All through December we’re rolling out an exclusive series of Q&As with the sector’s leading thinkers as they peer into their digital crystal balls and offer their take on what the next 12 months could bring.
Today’s predictions are from Paul Doyle, Director of Video Strategy and Delivery at digital publisher Immediate Media.
What’s the single biggest shift you expect to see in digital-first production and publishing in 2026?
The biggest shift will be the move from asset-first production to IP-first and very heavily skewed in being creator(human!)-led. Budget shaving and the sheer number of different places where video now lives, means an inevitable shift from being platforms specific to ownable IP that is designed to travel across video in all its forms (horizontal, vertical. social, streamers, owned & operated), audio, FAST, commercial, commerce and licensing. This cannot be simply a hero edit cut down into pieces, but content franchises with modular production, recurring characters and repeatable story worlds that can compound over time. While I thoroughly believe that video is a content type, not a business model, it is true that those that can find a way to handle formats in a commercially friendly way, will win big. Years of waiting for a ‘viable revenue stream’ is revealing itself as being interminably incremental
Which platform behaviour or algorithm change will matter most next year, and why?
The trick will be in striking a balance. Optimising for machines but build the core for people. Metadata, cadence and packaging are mechanical. Story, voice and emotion are human. We are increasingly speaking to two audiences. One is the viewer. The other is the scoring system. Algorithmic biases are increasingly rewarding content that people stay with for longer rather than content that just gets clicked. Watch-time is built from a real connection (human), not reach (machine) but the packaging is needed at the start of its journey.
Where will your company’s biggest increase in revenue come from in 2026?
From packaged IP and partnerships rather than CPM. Uplift won’t rise fast enough, and platform payments are unpredictable. Growth will come from developing repeatable video properties that advertisers can buy into as propositions, not as placements. That means sponsorship-ready IP, integrated segments, licensing opportunities and formats that also generate views and community in their own right.
What creative formats or genres will break out?
Anything that teaches or improves the audience’s life while feeling warm, human and unpolished will cut through. Three feel primed for acceleration in 2026:
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Utility and Entertainment hybrids (“Edutainment”)
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Shoppable entertainment. Not commerce overlays, but genuine editorial shows with purchasing built into the format.
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Relaxed reality + craft formats “Slow-TV but social” — gardening, cooking, making — skills you can replicate at home. Less spectacle, more resonance.
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will the relationship between broadcasters/distributors and digital-native studios evolve?
Broadcasters need agility, experimentation, and cost-efficient production. Digital-native studios need scale, IP exploitation, and windowing beyond social. So,it is likely to become even more symbiotic (it has been evolving that way to date), accelerated in a landscape where convergence is more apparent. The pipeline won’t flow from TV to digital — it will move both ways.
What’s one data point or trend from 2025 people are underestimating? And what does it signal?
Daily watch-time on connected TV outpacing mobile for longform creators. People see it as a distribution shift. It’s more than that. It signals that digital IP is becoming television — not the other way around. If viewers lean-back for TikTok-born shows on their TV, then the divide between publishers, creators, broadcasters and streamers becomes almost meaningless. Format thinking must evolve accordingly.
One piece of advice to producers/creators preparing for 2026
Build returning formats, not isolated videos. If your content can’t sustain a season arc, sell a sponsorship package, produce a live spin-off and generate its own social ecosystem, it isn’t IP, it’s an upload. Think like a studio, not a feed.
Anything else to add?
The most valuable output in the next 18 months won’t be views or virality. It will be ownership. Of format, of community, of creative edge. Technology is democratising production, and distribution. The differentiator is no longer who can publish the most content, it’s who can build something that compounds.
