The entertainment industry, for years, labored under the assumption that visibility = value. The louder the launch, the bigger the name attached to the project, the wider the exposure, the better the deal. Celebrity partnerships, exclusive programming deals, and big announcement splash signings were all measured by the splash that was made, rather than the framework that supported that splash.

This presumption is gradually falling apart

In the worlds of film, television, music, and online content delivery, entertainment conglomerates are beginning to re-evaluate what is truly driving long-term value. The trend might be small and often doesn’t get stated publicly, but its consistency is there: from seeking visibility to seeking control. Control over distribution, over storylines, over ownership, over reach.

Star power is nevertheless present within the entertainment industry; however, it does not necessarily ensure longevity. Celebrity backing can bring focus swiftly; however, focus is becoming an ever-more fluid commodity. Public opinions change rapidly, and loyalty is uncertain. Also, personal branding does not necessarily conform easily to company ideologies.

When partnerships are more driven by image, the perceived outcomes may escalate beyond actual achievements. Public visibility creates a false sense of progress, but often this is not necessarily a source of leverage. Control, instead, gives corporations the ability to monitor and adjust to the changing moods of public opinion.

This has caused more limited forms of deals and an increasing readiness to move away when lack of alignment occurs.

Another shift happening behind the scenes is the definition of what the term “content” means within the entertainment industry. Projects are not seen merely as individual releases with the purpose of spiking short-term engagement. Rather, they are now and will continue to be seen as parts of an ecosystem, including ownership and production infrastructures and licensing strategies.

This accounts for the renewed attention to infrastructure spending. Expenditures related to studios, pipelines, and vertically integrated businesses provide a strategic continuity in a volatile environment for a company to act with patience and not urgency.

In this situation, control acts as a stabilizer. The dependence on the success of the virus is reduced, and there is space to create value.

It seems that the most dramatic change has come about in the measurement of the audience. Instead of looking to reach as many people as possible with their entertainment offerings, the industry has begun to concentrate instead upon retention. The key questions have changed dramatically as a result. No longer is the inquiry centered upon how many people were aware of a project; instead, the new questions include how many of them stayed with it.

This shift in thinking is a recognition that the entertainment brand itself is beginning to think more like a long-term consumer brand. It’s more important to be trusted, consistent, and clear than to generate hype. The relationship with the audience, which was once a secondary consideration to getting the show distributed, is now a primary one.

As a result, visibility is being used as a resource rather than an aim.

However, in some situations, pulling back can be viewed as a strategy that is less about failure and more about planning. Some companies might terminate or restructure their partnerships to gain the freedom to control and position themselves in the marketplace. From the perspective of visibility alone, these options seem irrational. But when control is the end goal, the motivation for these choices becomes apparent.

This, in turn, has led to a broader conversation about what success means to entertainment companies in this new context, where holding back or being slow to gain exposure becomes not only acceptable but preferred.

What has arisen from that shift is a less noisy, more measured industry. Innovation and talent are still important, but these are ever more often situated in a context that is durable. Control does not remove risk, but control enables better adaptation in risk’s presence. Entertainment is no longer simply an exercise of capturing people’s attention.

Entertainment is also an exercise of creating systems that have the ability to preserve this relevance without fully leaning on it. It is the players who invest in structure instead of spectacle who are the most resilient. But as the industry keeps on changing, visibility is going to be a major trend that shall be felt. However, it is not going to be non-fungible anymore, and in its place has emerged control in almost all monetary transactions.

TIME BUSINESS NEWS