With the increasing affordability of advanced connectivity and smartphones, media companies are open to more formats and mediums to reach wider audiences and customers. As a result, media tech startups utilize innovations in data processing and analytics to revolutionize content creation and consumption. This report provides an overview of media industry trends ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) and audience engagement to cybersecurity and social commerce. They allow media companies and brands to further their visibility and better connect with customers. Read more to explore how they impact your business.
This article was last updated in July 2024.
Innovation Map outlines the Top 8 Media Industry Trends & 16 Promising Startups
For this in-depth research on the Top Media Industry Trends & Startups, we analyzed a sample of 3 024 global startups and scaleups. The result of this research is data-driven innovation intelligence that improves strategic decision-making by giving you an overview of emerging technologies & startups in the media industry. These insights are derived by working with our Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 4.7M+ startups & scaleups globally. As the world’s largest resource for data on emerging companies, the SaaS platform enables you to identify relevant startups, emerging technologies & future industry trends quickly & exhaustively.
In the Innovation Map below, you get an overview of the Top 8 Media Industry Trends & Innovations that impact 3 024 companies worldwide. Moreover, the Media Innovation Map reveals 16 hand-picked startups, all working on emerging technologies that advance their field.
Tree Map reveals the Impact of the Top 8 Media Industry Trends
Based on the Innovation Map, the Tree Map below illustrates the impact of the top 8 Media Industry Trends in 2025. Startups and scaleups are developing AI-based media tools that automate processes and analyze content performance. The media industry is also emphasizing audience engagement to improve brand reach and sales. Further, technologies like immersive media and low-latency content sharing ensure elevated user experience and satisfaction. Media companies use new media marketing and social commerce to capitalize on the customer base to generate higher revenue. Lastly, blockchain and cybersecurity innovations aid in ensuring data privacy, asset ownership, and system resilience.
Top 8 Media Industry Trends
Global Startup Heat Map covers 3 024 Media Startups & Scaleups
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the global distribution of the 3 024 exemplary startups & scaleups that we analyzed for this research. Created through the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, the Heat Map reveals that US and UK see the most startup activity.
Below, you get to meet 16 out of these 3 024 promising startups & scaleups as well as the solutions they develop. These 16 startups are hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. Depending on your specific needs, your top picks might look entirely different.
Top 8 Media Innovation Trends for 2025
1. Artificial Intelligence
The need for high turnover in media content compels companies to expedite their pipelines. Concurrently, enhancing the quality and quantity of content is crucial to attract consumers and generate higher value. For this, startups employ AI-powered solutions, including machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing (NLP).
These technologies empower media companies to elevate their services and customer experience. Beyond automating operations, AI facilitates strategic decision-making, metadata tagging, content personalization, and subtitle generation. Importantly, AI-driven analytics provide insights into viewer preferences, enabling tailored content creation.
ScorePlay advances Automated Media Management
Portuguese startup ScorePlay provides an AI-based media management toolkit for entertainment and sports organizations. It automatically tags content and offers a search engine to make content libraries instantly useable and searchable.
ScorePlay’s automated distribution channels also deliver content to the desired audience, improving viewer engagement. This allows businesses to fulfill sponsorship and partner deals while centralizing media assets.
Contentyze offers Automated Journalism
UK-based startup Contentyze offers a natural language generation (NLG) tool that aids story creation. It extracts data from spreadsheets and plugs it into story templates to generate news updates.
Additionally, Contentyze’s AI algorithm adds variance to each template, creating unique stories for the target audience. This saves time in content creation and also boosts search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.
2. Audience Engagement
Generating influence and revenue from a highly diverse pool of audiences requires extensive promotional activities. Media consumers exhibit specific interests in content topics and types. Advanced analytics and AI are harnessed by startups to identify user preferences and customize content offerings. This strategy enhances the appeal of stories, engaging a broader audience.
Techniques such as scrollytelling, audio, video, bite-sized, and user-generated content are employed by media tech companies to create compelling first impressions. Social media platforms serve as valuable tools for media businesses to assess and refine content creation strategies, ensuring robust audience engagement.
Reeler aids User-generated Content Management
Swedish startup Reeler offers a platform that collects, organizes, and publishes user-generated content. It automates the entire content management process from content collection to publishing for maximizing engagement.
The platform also offers an in-built photo editing tool that accelerates content workflows. Besides, it publishes UGCs directly to social media and creates embedded content galleries, boosting engagement.
Organic optimizes Publishing Workflows
Organic is a US-based startup that offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for audience engagement. It allows creators and publishers to easily manage, monetize, and analyze their content.
The platform’s data pipelines combine user content, audience engagement, advertising, and consumer data into a single hub. It also supports the integration of third-party data sources to optimize reporting and obtain relevant insights.
3. Immersive Media
Innovations in immersive technologies are improving the accessibility to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) solutions. Media companies leverage them to create and publish content in immersive formats, which improves the viewer experience. Immersive media provides an enhanced entertainment experience by virtually connecting users with their friends.
The pandemic has amplified the need for virtual experiences to facilitate public events such as concerts, music shows, and art exhibitions. This ensures the continuation of such events, providing financial support to artists and content creators. Furthermore, AR applications in advertising are creating engaging and interactive campaigns.
Legal Graffiti facilitates AR Content Sharing
US-based startup Legal Graffiti makes an AR content-sharing platform. The startup’s application allows users to view artworks around the world through its virtual platform. Legal Graffiti’s mobile app also allows users to share and view content as they walk around the streets. This exposes the crowd to new forms of art and creativity while financially supporting creators.
TrooVRS develops a Virtual Editorial Platform
US-based startup TrooVRS creates an immersive virtual editorial platform. It combines cloud computing and VR to offer tools, practical knowledge, and self-care content for men. Additionally, the platform allows them to participate in events and connect with like-minded communities. TrooVRS’ solution-driven storytelling enables readers to improve personal well-being.
4. Low-latency Content Sharing
The media ecosystem uses multiple content formats of varying format quality for maximum audience engagement. This strains internet services and leads to increased buffering frequency, especially in the case of video and immersive content. Consequently, the viewing experience suffers, diminishing the value of the content.
Innovations such as 5G and WiFi 6, harnessed by media startups, offer higher data bandwidth. This advancement enables seamless viewing and broadens the reach of media businesses across networks. Furthermore, interactive features like live voting and real-time audience participation find support in this technology, enhancing viewer engagement.
Livery Video offers an Interactive Video Cloud
Livery Video is a Dutch startup that provides an interactive video cloud that enables low-latency video sharing. It leverages an ultra-low-latency common media application format (ULL-CMAF) and a regular content distribution network (CDN).
This offers superior scalability and quality compared to conventional methods and formats. The startup’s cloud thus enables media companies to engage with their audience in near real-time with live video, sound, and interactions.
Gumlet optimizes Video Streaming
Singaporean startup Gumlet offers a development platform that facilitates the setup of custom video infrastructure and reporting systems. The startup’s video infrastructure automates content delivery and optimizes latency metrics for uninterrupted streaming. Its reporting system further consolidates all video engagement and experience data to optimize upscaling instances and bandwidth usage. This reduces buffering frequency and playback failures.
5. New Media Marketing
Ensuring optimal ad placement is vital to meet all sponsorship or partnership deal parameters without compromising the content. Digital marketing advancements provide media companies with the means to enhance ad placements using customer analytics. These tools open the door to ad personalization for media consumers, leveraging first-party customer data.
This strategy boosts marketing efficiency by increasing both partner revenue and customer retention. Moreover, new media marketing paves the way for long-term partnership deals, securing a consistent revenue stream.
Bannerse enables Interactive Ad Enagagement
Estonian startup Bannerse develops a tool to transform traditional banner ads into interactive video ads. This technology allows the integration of video content into banners, enabling consumers to interact through likes, comments, and sharing. The startup’s video ad creator enhances user engagement with social media-like experiences within the ads. The platform enhances engagement, tracks it in real time, and reports increased video engagement rates. Interactive elements within the ads, such as instant purchase options, streamline the shopping experience
Dubformer enables Content Localization
Dutch startup Dubformer provides a content localization solution through its AI-powered dubbing platform for the media industry. It combines automated script generation and translations with quality control to ensure accurate and high-quality localized content. The startup’s services cater to TV channels, content distributors, streaming platforms, media producers, and influencers.
6. Blockchain
Enforcing copyright protection is a daunting task, leading to significant costs for media companies. However, the advent of blockchain technology offers a solution. It provides distributed, immutable ledgers that meticulously track and monitor digital asset information.
Unique digital asset ownership is recorded through blockchain-based certificates, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This ensures the uniqueness of content, preventing unauthorized use. Furthermore, media companies leverage NFTs as collectibles, enhancing audience engagement significantly.
REV3AL ensures Digital Media Data Protection
REV3AL is a West Indies-based startup that makes a blockchain-agnostic watermark pinch to protect and authenticate media content and intellectual properties. The startup’s ecosystem utilizes distributed ledgers to provide secure information about protected intellectual properties.
It also leverages multi-factor authentication and anti-counterfeit protocols to create multi-tier protection. This protects consumers against fake and counterfeit digital media and NFTs.
RairTech offers a Digital Rights Platform
US-based startup RairTech provides a blockchain-based digital rights management platform. It attaches digital assets to NFTs for enabling the encrypted streaming of videos, music, images, and data.
This allows media companies and creators to make digital goods analogous to material goods. The platform also supports NFT minting, royalties, and metadata to ensure data security and fair compensation for creators.
7. Cybersecurity
The media sector’s digitization exposes it to cyber-attacks and malicious activities, including impersonation and content theft. These threats undermine credibility and hinder business objectives. However, cybersecurity innovations offer a solution. Continuous network monitoring and behavioral analytics provide greater control over the digital media ecosystem, shielding it from attacks.
Cybersecurity solutions automate surveillance tasks, tasks that would otherwise require days for a team of data analysts. These solutions not only protect media assets but also safeguard private consumer data, reducing sensitive data leaks. Further, regular security audits and cyber hygiene training for employees are integral to risk mitigation.
Mediastalker advances Media Asset Protection
Norwegian startup Mediastalker provides media privacy protection and antipiracy services. The startup’s proprietary plug-and-play AI platform leverages multi-sourced data models to protect media assets on the internet.
This allows brands to block illegal live streaming, protect music content, and secure media portfolios, thereby increasing revenue.
Pellonia aids Content Infringement Detection
Canadian startup Pellonia protects media assets, copyrights, and publicity rights from malicious attacks and theft. The startup’s technology scans social media platforms and websites to identify breaches in media assets.
Upon detecting anomalies, the platform automatically takes them down, avoiding impersonations and ensuring financial gains for artists and creators.
8. Social Commerce
The shift of customer purchase decisions into online channels, driven by the widespread adoption of social media and eCommerce, allows for rapid reach by ad and media companies. This fuels the growth of social commerce, where influencers and content creators bring products closer to customers. These platforms offer consumers direct access to desired products, eliminating the need for time-consuming browsing.
Live streaming and shoppable posts are gaining popularity, providing real-time engagement and immediate purchasing options. Interactive features on some platforms assist customers in making buying decisions. This strategy enhances user engagement, enables product promotion, and ensures higher conversion rates for brands.
Friendswith enables Collaborative Shopping
New Zealand-based startup Friendswith provides a mobile application that enables collaborative shopping. It allows influencers to share content and products to improve social media engagement.
This enables collaborative shopping experiences for customers while influencer marketing improves the authenticity and genuineness of products.
URLinks develops a Social Commerce Platform
URLinks, a Portuguese startup, offers a social commerce platform. It allows users to create and sell digital content within a collaborative environment. They create profiles with links, playlists, files, and videos, selling directly to followers or customers.
The platform allows importing playlists from platforms like Spotify for marketing. URLinks also provides content management tools, including layout customization, secure payments, and social dashboard features.
Discover all Media Trends, Technologies & Startups
The future of the industry aims to reduce the efforts of content creators and media companies in creating and publishing content. AI, advanced analytics, and immersive technologies will further drive content consumption and revenue generation opportunities. Additionally, the integration of low-latency communication, blockchain, and cybersecurity will enable the uninterrupted flow of content while ensuring a fair media ecosystem.
The Media Trends & Startups outlined in this report only scratch the surface of trends that we identified during our data-driven innovation and startup scouting process. Among others, AI, immersive technologies, and Web3 will transform the sector as we know it today. Identifying new opportunities and emerging technologies to implement into your business goes a long way in gaining a competitive advantage. Get in touch to easily and exhaustively scout startups, technologies & trends that matter to you!
