The Mediologist

Making sense of the always-on media memesphere

There is a screen at every turn. And on each screen there are images, sounds, messages. What to buy, what to think, what to be, how to live. This is a place where a mediologist attempts to make sense of a media-dominated world and find a path to how media impacts business and culture.

AT&T gives up WarnerMedia

May 18, 2021 by James Meskauskas in Advertising, Media, Streaming

This is the first merger WarnerMedia has been part of that makes sense in the last 20 years: content powerhouse with content powerhouse, each coming at content from a different angle appealing to different audiences.

AT&T will likely focus its resources on making 5G a reality. With that in place, its Himalayan mountains of data combined with liquifying speed can make AT&T an autobahn of media content distribution.

Advertising in a streaming world: the growing obstacle to audience reach

March 18, 2021 by James Meskauskas in Advertising, Media, Streaming

HBO Max’s $80 million commitment from advertisers in the upfront for its forthcoming ad-supported option suggests there’s plenty of room for ad-supported streaming. And let’s face, in order to get enough reach to impact business objectives, brands need to reach far outside the confines of linear. But it also suggests a bigger challenge to meaningful reach the current streaming ecosystem posses.