15 Media Trends To Follow In 2025

For our 1st "Tuesday Deep Dives"

Welcome to the NEW paid subscriber-only edition of Streaming Made Easy: “Tuesday Deep Dives”.

For this 1st edition, I’m breaking down my 15 trends shaping the Media & Entertainment business in 2025. Consider upgrading to a paid subscription to read it in full.

Mentioned in this edition: YouTube, YouTube TV, YouTube Primetime Channels, YouTube Premium, Netflix, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Canal+, Apple TV+, Paramount+, Prime Video (Amazon), Disney+, Universal+, Whale TV, TiVo, DAZN, UEFA, Meta, Microsoft, Roku, Spotify, TF1, Titan OS.

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#1. YouTube Growth & Premium Focus

YouTube will break 15% of market share on the Nielsen gauge (up from breaking the 10% threshold in 2024) making it bigger and more relevant than ever. As other platforms race to grow their advertising businesses, YouTube will also double down on premium features to help YouTube channels transition from ad-only to hybrid business models, becoming a stronger competitor in both spaces. In a similar move, they will put focus on growing their own paid services: YouTube TV, YouTube Primetime channels, YouTube Premium etc.

For additional context on the YouTube Creator-led Streamers’ trend, head over here.

#2. Pay TV on CTV 

European Telecom operators, Pay TV providers and MVPDs have historically adopted a defensive strategy on CTV (by staying clear of bringing their apps on CTV platforms or bringing reader-apps only i.e. only existing subs can use these apps). They wanted to keep their own devices (i.e. set top boxes) at the centre of everything. In 2025 and beyond, I expect many European players to launch full fledged apps on CTV to bring more value to existing subscribers and stay relevant as Europeans embrace CTV (and see how it compares to the US).