The entertainment industry faces a year of change and adjustment in 2026. New technologies and merger activity will keep movies, TV and live events in play.
With the limitations of the COVID pandemic firmly in the rear-view mirror, the sector anticipates consumers will indulge in movies and live events, and brands will find new ways to tap into those audiences.
“We’re looking towards ’26,” said Michael Rapino, CEO of LiveNation. “It looks like it’s going to be a great pipeline,” he told analysts in late 2025.
LiveNation is seeing double-digit growth in ticket sales, and expects similar growth in sponsorships and hospitality revenues next year, as consumers double down on their taste of in-person experiences. A recent LiveNation survey noted events are now triggers for travel, community-building and social sharing, and they are expected to continue growing next year.
“The leading indicators that have to do with our show pipeline, tickets sold, our sponsorship committed … a lot of factors that are pointing extremely positively,” said Joe Berchtold, LiveNation’s President and CFO.
A steady pace of film releases will also feed the audience’s appetite for new content. The upcoming lineup of movies “is about as strong as it’s been in a while, maybe stronger than it’s been in a while,” said Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger. “We are very bullish on the slate ahead,” he recently told analysts.
Television, particularly free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) will also experience a boom, as major entertainment companies place bets on the channel, and connected TV will benefit from the decline in search advertising spending due to the rise of agentic AI. Roku has predicted FAST channels will hit a 10% share of all TV viewership in 2026.
“The space available for intent-based ads is shrinking,” said Sarah Harms, VP of Advertising Marketing and Measurement at Roku. “CTV increasingly remains a frontier that’s a direct relationship with a streamer and content they choose to watch, and in 2026, we’ll see half of streaming advertisers divert search and social budgets to increase CTV spend.”
During its recent quarterly report, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison noted the company will make $1.5 billion in investments in programming over the next year “to expand our pipeline of premium films, television, sports, news and gaming content for global audiences.” This is part of the company’s strategy to build on the momentum of its Paramount+ streaming platform, he told analysts.
“It’s fun to be around people”
“Brands are struggling in a highly fragmented ecosystem where websites can be spun up in seconds with AI and attention exists everywhere but nowhere at the same time,” said Jordan Bortolotti, president of independent media agency Salt Media. Intellectual property such as sports and music are strong draws at a time when “the post-COVID epiphany is that it’s fun to be around people,” he said.
Live sports and music events “are where marketers tend to be spending more money today,” said Rapino. “We see continued growth for a long time in sponsorship and brands that want to be part of that exciting two hours of magic.”
The LiveNation survey found 97% of consumers want brands to play a bigger role in live events and the survey noted more than 70% of brands see lifts in consideration, purchase intent and consumers reporting liking the brand more after sponsorship activations.
Rising sponsorship costs are making it tougher for brands with smaller budgets, but brands are finding ways to integrate into those events—on special stages, exclusive areas or other ways to enhance the fan experience, Bortolotti said.
Fan Fiction vs AI Slop
Entertainment companies will be increasingly focused on connecting with the fandom before, during and after events. For example, Bortolotti noted how Salt had worked with the Canadian telecom Rogers to amplify its sponsorship of concert tours by offering users personalized post-event recaps that spliced their videos into the concert footage. Expect more such efforts, he said.
“It isn’t just about fandom. It’s about certainty, especially in a world of AI where so much content now is not real,” said Bortolotti. “As everything becomes skippable or synthetic, live sports and live experiences become the anchor for real attention.”
AI is also reshaping the fandom brands are counting on to maintain cultural relevance. Many brands expect to negotiate the use of synthetic content in entertainment in 2026, while at the same time protecting their IP.
The recent licensing deal between Walt Disney Co. and AI platform OpenAI is a sign of the traditional media’s efforts to integrate those technologies, as the public increasingly adopts them. Indeed, Iger told analysts Disney sees “phenomenal opportunities to deploy AI across our direct-to-consumer platforms” while still protecting its IP.
Once Disney’s content – which includes fan-centric franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel—is available on AI platforms, users may take fan fiction to new heights, said Bortolotti. Imagine Star Wars fan films turned into Hollywood-quality feature length movies merely by using generative AI prompts, he said. Brands will want to get into that segment, or Disney and OpenAI would not have made the deal, he added.
“Don’t sleep on all the cool applications of AI coming this year,” said Bortolotti. “I think we’re going to see some never-been-done-before stuff.”
Building “Beyond Media”
In the midst of all this activity, a wave of consolidation will continue to reshape streaming, as seen in the public takeover war between Netflix and Paramount over Warner Bros. Discovery. The takeover fight over HBO’s parent may be the marquee event of early 2026, but all entertainment companies are now anticipating a surge in mergers and consolidation as major players seek to strengthen their hand.
Versant, the spinoff including its NBCU broadcast and cable channels and the Peacock streaming platform, will complete its separation from Comcast in the new year and is going to integrate a number of acquisitions in a bid to lessen its dependence on traditional media.
Versant CEO Mark Lazarus told the crowd at its Investor Day in December that the company has “a mandate to build beyond cable, in fact, beyond media.” It plans to grow the TV business while leveraging its content to expand into new channels such as live events and podcasts, and add streaming and digital channels.
Versant expects to launch a new FAST channel in 2026, after it completes its acquisition of the Free TV platform and combines it with its previous acquisition of the Fandango movie website. It also will expand its reach into cinema advertising in 2026, after completing its acquisition of the operating platform Indy Cinema Group announced in December.
The FAST and the curious
The streaming market is ripe for consolidation, as viewers try to rationalize their subscriptions, and continue to embrace FAST, especially among desirable younger demographics. After years of unbundling cable channels, viewers want simplicity in streaming, said Bortolotti. “The great rebundling is happening,” he said.
Ad-supported content is now the majority of streaming and nearly all major streamers have ads, explained Harms. “By 2026, we expect essentially 100% of viewers to see ads in some form,” due to the growth in FAST services, hybrid subscription-plus-ads tiers in major platforms and live sports in streaming, she noted.
“Not long ago, the industry talked endlessly about ‘unreachables’ and ‘ad-nevers,’ insisting that streaming audiences would never tolerate advertising,” said Harms. “That era flipped on its head.”
Connected TV is bound to benefit from the decline of search advertising brought on by AI agents, said Harms. At the same time, AI is helping advertisers target and personalize streaming campaigns; advertisers will need to deliver more creative ads with better production values and more relevant personalization, she explained.
“In 2026, the real homework for brands is not learning new tricks,” she said, “it’s elevating their creative to meet the quality and clarity that CTV rewards.”
