Industry
Communications, Media and Information Services
Connect. Curate. Comprehend: Unlocking Value Beyond Boundaries
Highlights
- Cord-cutting has broken the linear TV profit model. Ads spend and attention have shifted to streaming and digital, which forces cloud-native delivery, new bundle constructs that include FAST, and real-time pricing and packaging to protect reach and margin.
- AI now runs through the entire content supply chain. Treat it as a creative engine and an operations accelerator by unifying scripts, assets, rights, and metadata so you can auto-edit, localize, and personalize at scale while cutting cycle time and cost.
- Value is migrating from catalog ownership to platforms, data, and experience. Build advantage around first-party identity, cross-channel measurement, and ecosystem co-creation with tech, data, and creator partners to capture lifetime value.
- The near-term playbook is a Perpetually Adaptive Enterprise. Modernize workflows on cloud, institutionalize rapid experimentation, harden governance and trust, and pilot new monetization models such as dynamic ad insertion, retail media tie-ins, and hybrid premium-plus-FAST offerings, informed by the TCS and Paley Center roadmap.
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Disruption in the media industry
The media and entertainment industry is in the middle of a double disruption.
On one side, cord-cutting continues to chip away at the foundations of legacy media, fundamentally challenging long-held assumptions about distribution, monetization, and audience engagement.
On the other, AI has shaken the very DNA of how content is created and delivered across all channels, threatening to flatten value hierarchies and upend traditional workflows.
Together, these two forces have dovetailed to create a moment of creative opportunity, perhaps the biggest since the birth of digital media.
The question is: who will seize it?
TCS is setting out to develop a roadmap to the answer, equipping media executives with the insights they need to thrive in the face of industry disruption.
Those that succeed will be those that understand not just the disruption, but the evolving digital ecosystems in which they now operate, where platforms, data, and experience converge to redefine value.
Cord-cutting: The decline of a once-bulletproof model
Cord-cutting has reached escape velocity. Traditional cable and satellite TV subscriptions are in freefall. Advertisers, faced with shrinking linear audiences, are reallocating budgets toward streaming platforms and digital-first formats. Yet consumers want what they’ve become used to on platforms like Netflix: on-demand, mobile-friendly, personalized content, with minimal friction.
The economics of linear TV, built on high-margin distribution deals, bundled content, and ad slots sold months in advance, are no longer sustainable at scale. In today’s environment, cost structures are too high, infrastructure too rigid, and audiences too elusive.
In response, some players are doubling down on bundling: adding streaming services to traditional cable offerings in a bid to retain relevance. Others are divesting linear assets altogether, clinging to familiar models like sports or news, hoping to delay the inevitable.
Success will depend on reimagining engagement models and embracing agile, cloud-native architectures that allow for rapid experimentation and scalable delivery
AI: The new creative disruptor
Now on top of the cord-cutting challenge, comes AI.
Deeply embedded in the content lifecycle, from ideation and scripting to production, post-production, distribution, personalization, and monetization, AI has changed the game for all of us.
For legacy media companies, it’s an opportunity—and a threat. The opportunity lies in driving down costs and accelerating production timelines. AI can help streamline bloated workflows, optimize ad targeting, and uncover new audience insights.
When paired with intelligent operations and modernized content supply chains, AI becomes a strategic enabler, not just of efficiency, but of creative reinvention.
But the threat is real, and it is existential.
If AI can help anyone create high-quality content at scale, what happens to the value premium traditionally commanded by studios, broadcasters, and networks?
And more fundamentally, how do large organizations (often burdened by legacy systems, union constraints, and entrenched creative cultures) compete with nimble new players that were born digital and are embracing AI with zero baggage?
When two trends collide
What makes this moment especially complex is that cord-cutting and AI are not independent phenomena but colliding trends.
Cord-cutting is rapidly undermining the distribution and monetization models that sustained legacy media for decades. At the same time, AI is dismantling the creative and operational moats that once protected incumbents from challengers. Together, they are accelerating the redistribution of value across the media value chain.
This shift demands a new kind of operational resilience built on data fluency, platform thinking, and the ability to co-create with partners across the ecosystem.
For new media companies, this moment is rich with possibility. AI allows streamers, platforms, and creator ecosystems to do more with less, experiment faster, and connect more deeply with users. They are not burdened by the past; they are building the future.
For traditional media companies, the way forward is less clear. Some are leaning into hybrid models, bundling FAST (free ad-supported TV) services with premium content, deploying AI to streamline operations, and selectively acquiring digital-first IP. Others are attempting to protect the old while cautiously probing the new.
But time is short, and the ground is moving fast.
The path ahead: Perpetually Adaptive Enterprise
It’s tempting to treat AI as a new tool in the toolkit, or cord-cutting as a distribution problem. But both are bigger than that. They represent a fundamental rewiring of consumer expectations, industry economics, and creative workflows.
The companies that thrive in this new world will be those that move with clarity and courage. They must be willing to let go of the old playbook and write a new one, where AI goes beyond cost-saving and becomes a canvas for innovation.
In this landscape, leadership means continuously adapting to consumer expectations while architecting future-ready business models rooted in experience, intelligence, and trust.
