An abundance of new content is what sets Netflix apart from other streaming services. In an attempt to expand its global audience base, it’s acquiring local content, dubbing and subtitling a significant amount of its offering, and creating targeted ads with local talent speaking the local language.

Is gaming set to take over people’s free time? What are the limits of virtual reality? How have media producers adapted to pandemic-inspired needs? In this part of the 2021 Expert Outlook, we speak to four experts about how people are finding both solace and escapism through screens.

Netflix and Spotify have exposed people to content from across the world, impacting the types of media they consume. Research has found that Americans are watching more non-US TV than ever before, showing how media consumption is increasingly crossing geographical boundaries.

Streaming services boomed during COVID-19 as people sought at-home entertainment to stave off boredom. Disney+ emerged as one of the biggest winners of 2020, but what does its success reveal about the future of viewing? And how do people want to engage with film and TV moving forward?