Is 2026 the year that will shape the future of the film and TV industry?

With major changes taking place over the last 3 years, what does this year hold for the sector?

We’ve seen several major shifts in the film and TV industry over the past 3 years or so, and they are not showing any sign of slowing.

It’s not clear what the new landscape will look like, but a new order and structure is taking the industry over. The sector is being driven by further consolidation, increasing influence of streamers, ever greater reliance on tax incentives, technologically integrated procedures and a globally driven market. Underlying these changes is a drive for sustainable profit. Looking into 2026, these are the areas that will be shaping the future:

The Warner Brother Discovery (WBD) sale.

This move is symbolic of the demise of the old ‘Hollywood.’ Warners, founded in 1923 by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack encapsulates the history of film and TV production over the past century. The studio founded a chain of cinemas moved west to California, pioneered synchronized sound (known as talkies) with the ‘Jazz Singer’ and produced hundreds of iconic movies including ‘Casablanca’, ‘My Fair Lady’, ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ through to ‘Barbie’. Throughout the twentieth century, studios ruled the industry. The power and influence are now passing to the streamers

The future of cinema.

This is a major worry for both cinephiles and producers.

The former because of their love of the special shared experience in a bespoke theatre and the latter, especially independent filmmakers, to get films made and financed. It is encouraging to note that global box office figures for 2025 will match those of 2024 and it is predicted that 2026 will be a strong year due to the release of a large slate of tentpole franchises including ‘Avengers’, ‘Dune’ and ‘Spider Man’. Should Netflix acquire Warners, which at the time of writing looks likely, there is an industry wide concern about their policy for theatrical windows for their films. The theatrical window is the time period when a film is shown exclusively in a cinema before it becomes available on other platforms such as streaming, digital rental, or home video.

Netflix CEO, Ted Sandross has been both vague and dismissive about the Netflix strategy. Rumours suggest they propose reducing theatrical windows to 17 days: cinema chains and producers want at least 45 days.

Studios and Streamers.

Studios and streamers are continuing to tighten budgets and are now much more risk adverse. The bottom line has taken over the drive from the number of eyeballs. Tax incentives play a major part in film and TV finance. Many US states and countries offer generous tax incentives to attract productions to make their product in their territory. The motivator behind global investment into UK production has been attractive tax incentive regime the UK offers. Nearly all production costs incurred in the UK are eligible for a tax credit which comes in the form of a cash rebate and is delivered within a short time window. It was disappointing to see that the TV incentive was not widened in the last budget to assist smaller budgets, something similar it to the scheme available for independent films. Producers will continue to shop around globally for the most advantageous incentives: the UK government cannot afford to be complacent.

Consolidation and acquisition is and remains a constant

Apart from the Warners deal we are seeing new US investment going into Tik Tok this month, broadcasting rights for the Oscars ceremony going to You Tube from 2029 and a reported $4billion deal by Disney to acquire Taylor Swift’s production and live event company. It was only 10 years ago that Disney paid this sum for Lucas Films

$1 billion equity investment by Disney in Open AI

This move shows the ever growing influence of Artificial Intelligence. As part of the deal Sora will be able to generate videos from a galaxy of Disney characters from ‘Marvel’, ‘Pixar’ and ‘Star Wars’. AI is being used to facilitate a whole host of operational procedures together with shooting schedules, royalty collection and localization ( dubbing and sub titles).

We saw where the world was going 3 or so years ago when Amazon, capital value £2.4 trillion bought MGM for $8 billion. The deal value looked a lot when taken in isolation, but in comparison to the value of Amazon it shrank. Further on from this, last year Amazon acquired all the intellectual property rights of James Bond for a reputed $ 1 billion.

So, the question to kick off 2026. Who will be the next James Bond?

Happy New Year

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