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When COVID-19 started spreading rapidly throughout the entire planet, numerous industries suffered as a result of government lockdowns and social distancing guidelines. The film industry was especially vulnerable as a result of the fact that its final product consisted of utilizing multiple people in small spaces such as actors, on-set staff, and audience members. As a result of this, the entertainment industry had to reinvent the way it conducted business. Today, we take a look back at the impact COVID had on the Disney stock forecast entertainment industry and the outlook for 2021 and beyond.
Actors and Actresses
Celebrities were always aware of the fact that people listened to and followed them on social media. During the pandemic, since they were not able to communicate with their fans on tv shows and other physical venues like before, they launched their own podcasts to entertain their audience. Statistics show that Instagram live is now filled with more celebrities than ever before.
These podcasts have proven to be especially useful for those who work in the entertainment industry because they gave them the opportunity to maintain their fanbase and to provide their audience with information on a new movie or tv show that they were involved in. So in a way, entertainers developed a more personal relationship with their fans as a result of the restrictions of pandemic-related lockdowns.
Musicians
The music industry also succumbed to the restrictions of COVID-related shutdowns. Many tours, festivals, and concerts had to be canceled. In response to this, many musicians started live streaming content from their homes directly to their fans. Many musicians started selling their music through online platforms like Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, and Bandcamp. In fact, registration rates for Bandcamp were so high during the pandemic that they decided to waive fees during the months of June, July, and May.
Meanwhile, other musicians such as Gary Lightbody worked with his fans who helped him write and produce songs. This form of collaboration has helped musicians to connect with their fan base by providing content that resonates with them.
Movies/TV Shows
The biggest change in the entertainment industry which occurred during the pandemic was the way we saw movies. HBO made headlines for proclaiming that a list of blockbuster movies that were initially scheduled to be released in cinemas would go straight to its platform and remain available for 30 days to its subscribers.
Many reputable directors, such as Christopher Nolan, criticized HBO for its decision because he felt that HBO opened a “Pandora’s box” that would cause other influential studios to follow. In the end, more and more platforms started to replicate HBO and released movies to various streaming platforms instead of the theater. Based on HBO’s subscriber growth statistics, the trend is here to stay. Many experts believe that going forward, consumers will have the option of being able to visit the theater or use their favorite streaming platform when it comes to watching new, large-budget movies.
Outlook for 2021 and Beyond
Statistics indicate that even though job availability has increased to levels that are akin to pre-pandemic job availability levels, people simply aren’t looking for jobs. They have grown accustomed to working from home and many people balk at the idea of going back to working in an office. The same thing can be said about the entertainment industry. As a result of the changes various players made in response to COVID, people have grown accustomed to watching high-quality, big-budget movies/tv-shows on their platform of choice. As such, the video streaming sector is expected to continue to rise.
Before the pandemic, most platforms would avoid spending an abundance of capital to create content that’s exclusive to their platform. This resulted in an onslaught of “B-movies.” This meant that platforms like Netflix typically had dozens of exclusives that were low budget and lacking in quality. But the subscriber’s growth that Disney experienced, when it released tv shows which had a larger budget than a standard movie such as The Mandarin and Wanda, demonstrated that companies could safely invest tens of millions of dollars into an exclusive tv show/movie for the sole purpose of increasing subscriber growth. So, it’s expected that the quality of streaming exclusives should increase considerably.
