A former Disney exec says peak TV is over, and there's only so much AI can do to help
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
- A former Disney executive says there's a limit to how much AI can help the television industry.
- Kevin Mayer said producing high-quality TV and movies is too expensive now for AI to help much.
- "There's no longer the revenue base to afford as much content as once was the case," he said.
A former Disney executive said TV's golden era has passed, and even AI can't help it now.
Kevin Mayer, who spent more than 14 years in leadership roles at Disney, spoke on Yahoo Finance's "Opening Bid" podcast on Friday about how television is past its peak. Mayer, who is the co-CEO and founder of Candle Media, served as the CEO of TikTok for a few months in 2020.
"Content's squeezed right now, and it takes a lot of money to create great content. If you're doing traditional film and TV-length content at a high production value, it's expensive, it's getting more expensive," he told Brian Sozzi, the podcast host.
"AI might be helpful there a little bit, because AI is a tool that can help increase efficiencies in creating video and storylines and everything else," he said.
However, he also said there's a limit to how much AI can help the industry.
"You can't really depend on AI too much," he said. "But as a tool for creative executives and creative people, I think it may it'll actually help with the efficiency, but content's squeezed."
Mayer said TV peaked three to four years ago, and "there's no longer the revenue base to afford as much content as once was the case."
"This is not enough money to cover that anymore, so content is definitely coming down," Mayer said.
In his 14 years at Disney, Mayer was involved in the acquisitions of Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and 21st Century Fox. As the chair of Disney's direct-to-consumer and international division, he led a team that launched Disney's streaming service, Disney+, in 2019.
The use of AI in film and content production is a contentious issue. In 2023, more than 11,000 Hollywood film and TV screenwriters went on strike to protest the use of AI in their industry and demand more regulation.
Mayer's comments come at a difficult time for the US media industry. Traditional TV companies have for years been grappling with the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+, which have rendered once-essential cable TV networks obsolete.
Comcast, the American mass media, telecommunications, and entertainment megaconglomerate that owns MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, and other cable TV networks, said in November that it would spin off almost all of its TV networks into a separate company.
Representatives for Candle Media did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.