$4.2trn bet: Live shows, AI ads to power global entertainment boom by 2030

Global spending on entertainment and media will hit $4.2 trillion by 2030, unlocking $600 billion in fresh annual revenue as artificial intelligence and a hunger for live, in-person experiences reshape an industry once thought to be shrinking under the weight of the smartphone screen.

This is according to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media (E&M) Outlook 2026-30, released in June, which tracked 12 industry segments across 53 countries and territories.

The report found that the sector grew 5.3 per cent in 2025 to $3.5 trillion and is projected to expand a further 4.6 per cent this year, before settling into a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.4 per cent through 2030.

Advertising, the report noted, would be the fastest-growing of the industry’s three major pillars — advertising, connectivity, and consumer spending — crossing $1 trillion for the first time in 2025 and climbing to $1.4 trillion by 2030, powered increasingly by AI-driven targeting.

Perhaps the more striking finding, however, is the resilience of “shared reality” — live and immersive experiences that pull audiences out of their homes and into arenas, cinemas, and trade halls. PwC cited Sphere, the futuristic concert venue in Las Vegas, which alone generated $781 million in revenue in 2025 and is now expanding to other US cities and Dubai.

Global box office receipts are projected to grow at a 3.2 per cent CAGR to $39.5 billion by 2030, continuing a post-pandemic recovery, even as cinema admissions inch up by just 1.0 per cent annually worldwide. Live music will fare better, rising at 2.3 per cent CAGR to top $41.5 billion by 2030, part of a wider global music market — covering streaming, physical and live formats — projected to grow from $125.9 billion in 2025 to $145.8 billion in 2030.

Trade shows and business exhibitions, valued at $38 billion in 2025, are set to grow at 3.3 per cent annually to $44.6 billion by 2030, driven by demand for face-to-face business interaction. Out-of-home advertising, boosted by digital billboards, will grow from $37.9 billion to $45.8 billion over the same period, with digital out-of-home revenue alone rising at 9.2 per cent CAGR.

One of the more unusual entrants to the report is online betting, tracked for the first time this year. Gross gambling revenue across ten markets studied more than doubled between 2021 and 2025, from $37.1 billion to $79.5 billion, and is forecast to reach $119.7 billion by 2030 — a segment PwC says will, by then, outstrip both cinema and out-of-home advertising combined.

Streaming, meanwhile, faces a more complicated future. Total over-the-top (OTT) revenue jumped 13.9 per cent in 2025 to $226.6 billion, but growth is expected to slow to a 6.1 per cent CAGR through 2030, as “subscription fatigue” sets into mature markets such as Australia, Spain and South Korea. Advertising will fill part of that gap, with OTT ad revenue’s share of the segment’s total rising from 19.4 per cent today to 22.6 per cent by 2030.

Traditional television continues its decline, with global revenues falling 2.7 per cent in 2025 to $360.5 billion and expected to keep shrinking to $341.2 billion by 2030 — prompting broadcasters worldwide to strike partnerships with streaming platforms rather than compete with them directly.

For all the disruption AI is bringing to production, distribution and advertising, the report’s central argument is that the technology will not replace what draws people to entertainment in the first place.

“AI won’t change what people expect and need from entertainment and media,” the report states, noting that human craft, emotion and judgement remain the industry’s core currency — even as algorithms decide who sees what, and when.

For Nigerian operators in cinema, live events, broadcasting and digital advertising, the report’s underlying message is one of urgency: global capital and consumer attention are shifting fast toward live experience and AI-enabled advertising, and players who move slowly risk losing share of a market that is expanding by hundreds of billions of dollars a year.