Industry News
NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE MEDIA INDUSTRY
Porn—at the forefront of the AI-generated content revolution—is something the rest of media should, uh, watch
TVRev's Alan Wolk makes the case that where porn goes, so goes all content categories. He says that “Porn has long been the canary in the coal mine for any new technology.”
- Almost as soon as Gutenberg invented the printing press it was used for “bawdy pamphlets”
- Porn producers made use of VHS before Hollywood did
- Porn was an early adapter to streaming; Wolk says “it accounted for between one-third and one-half of all traffic" in the early days
- Of the top 15 websites world-wide, 2 are porn sites.
A long article in the Economist raises existential questions that are not only for the porn industry.
- Will performers be “elbowed aside by algorithms?”
- If synthetic properties become ubiquitous, will anyone pay for the old-fashioned stuff?
Read the full articles: The Future Of AI and AI is upending the porn industry: Synthetic smut will soon be flooding the internet, bringing new opportunities and perils
#managementconsulting #mediastrategy
TV is not dead yet: more Americans still prefer to watch the news than read or listen to it
Despite the changes in which companies and individuals are supplying news, Pew Research reports that despite “the rise of podcasts and news influencers on social media to declining audiences for traditional news outlets,” Americans mostly like to watch the news – 44% -- and 62% of those prefer to watch from TV, and 34% saying they prefer using digital devices, including via social media and news websites or apps.
Younger ages have flipped the watch/read percentages in 2025, with Pew reporting that, “Among adults under age 30, the largest share prefers to get news by reading it (45%), while 31% say they prefer watching it….”
Also of interest:
- For all American Adults, of those who prefer reading the news, 80% do so on digital devices
- For all American Adults, of those who prefer listening to the news, 52% do so through digital devices and 20% through radio
For more information go to Pew Research Center here.
#managementconsulting #mediadistribution #mediastrategy
Podcasting may be newish, but women’s leadership role is the same-old same-old
USC Annenberg's recently published study from its Inclusive Initiative calculates the gender and race/ethnicity of hosts and guests of popular podcasts – adding to its previous work across most entertainment platforms. 36% of hosts of top 100 podcasts were women and just 27% of the shows' guests were women
- Within podcasts, only 8% of business/tech podcasts were lead by women hosts
- For all platforms studied, males outnumber females, but podcasts and music have the lowest % women
- Under represented/minority hosts were only 23% of top 100 podcasts
To read the full report go here.
#managementconsulting #USCAnnenberg #inclusive management
