Many of us live in a world where screens dictate the rhythm of our days. From the moment we wake and scroll to the nights we spend “just one more episode” deep, media brands dominate our collective experience. In our 2025 Brand Intimacy Study, brands from this industry once again surged to the top of our rankings, even as the industry overall slipped from first to fourth place. Just past the veneer of this impressive performance, however, lies the looming challenge of oversaturation.
Consumers live in a fractured-attention economy, pulled between dozens of platforms, bombarded by endless content, and increasingly questioning whether their loyalties are worth the monthly subscription fees. The media landscape has shifted from the adrenaline rush of binging everything to the hangover of content burnout. The question is no longer whether these brands can capture our attention but whether they can keep us emotionally invested even when the fatigue starts to set in.
Selling Stories, Building Memories
Few industries have perfected the art of intimacy the way media and entertainment have. Their product isn’t just a commodity; it’s memory, self-image, and aspiration, all wrapped into the content we consume.
Disney remains the undisputed juggernaut. Ranked #1 overall in our study, Disney isn’t just a company—it’s a cultural operating system. Its family of brands is a fortress of intimacy in the category: Hulu (#8), ESPN (#12), Pixar (#6), and Marvel (#11). Collectively, Disney’s ecosystem ranks fifth among all brand families in the study, demonstrating the synergistic power of interconnected storytelling and shared worlds. Whether through nostalgic reboots, theme park experiences, or live sports, Disney maintains a hold that few can rival.
Netflix (#2) deserves special mention. For the first time, it has cracked the overall top 10. What was once an upstart disruptor has matured into a dominant, global media giant. Netflix’s ability to expand across geographies, demographics, and genres—while fostering habits like binge-watching—shows how deeply it has woven itself into daily life. The brand transcends the function of entertainment to become shorthand for togetherness, escape, and cultural participation.
Overall, the media and entertainment industry outperforms the cross-industry average, demonstrating consistent strength since the COVID era, when households relied on these brands as lifelines. Nostalgia emerges as the industry’s leading intimacy archetype in 2025. Consumers don’t just love the new shows—they rewatch old favorites, cling to childhood franchises, and form emotional connections through stories that define eras of their lives. Pixar, which ranks highest in the industry for nostalgia (54), is a clear example of this emotional bond.
Meanwhile, TikTok and YouTube prove that intimacy doesn’t require Hollywood budgets. These platforms thrive with user-driven content, wielding intimacy at scale while spending a fraction of what Netflix or Disney allocates for originals. Their dominance is so entrenched that they now stretch beyond video, experimenting with live events, shopping integrations, and even music distribution.
YouTube continues to rank higher than its older sibling Google. The brand proves the potency of user-generated content as a platform for both consumption and creation. It’s where we learn, laugh, rant, reminisce, and discover. Its intimacy lies in its raw authenticity and infinite personalization, qualities other media have yearned to replicate.
Too Much of the Same
Yet there may be cracks spreading in the industry’s performance. First, there’s content bloat. Consumers are drowning in options and thinning their subscriptions to cope. Research shows a 30% drop in spending for streaming services, with the average U.S. household now spending about $63 per month on OTT subscriptions, down from $90 in 2021.1 What was once a novel golden age of choice has become overwhelming and expensive, with specific franchises, IPs, and shows gated behind yet another service subscription. This abundance may be starting to dilute intimacy, as evidenced by the sector’s slipping three positions in the rankings since our previous study.
Second, there’s buyer’s remorse. When shows collapse because of sudden cancellations or beloved characters are flattened into algorithm-driven caricatures, consumers can feel cheated. Intimacy requires trust, and nothing erodes that bond faster than wasted time. Cancellations also fuel churn: A Deloitte 2024 study found U.S. streaming cancellation rates hit 40%, driven largely by fatigue and cost.2 Streaming ad-supported tiers now make up roughly 46% of new signups across major platforms, underscoring consumer price sensitivity.3 Marvel’s surprisingly low ranking (#11) may be one such strong signal of franchise fatigue that can’t be overcome by superfan passion.
HBO Max is a cautionary tale. Despite inheriting one of the most prestigious brands in entertainment, it has stumbled through rebranding confusion and inconsistent programming. Rather than elevating its offerings with the prestige halo of “HBO,” the company diluted its own identity, alienating loyalists and confusing new audiences. It’s proof that even strong heritage brands can squander their intimacy if their brands cannot create clarity and execute effectively on market strategy.
And beyond their programming and brand identities, platforms also need to contend with platform “sameness.” With interfaces that look eerily identical, subscription models that feel interchangeable, and catalogs that blend together or move due to complex licensing structures, these brands start to rely on flagship shows, owned content, and subscription bundles and giveaways to stand apart. Amazon Prime Video, for example, leads the industry in the archetypes of fulfillment (better service and delivery, score: 37) and indulgence (creating moments of pampering and gratification, score: 28). But it ranks only ninth in the industry, a consequence, perhaps, of its lack of culturally resonant media properties.
From Binge to Belief: The Next Battle for Attention
The hard truth is that many media brands are often buoyed by just their latest hits. A single breakout show or star can catapult a platform into cultural dominance, whereas a dry spell can send it spiraling into temporary irrelevance. Intimacy in this industry is fragile, highly dependent on external factors, and unevenly distributed. Apple TV leads in sharing, the first stage of intimacy (23); Netflix leads in bonding, the second stage (17); and Pixar leads in fusing, the third stage (10), showing how each brand’s connection to audiences differs across stages of engagement.
From its historic beginnings in three broadcast networks, the media industry expanded into hundreds of cable channels. Eventually, consolidation swept the industry, with providers’ bundling packages to make sense of the chaos. Today, we are approaching a similar inflection point.
The next wave of change may not be about consolidation but rather about the very survival of media brands we are all familiar with. Winners will cluster around tech behemoths (Apple, Amazon) with endless resources or around experience-driven empires like Disney that can cross-pollinate emotionally resonant brand moments across parks, merchandise, and IP. Other brands will win not through prestige programming but through user-generated ecosystems that thrive on participation rather than production.
Other brands may be too big to be nimble or too small to command loyalty, and their fate may be to become either acquisition targets or footnotes in a saturated market. Can consumers define what the brand stands for when the show they came for doesn’t get renewed or the star they love moves to another platform? Top performers in the study point to several ways to strengthen those emotional connections, from leaning into powerful archetypes to building cultural significance and prevalence through personalized and authentic content. The existential question for any media brand, then, is whether its brand is more than just its library.
Hooked or Hollowed Out?
The dominance of media and entertainment in our 2025 Brand Intimacy rankings should not be mistaken for invulnerability. Binge culture has given way to burnout. Consumers are tired of juggling subscriptions, fatigued by mediocre content, and wary of investing attention in platforms that don’t deliver. The intimacy these brands have built, no matter how hard-earned and deeply felt, can evaporate with shocking speed.
The next chapter of media will not be written by who produces the most content but instead by who can sustain intimacy in an era of fractured attention. The real winners will not just capture eyeballs but also hearts, memories, and trust. And in that fight, even the giants may be vulnerable.
Get an overview of Brand Intimacy here.
Read our detailed methodology here. Our Amazon best-selling book is available at all your favorite booksellers. To learn more about how we help clients enhance their consumer bonds, visit mblm.com/services.
Sources
1 “Average Spending on Streaming Services Drops from $90 to $64 per Month,” Parks Associates (blog), published June 26, 2024, https://www.parksassociates.com/blogs/digital-health/average-spending-on-streaming-services-drops-from-90-to-64-per-month
2 Kevin Westcott et al., “Streaming Video at a Crossroads: Redesign Yesterday’s Models or Reinvent for Tomorrow?,” Deloitte, published March 20, 2024, https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/digital-media-trends-consumption-habits-survey/2024/customization-and-personalization-lead-the-svod-revolution.html
3 Jill Goldsmith, “Streaming Ad Tiers Catch Fire, Make Up Nearly Half of U.S. Subscriptions for SVODs That Offer Them, Study Says,” Deadline, May 20, 2025, https://deadline.com/2025/05/booming-advertising-tiers-drive-streaming-subscriber-growth-1236405344/