Something interesting is happening in the creative industries. Granted, there is always something interesting happening, although it usually involves excessive displays of wealth, or the rivalry of musical artists. However, Holywood is having a bit of a bad few months, with 2023 being called by some the year of the flopbuster with movies like ‘The Marvels’ and ‘Aquaman 2’ seriously underperforming. Some have blamed bad scripts, unimaginative stories, superhero fatigue, wokeness, and many other reasons. But the latest excuse for poorly-performing movies is the audience itself. GenZ are used to TikTok and do not have the patience to sit in a dark cinema and watch a movie for 2 hours.
I think that there is definitely an issue with the changing audience, but it is not due to attention spans, after all two extremely popular movies like ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Dune’ have hefty running times. The problem in large part is that audiences have more choice, particularly from user-generated content. In other words, people are consuming more content created by themselves.
This is because the media landscape has undergone a significant transformation due to the increasing popularity of user-generated content on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. The rise of these non-professional content creators has dramatically altered the way people consume and engage with media. Instead of relying solely on traditional media outlets like television and print, audiences are now spending a considerable amount of time watching videos created by everyday individuals who have built massive followings based on their unique personalities, talents, and niche interests.
This shift in media consumption has had far-reaching consequences for the entertainment industry. Traditional media companies are now competing for viewers’ attention with a vast array of independent creators who often produce content at a fraction of the cost. Moreover, these non-professional content creators have a unique ability to connect with their audiences on a personal level, fostering a sense of community and engagement that traditional media struggles to replicate. As a result, advertisers are increasingly allocating their budgets to influencer marketing campaigns on these platforms, recognizing the value of partnering with creators who have built loyal and engaged followings. This trend is likely to continue as more people, particularly younger generations, turn to user-generated content for entertainment, information, and social connection.
From my own perspective, I can’t remember the last time I sat down to watch TV, and I’ve only been to the cinema a handful of times in the last five years, most of the entertainment I consume is through streaming, and most of my watch time is spent on YouTube and Twitch nowadays, unless I’m binge-watching some series. I’ve really gotten into watching Chess online as part of an effort to improve my own game, I used to play a lot as a kid but I sort of abandoned it, so I can spend hours watching tournaments, and I’ve become acquainted with large number of Chess influencers. Similarly, I love watching science and history documentaries on YouTube, and listening to podcasts whenever I’m doing chores around the house. This translates into less time spent on traditional media, and mostly consuming UGC.
Statistics tend to bear this out across the board:
- According to Nielsen data, approximately 10% of the total hours Americans devoted to watching TV in May 2024 were spent on YouTube’s smart TV application. [source]
- A 2019 Nielsen report found that 18-34 year olds spent 1 hour 54 minutes per day watching traditional TV, compared to around 5 hours 53 minutes on digital devices like computers, mobile, and connected TVs where YouTube is popular. [source]
- YouTube reaches more adults aged 18-49 than any single cable TV network in the U.S. [source]
- While TV still reaches 89% of Americans 18+ weekly, viewership is declining, especially among younger demographics who are shifting to digital platforms like YouTube. [source]
- The average TikTok user spends 95 minutes (1 hour 35 minutes) per day on the app. [source]
- Globally, Android users spent an average of 95 minutes per day on TikTok during Q2 2022. [source]
- At any given moment, there are around 2.1 million concurrent viewers watching streams on Twitch. [source]
And the commercial value of UGC is increasing as well, with more advertising foregoing traditional media and using UGC to try to achieve a more direct connection with customers. The end result is a strange media economy in which traditional creative industries rely heavily on the very tool that is undermining their viewership to try to get people to consume their products.
This can have interesting effects. There’s a growing and successful genre of cultural criticism on YouTube which tends to despise Holywood and mainstream media, with large numbers of critics of geek shows and games, usually decrying new outputs as woke. These channels are incredibly popular, sometimes driving downvoting campaigns of properties deemed to have become too diverse. Some recent flops have been the subject of various online attacks, with a movie like ‘The Marvels’ being the subject of a particularly nasty one. Recent targets include the live action versions of the ‘Little Mermaid’ and the upcoming ‘Snow White’.
It would be easy to view some of these campaigns as racist and misogynistic trolls enraged by growing diversity in media, and sometimes these are indeed evidently driven by such feelings. But it cannot be denied that some attacks are also directed at badly-written and under-performing properties that are being driven to the ground by writers and producers that do not understand the culture that gave rise to them. This often puts fans and owners at odds with each other, with the Rings of Power and Doctor Who as recent examples where show-runners, actors, and producers that have been attacking their own fan-bases.
The problem with this strategy is that even if we concede that these attacks are indeed problematic, the producers are antagonising and alienating their own audiences. The idea is to drive away the toxic fans, and a new more enlightened audience will replace them. But that does not always appear to be the case. Moreover, not all criticism is driven by so-called “anti-wokeness”, it’s easy to argue that properties have been in creative decline that has nothing to do with diversity, such as Star Wars, DC, Marvel, and Doctor Who.
Take Star Wars. I loved ‘The Force Awakens’, but ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ was utterly crap; and most shows have underwhelmed, with the exception of the excellent ‘Andor’ and the first season of ‘The Mandalorian’. Since ‘Avengers: Endgame’, Marvel has been struggling to find its feet without its greatest heroes, and even ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ was rather poor. Doctor Who pivoted to the “Timeless Child” canon retrofit, which in my view completely destroys the character, and I haven’t been able to recover, that and the move towards musical numbers and fantasy have lost me, and that has nothing to do with diversity. And let’s not mention DC, which has been in complete free-fall for years.
If these traditional media are faltering, then people will try to find their entertainment fix elsewhere, and that is where UGC comes in. There’s so much content out there that streaming feels like a chore. I find myself spending more time in media criticism than in watching actual media, and I suspect that I may not be the only one.
For now you’ll find me watching Chess on YouTube. Go Hikaru, go!
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