Media & Entertainment UI UX Design Agency

Home / Industries / News, Media & Entertainment

Media & Entertainment UI UX Design: Experiences for the Streaming-First Era

The media landscape has fundamentally changed. American users now spend an average of three hours daily on OTT platforms, with over 70% of them binge-watching content*. Global OTT revenue is projected to reach $243 billion by 2028*, while traditional broadcast continues its decline. The question isn’t whether audiences will stream, it’s whether your platform will be the one they choose to use.

Source: Report on Global OTT & Video by Digital TV Research*

The US OTT market is projected to grow from $61.9 billion in 2024 to $112.7 billion by 2029*. The technology exists. The content exists. What separates successful platforms is the experience itself.

Source: Perspectives from the Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025–2029*

AI is reshaping content creation and discovery. AI spending in media and entertainment reached $25.98 billion in 2024 and is expected to hit $99.48 billion by 2030*. Generative AI now assists in scriptwriting, music composition, and hyper-personalized recommendations. But algorithms can only go so far. It is content discovery UX design that determines whether users find what they’re looking for.

Source: AI In Media & Entertainment Market Report*

Challenges Defining Media's Next Phase

1. Multi-Platform Fragmentation

Streaming now commands 46% of U.S. viewing time*, surpassing broadcast and cable combined. 83% of Americans use streaming services**, yet attention fragments across platforms. The challenge isn’t building another service—it’s creating OTT UX design services that make yours the platform users actually open. When content parity is the baseline, content discovery UX design becomes the differentiator.

Source: The Nielsen ARTEY Awards: 2024 Streaming Unwrapped*
Rew Research Center**

2. Personalization Without Intrusion

64% of consumers globally prefer companies that tailor experiences to their needs,* yet privacy concerns remain high. The opportunity lies in streaming app UI UX design that surfaces relevant content without feeling invasive. Effective video player UX and content recommendation design must balance algorithmic power with user control—showing users why content appears and giving them agency over their data.

Source: 2026 global consumer experience trends revealed

3. Creator Economy Competition

Over 207 million content creators now compete for attention globally*. These creators built direct audience relationships through authenticity and consistent dialog—a challenge for traditional media companies built on one-way broadcast models. Second-screen experience design and smart TV app UX must evolve to accommodate interactive, community-driven content formats that audiences increasingly expect.

*Source: https://www.demandsage.com/creator-economy-statistics/*

4. Privacy and Access Tensions

Audiences demand both seamless global access and transparent data practices. Regulatory frameworks lag user expectations—many bypasses geo-restrictions through VPNs while simultaneously demanding privacy controls. News app design and broadcast UX design must navigate this: building trust through clear data practices while delivering the frictionless, global access users expect.

Suggested Method

Critical Thinking

Suggested Method

Contextual Inquiry

Suggested Method

Card Sorting

Where Design Drives Platform Success?

Media companies face a pivotal moment. Content libraries expand, but attention fragments. Technology enables personalization, but users demand privacy. The platforms that succeed will be those where design bridges these tensions.

1. Unified Multi-Device Experiences

Users start content on mobile during commutes, continue on tablets at home, and finish on smart TVs. This isn’t a scenario, it’s daily behaviour. Smart TV app UX and second-screen experience design must handle these transitions seamlessly. Context-aware interfaces remember preferences, sync progress automatically, and adapt UI patterns to each screen size without forcing users to relearn navigation. Poor handoffs between devices kill engagement faster than missing content.

2. Discovery That Actually Works

Content libraries now exceed 10,000 titles on major platforms. Browsing is obsolete; discovery is everything. Content discovery UX design and content recommendation design must go beyond algorithmic suggestions. Effective streaming app UI UX design combines behavioural data with intuitive browsing—allowing users to stumble upon content serendipitously while also surfacing precisely what they’re looking for. Personalization UX works when it feels helpful, not surveillant.

3. Performance as Experience

In 2025, 72% of viewers abandon a video stream if it buffers for just 2–3 seconds*. Speed isn’t just technical today, it’s experiential. Video player UX must prioritize instant playback, predictive loading, and responsive controls. Clean layouts, optimized navigation, and contextual design reduce cognitive load. In a world where attention is scarce, every second of latency costs engagement. Our OTT UX design services ensure performance translates to perceived speed.

Source: https://vodlix.com/blog/minimize-video-buffering+*

4. Transparency Builds Trust

Consumers increasingly understand their products, not just customers. Opaque data practices erode trust faster than poor content recommendations. News apps and broadcast platforms must surface privacy controls prominently, not bury them in settings. Show users what data is collected, why, and give them meaningful control. Visual cues that signal security, clear consent flows, and transparent algorithms separate platforms users trust from those they abandon.

Design separates platforms that scale from those that stagnate. In a market where content is abundant and attention is scarce, understanding user behaviour, not just stated preferences, but actual usage patterns and unspoken friction points—determines which platforms earn daily engagement and which get deleted after the free trial.

Leading the way through Futuristic Design Experiences

Digital transformation happening in the media and entertainment business focuses mostly on marketing and money. But they also focus on user experience and engagement: personalizing one’s viewing experience, and getting content to audiences where and when they want it, on whatever device they’re using. Here is a sneak peek into a foray of disruptive trends catalyzing the metamorphosis of the media and entertainment industry.

1

Cord-Cutting leading To New Business Models: Going digital and online

Change in viewership medium

Gone are the days when all we had was cable or satellite and suffered through having to purchase 300 channels just to get the two or three that we actually liked. The rise of giants like Hulu and Netflix has left many to cut the cord with traditional cable companies, instead, are going online to find just the content they want. Also, cable companies are replacing traditional offerings with smaller bundles and specialty packages.

Watch as per preference

According to a report by salesforce While traditional media sources like broadcast and cable TV still enjoy large viewerships, millennial and Gen Z consumers (defined as those born between 1981–1999) are now more likely to regularly stream video, TV, and movies online than to watch traditional TV channels. Consumers are also increasingly willing to pay for different digital media sources, than pay for a cable subscription, for content of their choice. Even baby boomers are jumping on board, with nearly half (47 percent) having increased their use of subscription streaming video services over the past two years.

Think Design’s Recommendation

While TV bundling of content has long been the go-to business model for cable companies, new players like Sling have emerged to give media consumers a way to select content à la carte based on their own preferences. Perhaps tired of years of bundling, baby boomers are also more likely than younger generations to elect multiple streaming services in order to avoid paying for content they don’t want. In such a scenario it makes it incumbent for media companies to move direct-to-consumer with their own digital streaming services, designed right to provide the power of choices to the user while investing to revamp their digital presence and cross-platform user experience.

CASE STUDY

Zee5: New age entertainment for the Indian audience

VIEW CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY

Yupp TV: Entertainment for the Indian diaspora

VIEW CASE STUDY

2

Rise of the Connected Audience and demand for improved user experience

Demographic Demands

Meanwhile, the emergence of millennials (the generation born between 1981 and 1997) is creating demand for technology services that offer, memorable experiences, convenience and instant access to content. At the same time, the world’s population is aging, leading to increased demand for health and wellness, entertainment and education services designed for older people. Finally, urbanization has increased demand for media offerings designed with people’s commutes and busy work lives in mind.

Demand for better-curated content

Netflix and Amazon are leading the way of curating content effectively for years, suggesting what shows we’d like to watch. Success may lie in developing an intimate understanding of the consumers’ media companies are trying to reach. Organizations also have the potential to become distributors, by developing direct consumer relationships, to test various content ideas with consumers, helping to strengthen their offerings—and the value they derive from them.

Need for Personalized recommendations

While traditional ads still help consumers discover new content, personalized recommendations powered by artificial intelligence are the go-to discovery source for millennials and Gen Zers, with more relying on recommendations from content providers (think Netflix’s “Top picks for you”) than from traditional ads. Used effectively, these types of analytics can create instant “audiences” for new shows and products, making the area of content discovery more critical than ever to gain a competitive advantage.

Think Design’s Recommendation

There is a continuous ask for original content; while the internet has introduced traditional media to a plethora of content challenges. YouTube, as well as subscription-based streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu and new-age content makers pose a difficult challenge to traditional companies relying on high-production cost content and compulsory ad viewing. Young viewers today, having been exposed to international cinema, television, and arts from an early age, want relevant, high-quality entertainment avenues to satisfy their evolved sensibilities. To make content easier to monetize it is important to gain user preferences and insights.

CASE STUDY

Airtel XStream: Impacting 100 Million users through superior UX Design

VIEW CASE STUDY

3

Strategic marketing as the norm to market advantage

Multi-platform marketing

Content delivery is no longer linear. Far from it, viewers rarely sit through an entire TV show or movie without multitasking on social media or sharing their opinions about what they’re watching. As such, marketing is also an all-channel event. Media companies have learned that they need to take advantage of that situation by engaging consumers through different platforms, prompting viewers to #share using branded content and hashtags to gain their content even greater reach. By 2021, mobile video will drive 24 percent of all Internet video traffic*.

*Source: Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2017–2022 White Paper

Advertising to get Smarter

Because of deep analytics possible with machine learning, as well as the vast opportunities available with augmented reality and AI, advertising is becoming even smarter than ever. Forget traditional product placements. Soon it will be possible to order your favorite actor’s jacket just by clicking the screen when it appears. Yet 39 percent of all media consumers claim a willingness to pay extra for ad-free content, forcing distributors and producers to identify new revenue streams*.

*Source: Connected Audience Report 2018, Salesforce

Think Design’s Recommendation

Design capturing multi device user adaptability through powerful cross-platform design solutions. As ad-reliant media companies are evolving, moving towards targeted advertising represents another key growth opportunity for media companies. With the growth of programmatic advertising and cross-device measurement success will likely depend heavily upon gaining more insights into customers’ demographics and viewing behaviors and embedding them in the user’s experience. Research suggests 40 percent of millennials and Gen Z consumers value personalized recommendations so much that they’re likely to pay for them.

CASE STUDY

Hindustan Times: Transformative design for the legacy newspaper

VIEW CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY

Telegraph: Reaching out and across through superior UX

VIEW CASE STUDY

4

Futuristic technology driving Innovation and creativity

Artificial Intelligence forays

In a new wave of computer-human “collaboration,” companies are already using AI to create effective movie plot points based on box office performance, and one company recently used AI to create a horror movie trailer based on trailers the AI had already processed and annexed. It used clips and scenes proven to be effective by market research, increasing the likelihood that it would actually get viewers to watch. From Language processing and image recognition to speech recognition and deep learning, there is truly no end to the way AI is impacting the creative process in media and entertainment.

Advent of Virtual And Mixed Reality

Although still in its infancy compared to where it will go, the success of virtual and mixed reality is starting to make its way into media and entertainment. Various championships are being featured in 360 VR, immersing fans into the middle of live games giving them a taste of the power of virtual reality. VR/AR investments by media companies have been on a continous upward ascent.

Autonomous vehicles as powerful media-delivery devices

These vehicles have wireless connectivity and, most important, passengers with time on their hands. Media companies should start thinking about how to optimize content creation and delivery to take full advantage of this new mobile opportunity*.

*Source: 2018 Media and Entertainment Outlook”, Delloite

Think Design’s Recommendation

Through the widespread availability of cheap sensors, connected devices and cloud computing, we are witnessing the birth of the Internet of Things and an era of intelligence guided by data, which will offer the media industry a whole range of opportunities to create seamless, personalized services. This real-time use of data analytics, algorithmic recommendations is particularly important as media organizations no longer just provide content but experiential services built around that content.

Think Design's Approach to Media & Entertainment Experiences

1. Design for Fragmented Viewing Patterns

While binge-watching remains popular, 19% of viewers now prefer weekly releases*. Users switch between devices mid-episode, pause for days, then resume. Successful platforms accommodate both behaviours. We approach designs for continuity—seamless progress tracking, intelligent resume points, and interfaces that adapt whether users consume content in marathons or intervals. Video player UX must support both patterns without forcing users to choose.

*Source: https://www.gwi.com/blog/streaming-trends-and-stats

2. Map Complete User Journeys, Not Just Sessions

Entertainment journeys span discovery, evaluation, consumption, and sharing—often across multiple sessions and devices. A user might see a trailer on social media, add it to their watchlist on mobile, start watching on a tablet, and finish on a smart TV days later. Our OTT UX design services map these extended journeys, identifying friction points most platforms miss. Smart TV app UX and second-screen experience design must feel connected, not fragmented.

3. AI-Driven, Human-Cantered

Voice search, predictive loading, and contextual recommendations aren’t futuristic—they’re table stakes. But intelligence means nothing if it feels opaque. We design to make AI transparent: showing users why content appears, allowing correction, and learning from implicit signals. Personalization UX succeeds when users feel understood, not surveilled.

4. Design for Multi-Modal Interactions

Users navigate with remotes, voice commands, gestures, and touch—sometimes within the same session. This complexity demands intentional design. Our work considers every input method: ensuring voice commands surface the same content as text search, that gesture controls feel natural on large screens, and that touch interactions remain precise on mobile. Consistency across modalities prevents cognitive overload.

5. Optimize for Consumption Quality

Content is king, but presentation determines whether users watch. Our media app UI design services for Android TV prioritize reading clarity, minimize distractions during playback, and surface contextual information only when relevant. We test video player interface design with real users—measuring not just completion rates but comprehension and satisfaction.

Partnerships impacting News, Media & Entertainment consumption across millions of users

Over the last decade, Think Design has been at the helm of redefining User Experiences in the News, Media & Entertainment industry. Leading News, Media & Entertainment companies have trusted Think Design for advancing their initiatives. Drop in a word or call us; and we will be happy to demonstrate why.

Creating Value in Every Industry

News media & Entertainment

News portals and apps, Media & Entertainment portals and apps, OTT, Mobile TV, Music, Streaming.

Know More

Enterprise & IT

ERP, Utilities, HRMS, Planning tools, Data & Analytics, LMS, Enterprise systems, Productivity suites.

Know More

Healthcare & Lifesciences

Medical devices, Hospital management systems, Pharma, Wearable tech, Personal healthcare, Fitness, Wellness.

Know More

Networks & Smart devices

Telecom, Home automation, Data networks, M2M, IoT, Utilities, Law enforcement, Defense & Border security.

Know More

Education & Edtech

Institutions, Portals, Apps, Learning management, Gamified learning, MOOCs, Universities, Learning centers.

Know More

Banking & Financial Services

Fintechs, Banks, Insurance, Payments, Wallets, Lending, Trading, Investment, Blockchain, Currencies, Wealth management.

Know More

End-to-End Design Expertise

UI UX DESIGN

User & Design Research

Data Design

SERVICE DESIGN

Over the last decade, Think Design has been at the helm of redefining User Experiences in the News, Media & Entertainment industry. Leading News, Media & Entertainment companies have trusted Think Design for advancing their initiatives. Drop in a word or call us; and we will be happy to demonstrate why.

News media & Entertainment

Media & Entertainment UI UX Design: Experiences for the Streaming-First Era

The US OTT market is projected to grow from $61.9 billion in 2024 to $112.7 billion by 2029*. The technology exists. The content exists. What separates successful platforms is the experience itself.

Challenges Defining Media's Next Phase

1. Multi-Platform Fragmentation

2. Personalization Without Intrusion

3. Creator Economy Competition

4. Privacy and Access Tensions

Critical Thinking

Contextual Inquiry

Card Sorting

Where Design Drives Platform Success?

Media companies face a pivotal moment. Content libraries expand, but attention fragments. Technology enables personalization, but users demand privacy. The platforms that succeed will be those where design bridges these tensions.

1. Unified Multi-Device Experiences

2. Discovery That Actually Works

3. Performance as Experience

4. Transparency Builds Trust

Leading the way through Futuristic Design Experiences

1

Cord-Cutting leading To New Business Models: Going digital and online

Change in viewership medium

Watch as per preference

Think Design’s Recommendation

2

Rise of the Connected Audience and demand for improved user experience

Demographic Demands

Demand for better-curated content

Need for Personalized recommendations

Think Design’s Recommendation

3

Strategic marketing as the norm to market advantage

Multi-platform marketing

Advertising to get Smarter

Think Design’s Recommendation

4

Futuristic technology driving Innovation and creativity

Artificial Intelligence forays

Advent of Virtual And Mixed Reality

Autonomous vehicles as powerful media-delivery devices

Think Design’s Recommendation

Think Design's Approach to Media & Entertainment Experiences

1. Design for Fragmented Viewing Patterns

2. Map Complete User Journeys, Not Just Sessions

3. AI-Driven, Human-Cantered

4. Design for Multi-Modal Interactions

5. Optimize for Consumption Quality

Partnerships impacting News, Media & Entertainment consumption across millions of users

News media & Entertainment

Know More

Enterprise & IT

Know More

Healthcare & Lifesciences

Know More

Networks & Smart devices

Know More

Education & Edtech

Know More

Banking & Financial Services

Know More

Get in Touch

Trending

Suggested