Why “Simplicity” Is the Word Defining Entertainment in 2026

For most of the streaming era, the industry’s answer to “what do viewers want” was simple: more. More platforms, more exclusives, more niche content nobody else had. In 2026, the data suggests that formula has hit a wall — and the word showing up again and again in industry trend reports is “simplicity.”

Streaming Fatigue Has a Name Now

According to EY’s Decoding the Digital Home 2025 Study, consumers are explicitly asking for “a better mix of live TV, channels and dedicated apps; greater customization; more guidance on underused services and overall simplification.” After years of juggling five, six, seven subscriptions and constantly re-deciding where a given show lives, audiences are pushing back — and the industry is starting to respond by consolidating streaming apps and linear channels into single, unified interfaces rather than launching yet another standalone app.

That pressure is also reshaping corporate structure. Traditional media companies are increasingly splitting their slower-growing linear TV networks from their faster-growing digital and streaming businesses — a wave of “SpinCo” and “RemainCo” deals — while large tech companies have become active players in media M&A, competing directly for intellectual property and streaming scale.

Trust in Content Is Becoming a Selling Point

At the same time that AI-generated content is getting cheaper and easier to produce at scale, trust in traditional news organizations hit a record low of 28% in a September 2025 Gallup poll cited by EY. The response from audiences hasn’t been to embrace synthetic content — it’s the opposite. EY’s analysis frames “authenticity over AI” as one of the defining 2026 trends: human-led storytelling, real emotional connection, and credible reporting are becoming premium, differentiated assets precisely because AI-generated content is now so abundant and interchangeable.

People Want Experiences, Not Just Screens

Live events, theme parks, and branded physical locations have moved from a nice-to-have side business to a strategic necessity for major media companies, per EY’s report. Private equity has followed the money, investing heavily in sports and fan-experience businesses that blend digital engagement (apps, second-screen content) with physical, in-person immersion.

Meanwhile, creators themselves are shifting from being treated as marketing tools to being genuine strategic partners with ownership stakes in the intellectual property they build — and short-form vertical video remains the fastest-growing content format, with “microdramas” now pulling in tens of millions of viewers. Podcasting is riding a similar wave: the market is projected to grow from $7.7 billion in 2024 to $41.1 billion by 2029, and video now accounts for 30% of US podcast revenue as the format increasingly blurs into visual media.

What This Means for How People Watch Next

None of this means the number of entertainment options is shrinking — if anything, the opposite. What’s changing is the audience’s tolerance for complexity in accessing it, and a growing premium on content that feels genuinely human rather than algorithmically assembled. The platforms and creators leaning into “fewer, better, more trustworthy” over “more, everywhere, cheaper” appear to be the ones setting the pace for 2026.

Sources: EY — 2026 Media and Entertainment Trends: Simplicity, Authenticity and the Rise of Experiences; TheWrap — 2026 in the Frame: 6 Key Media and Entertainment Trends to Watch