Wayne Davison, Chief Revenue Officer at Little Dot Studio shares his 2026 digital-first predictions.
What’s the single biggest shift you expect to see in digital-first production and publishing in 2026?
The biggest shift will be established talent moving away from broadcast to build their own digital-first propositions and fandoms. As there are fewer commissions from broadcast media, “traditional” talent are looking for new routes to drive their visibility, tell their own stories and generate new revenue streams. Therefore, 2026 could bring significant growth in major talent evolving their own propositions, and building their own fandoms – through long form talent-led video podcasting and genre-expert creator content. With lower cost and lower risk (particularly with the right partner!), these formats allow for publishing across multiple platforms, multiple revenue structures and in some cases may even lead all the way back to broadcast. I’d also add that whilst there will be a “goldrush” around the “micro-drama” space for the production community – I think because it’s a familiar model (I have an idea, someone pays me for it, I make it…job done & Season 2?) – it currently has a limited route to distribution and monetisation, other than through the major Chinese platforms who dominate and new emerging players coming into the market. And so until that problem is solved, I think this will continue to have its limits – but I’m happy to be proven wrong.
Of course there will also be the continued movement of traditional media content to digital platforms, but that’s not a shift, that is well underway already.
Which platform behaviour or algorithm change do you think will matter most next year, and why?
Hopefully, after the massive changes we’ve seen this year in the YouTube algorithms, we won’t go through any more big ones in 2026 – 2025 has been exhausting! YouTube will double down on long form in the living room as “Shows” starts to take hold and audiences get a more “Netflix-like” experience from the platform. With that, audiences and advertisers perceive YouTube even more as TV. Recommendations drive more long form content to users and premium TV and sport rights owners continue to lean into the platform to balance against the decline in audiences for traditional media.
Where will your company’s biggest increase in revenue come from in 2026 – CPMs, brand spend, partnerships, new revenue models or something else?
I’m hoping the answer is yes, to all of those. At a macro level, while more ad money continues to move to digital, a significant amount of brand spending disappeared from the market at the beginning of 2025. At the same time, more premium content has flooded digital platforms for those ads to sit against. As premium content owners publish more and more content, the resulting dilution creates more opportunities for advertisers to reach audiences, but I don’t expect this to translate into meaningful growth in auction-based CPMs.
But bringing in increased ad money through direct sales continues to be an opportunity. We’re already seeing this through our Partner Sales arrangement with YouTube, via our own sales teams, and sales partnerships with Acast and other partners in the UK and the US. Advertisers and agencies want to reach premium audiences and align with premium content – something that simply can’t be achieved through auction buying alone.
There will also be growth in 2026 from brands partnering with established talent in digital spaces and new high-volume content, as advertisers and ad agencies also look for unique ways to cut through the noise and deliver measurable outcomes from their spends. The audio market and the creator space have already seen this happening. But it’s not branded content how the TV industry has traditionally looked at it – this is about fans trusting hosts about the brands that they are integrating. Crucially, this model requires scale: larger volumes of activity at a significantly lower investment per integration than legacy media is used to. It’s not just one short-term hit, it’s long-term investment in talent.
What creative formats or genres do you think will break out next year?
For digital platforms, it’s hard to predict the what, and I’m significantly more commercial than I am creative, so I’ll focus on the how – anything that can be built creatively, simply, at VERY low cost and VERY high volume. Think maximum 3-4 figures per video (the lower version ideally), longform (30-60 mins), and 52 or 104 episodes a year. And ideally talent-led, allowing it to break through the noise. And that something must include a strategy for multiple distribution outlets across video and audio to absolutely maximise revenue-generating opportunities. And on a separate but related note, whilst vertical video is exciting as a format, there are significant limits in the potential returns that it delivers. That’s the commercial tail wagging the creative dog….sorry!
How do you expect the relationship between traditional broadcasters/ distributors and digital-native studios to evolve in 2026?
I think this is an evolution that is both genuinely exciting and equally problematic. There’s an absolute need for traditional media – broadcast, distribution and production – to lean into digital as the old models are only getting harder and audiences continue to migrate to the environments they actively choose to engage with. However, this shift also requires a fundamental change in mindset. That means being much clearer on what the ROI is, what the commercial imperatives look like (either directly or indirectly), and what the layers of data and expertise are actually telling you.
I’ve pointed to a lot of this already, but new platforms require investment in ways legacy media haven’t traditionally approached this. The costs have to align with the potential returns: if you want to make money, you can’t hire an army of people, and you can’t produce content in old ways or anywhere like the old cost structures. You also have to spread your bets, test and learn, react quickly and pivot to something that the audience tells you is working.
What’s one data point, trend, or move from 2025 that people are underestimating — and what does it signal?
Commercial success from digital-first content becomes increasingly about quality, platform-native, talent-led IP and formats. Content will need to be built with the consistency, volume and commercial planning to generate sustainable businesses without the overheads of legacy production models. And that content living across platforms will create communities. Reach continues to be a factor because advertisers and brands will mostly continue to chase performance based on measurable results, through standard CPM calculations in many cases. Then you’re in business…maybe. Is that a trend? Oh, and more long form. Archive and new. But loads of it from everyone trying to make some money!
If you could give one piece of advice to producers or creators preparing for 2026’s digital-first landscape, what would it be?
I’ll summarise everything I’ve already said. Forget everything you knew about the old models and lean into the new. Spend wisely and carefully, and look at a broad method of revenue generation. And find a bloody good partner that can help you navigate that – there are exciting opportunities if you know where to look.
Anything else to add?!
I think I’ve said enough.
