Creator Content and Sports Reach $75B, Winning Investment in the Race for Consumer Engagement

• Film, TV and streaming remain the foundation of content spend at approximately $132 billion in 2025, but their share of overall content spend fell from 71% in 2021 to 64%.
• User-generated content grew 75%, reaching approximately 22% of total spend. Sports grew 57% since 2021, reaching 14% of total spend.
• Film and TV provide scale and depth; sports can create appointment viewing and premium advertising value; and creator-led formats can build frequency and daily engagement.

• Subscriber growth still matters, but it's no longer enough to explain the health of a media business. Leaders need a broader dashboard connecting audience behavior to revenue quality, retention and long-term value.
• Reducing annual churn by one percentage point could add approximately $1 billion in annual profit across the companies analyzed.
• As media companies raise prices and expand ad-supported tiers, pricing can support revenue growth but also tests whether consumers believe the service is worth the higher cost, and ads that are too frequent, poorly targeted or disconnected from the viewing context can weaken the value exchange.
• Companies are selectively rebuilding the features that made traditional pay TV bundles sticky (aggregation, live programming, ad-supported economics and recurring viewer relationships) while adding experiences such as creator content, games and commerce that weren't part of the old bundle.

"AI is creating unrivaled decision-making precision across the business. It can help media companies personalize what each consumer sees, which offer they receive, when to intervene, and when to leave them alone. Those decisions add up quickly when you're managing millions of customer relationships," said Frank Albarella, Jr., US Sector Leader, Media and Telecommunications, at KPMG US.

• AI is already embedded in how media companies create, package, promote, monetize and retain audiences, spanning production, discovery and personalization, advertising, retention and investment decisions.
• The next opportunity is connecting those capabilities so audience signals can inform what gets greenlit, how content is promoted, which audiences see it, the advertising experience around it and subsequent investment decisions. 

• Connect content, audience, pricing, advertising and customer data, using AI to help understand what’s driving value and where to invest.
• Look beyond reach and subscriber counts to understand which audiences return, what they value and which behaviors drive retention, advertising revenue and customer lifetime value.
• Build bundles and “super app” experiences around what audiences value, with a clear role for sports, creator content, games, commerce and other experiences.
• Reward customer loyalty through personalized offers, bundle value and experiences tied to tenure and engagement.
• Give investors a clearer view of what content spend is delivering by connecting investment to engagement, retention, advertising performance, customer lifetime value and profitability.