Executive Briefing: Thursday 8 October

Executive summary: Australasia's media landscape is undergoing significant shifts with a major acquisition, while digital content monetisation continues to favour ad-supported streaming. Consumer behaviour is evolving rapidly, with a majority of Australians now leveraging AI for shopping decisions. Furthermore, marketers face a clear commercial imperative to improve ad accessibility, as uncaptioned TV advertisements result in substantial lost reach and revenue. Major media conglomerate reshapes Australian landscape The Australian media sector is seeing a significant structural shift as Paramount Skydance completed its $A160 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. The combined entity, now known as Paramount Australia & New Zealand, a Skydance Corporation, integrates Network 10 with HBO Max and Warner Bros. Discovery's pay TV channels. This move follows the ACCC clearing the acquisition in June 2026, finding no substantial lessening of competition. The expanded company aims to leverage combined talent, resources, and reach to tell stories across various genres and platforms, signalling a new era of competitive content delivery in the Australian market. Australians embrace AI for shopping decisions Australian shoppers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to guide their purchasing choices, with nearly two-thirds (62%) expecting to use AI for at least one holiday shopping task, from finding deals to product discovery. This trend is particularly prevalent among younger Australians, with 70% of 25-34-year-olds using AI occasionally when shopping, compared to 45% overall. Retailers are responding by investing in AI-generated content (51%), virtual assistants (46%), and optimising their stores for AI recommendations (45%). While 41% are comfortable with AI building their cart, only 29% trust it to make a purchase on their behalf, highlighting the critical role of trust and clear value in AI-assisted retail experiences. Streaming ad tiers dominate audience monetisation Despite consumer sentiment regarding increased advertising, ad-supported streaming tiers are proving commercially successful, with Australia’s SVOD market growing by 5% to 26.6 million services by June 2025, and FAST audiences growing over 40% year-on-year to 2.3 million Australians. Data from Kantar indicates that ad-supported streaming tiers were in 30% of Australian households by Q1 2025, up from 12.5% a year prior. Furthermore, around half of new subscribers to services offering an ad tier are choosing the ad-supported option, a figure that rises to 60% for Netflix. This trend suggests a strong willingness among consumers to accept ads for a more affordable viewing experience, leading 71% of ad buyers to expect increased investment in ad-supported subscription streaming in 2026. Uncaptioned TV ads cost brands millions in lost reach Australian brands are significantly underperforming in accessibility, with an estimated $200 million lost annually by failing to caption TV advertisements. This impacts 5.5 million D/deaf or hard of hearing consumers, and a broader audience where half of all Australians under 35 actively choose to watch video content with captions turned on. The current media landscape sees television programming mandated to be captioned, yet this requirement does not extend to the commercial breaks. Marketers are urged to update media plan spec sheets to include time-coded caption files as a default requirement to ensure broader reach, enhance emotional resonance, and improve campaign ROI across diverse viewing habits.