• by Ray Schultz , March 30, 2025

Social platforms are competing with TV and movies for consumer attention. And they are gaining, judging by 2025 Digital Media Trends, a study by Deloitte. 

“Social video platforms offer a seemingly endless variety of free content, algorithmically optimized for engagement and advertising,” the report states. “They wield advanced ad tech and AI to match advertisers with global audiences, now drawing over half of US ad spending."

Video entertainment has been disrupted by “social platforms, creators, user-generated content (UGC), and advanced modeling for content recommendations and advertising,” it adds.

Presumably, this trend is also having an impact on publishers. Indeed, younger consumers are engaging more evenly with SVOD (subscription video on demand) companies, social platforms, gaming, and even audio entertainment like music and podcasts,” the study notes.

Of the Gen Zers polled, 23% intend to terminate cable or TV subscriptions, as do 18% of millennials but only 8% of boomers. 

Media companies and advertisers are competing for an average of six hours of daily consumption time per person, a number that is not growing, it adds.

At the same time, viewers are getting tired of subscriptions. Of those polled, 49% have a cable or satellite TV subscription, versus 63% three years ago. 

In addition, 63% of Gen Z says that ads or product reviews on social reviews influence their buying decisions, compared to 49% of millennials. 

Deloitte surveyed 3,595 US consumers in October 2024.