How are media and entertainment companies navigating shifting winds in Hollywood, amid an industry in constant flux and AI rapidly advancing on the scene? A panel of senior industry leaders served up insights into the biz’s burning questions, setting the table for the Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit presented by EY in L.A. Speaking on the kickoff panel were Clancy Collins White, president of creative affairs at Warner Bros.
Television; Simran Sethi, president of scripted programming for Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment at Disney; Liz Jenkins, chief business officer, NBCUniversal Entertainment; Abhijay Prakash, president of Blumhouse Atomic Monster; and Rahul Purini, president of Sony’s Crunchyroll anime-streaming service. NBCU’s Jenkins said that the TV industry — during the era of “peak TV” a few years ago — was “in a place for a while where, frankly, the economics were a bit unsustainable, right? And I think that supply, frankly, probably exceeded demand.” Now, with a portfolio at NBCU that comprises Peacock, Bravo and NBC, Jenkins said the company “has gotten very sort of surgical and being focused on who are our priority audiences and how do we ensure that we’re super-serving them, and but then grow from there.” Sethi said that Disney discovered early on that distribution on streaming services like Hulu and Disney+ and linear TV “don’t cannibalize each other.
They’re distinct audiences. People who have a habit of watching live on television are not necessarily the ones streaming streaming online. So it really did for us just make the pie bigger, and it allows people to catch up and come back.” The panelists also said the weekly release of TV episodes, bucking Netflix’s general convention of releasing full seasons in a binge-drop, was something that resonated with viewers.
Everyone in this room grew up watching certain shows,” Sethi said. But the idea that you can have this shared experience watching something weekly is, I think, an important return to what society feels like it’s gravitating towards again, which is being together and talking with each other and connecting. WBTV’s Collins White said audiences are responding to the weekly drop of episodes of the studio’s hit series “The Pitt,” which won seven 2026 Emmys including best drama series and lead drama actor for Noah Wyle.
And sort of [ask], are you seeing green shoots? Are you seeing that it’s hitting the right audience?” For “Love Island USA,” the real tipping point was Season 6 and the addition of Ariana Madix coming off a buzzy season of “Vanderpump Rules,” with a really established fan base there, she added. As for the threat of AI, Blumhouse’s Prakash, whose studio was behind two big summer box-office hits from YouTube creators — “Obsession” and “Backrooms” — said he thinks short-form, maybe lower-production value creator content is “the most likely to get disrupted by whatever they’re calling ‘AI slop.'” To Prakesh, “Obsession” and “Backrooms” could not have been created from an AI prompt.
And, he said, the two horror films showed that “a scary theatrical event” could compel people “to leave their homes for that experience.” And he said a takeaway for him is that Hollywood should be doing more to serve audiences natively on YouTube. He said Crunchyroll’s research shows that outside of Japan and China, 650 million people watching anime regularly on a weekly basis, and that’s projected to continue to grow globally. It’s not just about tonnage.
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