Television is a state of mind: why user experience will shape the next era of media

I have trouble with the word television. Even though we still use that term, recent market-definition debates—including those around Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) assets—make it abundantly clear that what we call television is far more than a screen in a room where we lean back to watch professionally produced, long-form content delivered linearly at a set time. 

What we now term television is an experience that adapts to the viewer. It’s about the how, when, and where of connecting to content across moments, moods, and devices. Television is the instant we decide to be swept up by a story—for comfort, curiosity, escape, or connection. That moment can happen on a couch, in an Uber, in the kitchen, or between meetings—across any screen, any length, any format. Television has become a state of mind.

When Product Experience Becomes Strategy 

After returning to the U.S. from working in satellite television in India, I could see digital streaming was the future. That sense turned into reality when I moved into News Corp.’s internet portfolio during the MySpace era. My first major lesson was humbling: media companies don’t “go digital” by declaring a strategy—they do it when the product experience is the strategy.

At MySpace, we signed what seemed like a genius deal: [redacted] guaranteed roughly $900 million over three years to serve ads on the platform. Wall Street applauded. Users did not. The interface and pages grew cluttered, load times slowed, and the vibe that made MySpace culturally dominant began to erode. When Facebook arrived with a cleaner, more intuitive design, people didn’t debate the switch—they simply left.

That moment clarified something the industry still struggles to accept: users vote with their behavior, not their loyalty.

You Can’t Litigate Your Way to Relevance

MySpace also taught me you can’t sue your way back to relevance. When music rights pressure intensified with Universal Music’s high-stakes litigation, we built a partnership instead of a war—structuring a Hulu-like joint venture with major labels that licensed catalogs and aligned incentives. The takeaway wasn’t “we won”—it was that winners in disruption stop fighting new behaviors and start building an ecosystem around them. Disney’s recently announced partnership with OpenAI is a perfect example of this.

Engineers as Storytellers

Those lessons followed me into launching direct-to-consumer products for a major telecom platform and later for [redacted] Latin America. Inside big organizations, everyone knows technology matters—but funding it, attracting talent to buy into the vision, and giving it time to pay off is harder. Streaming “wars” are often framed as content wars, but they’re increasingly product wars: about discovery, personalization, and the quiet reduction of friction that keeps people engaged.

To get closer to how that machine is built, I joined a PE-backed digital engineering services company as CLO and CPO and lived through the COVID era’s forced digital transformation. I realized something that reshaped my thinking about media: engineers are storytellers, just like their content-side counterparts. They don’t write the plot, but they craft a story of how we live online—how we find content, connect with others to share it, and return to keep engaging. The way we consume content becomes part of the content experience itself.

Future of TV

That’s the real power shift I wrote about recently: control is moving from those who own the most content to those who deliver the best experience. [Redacted] is the clearest case study. It meets users in almost every “TV state of mind”—short bursts, deep dives, background listening, big-screen sessions—with a seamless product layer and a data flywheel that keeps audiences engaged. It also keeps creators involved not by giving away equity, but by sharing advertising revenue at scale.

[Redacted] internalized this idea early: one global product, one recommendation engine, one continuous engagement loop—and a willingness to invest heavily in technology so the company’s value compounds. Now the industry is testing whether consolidation can speed up that advantage. If Netflix’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets signals anything, it’s that media deals should be judged less by “how much content did we buy” and more by whether the combined company can deliver a better global experience.

TV As a State of Mind

So what does the future look like when we treat television as a state of mind?

Theatrical experiences won’t fade—they’ll evolve from “watching a movie in an uninteresting venue” to showing up: a high-quality social ritual built on community and connection.

The winners will think like great hospitality brands and premium experience operators—designing nights people crave, delivering them consistently, and scaling them into repeatable, franchise-ready formats based on business models that create value and opportunity.

Home viewing will become the default theater—but only if it’s designed, not just delivered. “User-first” means personalization that recognizes mood, not just taste. [Redacted] that feels like curation, not an infinite shelf. Social layers and advertising opportunities are either optional or integrated seamlessly into the user experience. Continuity that lets you start anywhere and finish anywhere.

The future of television is the feeling of being understood—and the platforms that earn that feeling will define what we call TV in the decade ahead.