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- The Year Ahead...Entertainment
The Year Ahead...Entertainment
What will 2025 bring in entertainment? News Club is place to find out...
Welcome to our Year Ahead series where we talk with our friends in news about what they reckon will be the big themes of the year. Starting with entertainment… |  With Kate Watson |
We reckon it’s the year to stay informed, not overwhelmed.
The good, the bad, and the ugly in the news will no doubt come hurdling at us this year - and our intention is to be the place where you can stay on top of things without getting burned out.
To that end, we kick off our Year Ahead series with entertainment. And we didn’t have to look far for an expert - Andrew Williams is not only the co-host of our Squiz Today podcast, but he’s also a film critic and encyclopedic when it comes to the world of film, TV, books, podcasts, gaming, sport. Whatever you call entertainment, he’s across it.
Much of the entertainment news you might come across is based on celebrity and gossip. I apologise in advance if that’s what you’re expecting because we don’t really go there. No judgment from me if that’s your thing - I am as guilty as the next person of really wanting to know about Hugh Jackman’s new relationship or what Taylor Swift’s backup dancer posted on Instagram. But for this, it’s a little less glitz, glamour and gossip and more the business of entertainment.
We talk about AI and its impacts, gaming and why it’s such a huge industry, we talk sport and broadcast deals and streaming and the challenges. I learned a lot, and I hope you do too.
As I said - informed, not overwhelmed this year. Let’s do this.
Keep reading for 3 highlights from our conversation.
Highlight 1: Creativity clashing with AI
Andrew Williams: I think we are going to see it become a clear and present danger to creative people. Because as it gets better, and as it gets more capable of replicating the creative process, we're going to see more people probably lose their jobs in the creative industry—not necessarily because they should, but because someone is looking at a balance sheet somewhere and going "well, we can save money by doing this bit with AI."
And it's probably not going to be the big people. But it will probably be some of the people who perform the functional jobs on a movie set, on a TV set, in a book editing process, or all of the things that give us entertainment and make it great. For me, as someone who loves art and entertainment, it genuinely makes life worth living. And if you take away the human part of it, I think you do take away its ability to connect with people.
Highlight 2: Gaming is not niche
Andrew Williams: 80% of us play video games. And when we talk about video games, we're not just talking about Call of Duty. We're talking about Wordle, we're talking about Connections. As many men play video games as women. So, this idea that it's a niche activity only for people under 20—particularly men under 20—is just so antiquated. It is completely wrong.
The single piece of entertainment that's made the most money in a single day is Grand Theft Auto 5 in 2013. It made almost a billion dollars in a day. And in 2025, Grand Theft Auto 6 could be coming. Video games are famously prone to delays, but if it does release, it will be the biggest thing in entertainment—bar none, no question. No matter what metric you use—users, money, or cultural impact—it will be the biggest.
Highlight 3: Live sport still rates
Andrew Williams: In terms of what rates on traditional broadcast TV - so, in Australia, Channel 7, Channel 9, Channel 10 - it's really just sport. It's not that they're not making good shows. There's a show on Nine Now called A Remarkable Place to Die, which I thought was really good. But it hasn’t cut through, I think, because it’s on broadcast TV.
The things that rate are live events. That’s why reality TV and sport work so well -they’re not the sort of thing you’ll watch the next day, like a scripted TV show. You want to be involved in that moment on social media, with your friends, or whatever it might be. Sport is kind of the last thing on broadcast TV that is a lock in terms of being genuinely successful. I think we could see a day where it’s pretty much all that’s on. But the streamers are still coming for it.
The interview
In the full interview, we get into:
🎥 The biggest movie flop of 2024—and why it’s more interesting than the hits
🤖 The impact of AI on the creative industry
📺 The tidal wave of content heading our way in 2025
🧭 Where the streamers are heading
Listen on your preferred podcast platform or watch on YouTube
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