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Media companies’ digital revenues will overtake traditional by 2015: Ernst and Young
MUMBAI: The average revenue of media and entertainment (M&E) companies will shortly cross the 50 per cent mark from majority traditional to majority digital, according to a new report, ‘Digital agility now! Creating a high-velocity media and entertainment organisation in the age of transformative technology‘, released by Ernst and Young. It has surveyed more than 550 senior executives from global M&E companies.
Today, revenue from digital is 47 per cent and survey respondents say that by 2015 it will account for 57 per cent of revenue – thus making digital the new norm and the primary source of revenue for M&E companies.
Over 550 senior executives from global media and entertainment companies see 57 per cent of their revenue coming from digital by 2015, up from 47 per cent today
Organisational agility singled-out as a leading success factor in the digital era
The study indicates that “digital leaders” have embraced smart mobile-social-cloud and big data analytics technologies to achieve agility
The study goes on to identify the characteristics of M&E ‘digital leaders‘ – companies that are using new technology not only to deliver digital products and services, but to build more agile organisations capable of sensing and responding far faster to shifting customer expectations and marketplace opportunities and risks. The digital leaders are pioneering the path to a higher level of organisational agility as the M&E industry transitions to digital as its new norm.
Ernst and Young global technology industry leader Pat Hyek said, “Mobile-social-cloud and big data analytics technologies are game-changers for M&E firms. These technologies can help M&E digital leaders who broke ahead of the pack in the early stages of digital to extend their advantages, as well as offer opportunities for those who fell behind to adapt quickly and catch up.”
According to the report a major differentiator between these digital leaders and other survey respondents is a greater emphasis on mobile-social-cloud and big data analytics technologies for internal collaboration. For example, digital leaders are 60 per cent more likely than all other respondents to emphasise the importance of social media for internal communication among employees: 67 per cent said it was ‘very‘ or ‘extremely‘ important, versus 42 per cent of all others. The study points to the kind of rapid collaboration that is enabled by social networks and characteristic of an agile organisation, where silos are broken down by the ready flow of information.
The study shows that digital leaders‘ advanced social listening programmes, leading-edge analytics and cloud-based infrastructure enable rapid deployment of new products and resources, and give companies the ability to quickly learn from and fix mistakes. This organisational agility is necessary to meet the demands of rapidly evolving digital consumer behavior.
Ernst and Young Global Media and Entertainment Leader John Nendick said, “Media and entertainment companies no longer live in a world where everything lives in ‘their‘ world. It‘s a connected eco-system with consumer technology leading the way”.
Other results from the survey include:
Technology alliances: Digital leaders emphasise alliances that let them act faster than “going it alone”; 51 per cent rank alliances with technology and other M&E partners among their top three strategic priorities for digital transformation, versus 30 per cent for others.
Second-generation deployments: Digital leaders were generally more than twice as likely to incorporate lessons learned from initial technology deployments to achieve more advanced functionality. For example, 49 per cent of digital leaders use second-generation mobile technologies to develop products/services versus 16 per cent of all others.
Smart mobility: Similarly, 32 per cent of digital leaders use second-generation or later techniques in mobility to enhance employee engagement and communication, versus 13 per cent of all others.
Cloud: Digital leaders emphasise the importance of cloud computing to enhance internal and customer-facing flexibility. For example, 74 per cent of digital leaders say it‘s important to host business tools in the cloud, versus 49 per cent of all others; and 43 per cent of digital leaders use second-generation cloud solutions to speed product/service development vs 12 per cent of all others.
Big data analytics: Digital leaders are three times more likely than other respondents to use second-generation big data analytics techniques to improve customer engagement (26 per cent versus nine per cent). Among all respondents, 66 per cent rely on in-house resources to get insight into customers yet 41 per cent say they gain no insight from their data, suggesting they don‘t have the right big data analytics tools or skills in place and may be better off partnering to access external resources.
Agility Index:
The report concludes with an agility index that ranks the relative organisational agility of different M&E segments as well as enabling technology and digital leaders. The average score of all respondents is indexed to 100. A score of 110 denotes performance 10 per cent above average; 90 is 10 per cent below average.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
