61 billion. Other publishing sectors experienced declines in that same time frame: Higher Education decreased by more than 7 percent, to $3.18 billion; Professional Books dropped by 6 percent, to $1.47 billion; Religious Presses (subcategory of Trade) declined by 6 percent, to $1.27 billion; and the smallest category, University Presses, dropped by nearly 8 percent, to $414 million. Digital audio revenue increased by nearly 3 percent, to $1.81 billion, and from 2018 to 2022, Digital audio revenue has grown by nearly 72 percent. eBook revenue had a slight increase in 2020, during the pandemic, but overall has experienced a nearly 3 percent decline from 2018 through 2022. Before the pandemic, the overall publishing industry revenue was $25.87 billion in 2019. The AAP reports that in spite of a 2.6 percent decline in publishing industry revenue from 2021 to 2022, the five-year trend shows industry resilience, with overall industry revenue growth of 11 percent from 2018 to 2022. The U.S. book publishing industry reached $28.10 billion in revenue in 2022, an increase over pre-pandemic levels.

More people use their televisions for games and for programming through Netflix, Apple TV, or other similar services, which has caused a decline in traditional television services, according to Nielsen. Before 2009, approximately 99 percent of American households received traditional TV signals; as of 2019, that number had dropped to about 96 percent. Today, streaming services dominate the broadcast industry, growing in popularity particularly in 2020, during the pandemic when lockdowns occurred. Nielsen reported that in early 2023, about 85 percent of American households had at least one TV-connected device, and more than one-third of the households accessed TV content only through a broadband Internet connection. Numerous market research organizations report that people are spending less time watching live television and more time watching recorded programs on DVRs or on the Internet through televisions, personal computers, and mobile devices. Also, viewers aged 18 to 34 in particular are watching more online television than traditional television. From 2014 through 2019 television broadcasting industry revenue increased by 3.6 percent each year to $65 billion, according to the research group IBISWorld. In 2022, U.S. TV broadcasting was valued at $73 billion. Ad expenditures are rebounding since the pandemic, but television broadcasting continues to face intensified competition from alternative media sources and cable networks.

The U.S. radio broadcast industry was estimated at $15.47 billion in 2022, more than a 5 percent increase over 2021. According to a report by the media research group Kagan, the radio industry experienced a "deep decline" in 2020, during the pandemic, followed by a slight rebound in 2021 and 2022. This growth has since flattened, however, and advertising share continues to siphon off to streaming, which continues to grow. In 2022, streaming music, online radio, and podcasting generated $4.35 billion in ad revenues, a 12 percent jump over 2021. The major digital audio businesses that continue to dominate include Apple Music, Spotify, Cumulus Media, and iHeartMedia. Overall, there has been a tremendous decline in the radio market this past decade due to consolidations, which have slowed the volume of radio station trading. The largest radio station purchase in recent years was by Latino Media Network, which paid $60 million to Univision for 18 of its radio stations in 10 cities. Public radio listenership has dropped recently. In 2022, the top 20 NPR-affiliated radio stations had 8 million listeners weekly, a 10 percent decline compared to the previous year. The weekly audience for PRX, a nonprofit public media company, was down to 6.7 million weekly listeners, a 24 percent drop from 2021. People do still listen to the radio, though. Findings from a Pew Research Center survey showed that nearly half of U.S. adults say they get news from the radio "at least sometimes"; more than half of these radio listeners are 50 to 64 years old. Podcast listening, on the other hand, has grown in the past decade. In 2013, only 12 percent of Americans (12 years old and older) reported listening to a podcast in the past month. In 2023, 42 percent had listened to a podcast recently.

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) states that the motion picture industry accounts for more than 2.4 million workers and 122,000 businesses in the United States, paying $186 billion in total wages. The motion picture industry had been doing well before the pandemic. In 2018, global box office sales totaled more than $41 billion, which was a $3 billion increase over 2015. The National Association of Theater Owners reported that more than 1.3 billion movie tickets were sold in 2018, with a record domestic gross of $11.8 billion. The lockdowns in 2020, however, paused movie productions and shuttered theaters temporarily, causing a major slump in movie industry revenue: global box office sales totaled $11.8 billion that same year. The industry has been rebounding slowly in the years since. In 2021, box office sales had grown to $21.3 billion, and in 2022, global box office revenue totaled $26 billion. The research group Gower Street estimated that the "2022 number represents an annual loss of $14 billion in gross revenue." The highest grossing movies in 2022 were Avatar: The Way of Water, Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World Dominion, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and The Batman.

The top-grossing distributors in 2022, according to the movie industry research group The Numbers, included Universal, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, 20th Century Studios, A24, Focus Features, United Artists, Lionsgate, and Searchlight Pictures. The Numbers also reported that, in 2022, the top-grossing methods of movie production were (in descending order based on market share): live action, digital animation, animation/live action, stop-motion animation, multiple production methods, and hand animation.

The online movie sector continues to grow. According to a Statista report, in 2022, the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market had generated about $30.3 billion in subscription revenues, a 17 percent increase over 2021. As of 2022, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video were among the top providers of subscription-based streaming programs.

The Hollywood writers and actors strike that began in May 2023 is a current, heated topic with direct impact on the media and entertainment industry. The strike is about issues such as insufficient base earnings and compensation for streaming, as well as concerns about the use of artificial intelligence as possible replacement of screenwriters. Other media and entertainment professionals have since joined in the strike to support the writers and actors. As of September 2023, negotiations were ongoing between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The strike has paused the release of various productions, and its overall effect on the broadcast industry's revenue will be borne out when the strike ends.