Can you still hear the difference between a human voice and AI? We all think that we can, but ever-smarter artificial intelligence is becoming harder to spot. Voiceover artists and narrators are being replaced by automated voices, and even that most personable of professions – the radio presenter – seems to be at risk as AI airbrushes its way into the culture.

But Last year, Australian radio station CADA launched a new four-hour daily show, ‘Workdays with Thy’. It ran for six months before an investigation by journalist Stephanie Coombes proved that Thy was AI: energetic, upbeat but entirely fictional; maybe the clue was in the name all along. CADA’s parent company, the Australian Radio Network (ARN) was forced to take the show off-air and admit that it had been ‘trialling AI tools’.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this story is the fact that the show aired for six months and took a journalist to uncover: the listeners didn’t spot it. But they weren’t particularly engaged by it, and ARN’s internal findings should give human radio presenters – and their listeners – some hope. “This is a space being explored by broadcasters globally,” ARN said, “and while the trial has offered valuable insights, it’s also reinforced the unique value that personalities bring to creating truly compelling content.”

A recent study by the National Library of Medicine found that voice clones ‘are realistic but not (yet) hyperrealistic’, and multiple studies suggest the parasocial relationship between presenter and listener is important. A 2021 UNESCO study found that radio was consistently the most trusted medium for consumers, while a 2022 policy paper from the UK Government called it ‘first and foremost a trusted medium’ and ‘crucial company’ for many of us. The Australasian Journal on Ageing found a direct correlation between a radio presenter’s tone and manner, and the quality of life of their listeners.

This is especially true in regional radio, whose personalities are part of the station’s brand, tone, voice and values. Presenters are often local celebrities and powerful advocates for their area. That authenticity and energy simply can’t be replicated or programmed, and for their loyal audiences, few things beat their seal of approval.

That’s why radio will always be an integral part of any publicity machine. And it’s not just that irreplaceable human touch: when talent heads out on the campaign trail, viral moments and leading news lines often stem from a radio station’s interview slot. Not bad for a medium which is well over a century old now, but feeling more relevant and human than ever.

Could 2026 be the year that storytelling stretches its legs again? The addictive, algorithmically-optimised 15-to-30 second clips which compete for our attention can’t give us a beginning, middle and end. Instagram stories attempt to replace actual stories with something fast and ultimately hollow.

But audiences are now consciously combatting the doomscroll. A recent MIDiA report showed that over 80 per cent of 16 to 43 year olds have actively tried to reduce screen time in the last month. As we begin to pull away from saturated socials, audio is quietly championing storytelling, and encouraging us to spend time with long-form content rather than being sucked in by short-form.

Investment in audio dramas is increasing. The new, $150 million dollar, full-cast Harry Potter audio series with over 200 actors and Dolby Atmos sound being produced by Audible and Pottermore Publishing has been described as an ‘unprecedented and highly ambitious undertaking’ by Aurelie de Troyer, Audible’s head of European content. The scale of this project suggests an audience appetite for high-quality, long-form content that fits into our lives rather than pulling us out of them, keeping us company through chores, commutes and walks.

Roxanne Harley, head of growth at Azerion, a major European digital entertainment and media platform, also believes this shift is only going to accelerate, “2026 will see audio stop being the sidekick and start being the channel brands build around… Not because it’s new, but because it’s ready: streaming, podcasts, in-car audio, smart speakers, and addressable radio are finally giving planners both scale and precision. Azerion’s Meaningful Connections study showed that, after cinema, audio was the channel where people were most receptive to ads, arguably making it the best place to do what digital can struggle with: proper storytelling.”

We’re seeing the same pattern online in the use of Substack. A platform that originally positioned itself as a tool for simple newsletters is now a home for voices and brands which reject the algorithm’s power to decide who sees what. This approach has breathed new life into the long-form editorial work once the preserve of newspapers and magazines, and encourages a slower and more deliberate reading experience.

As audiences push back on the bottomless scroll, they’re gravitating towards formats that respect their time rather than seeking to monopolise it. At Cameo, we’re tracking this trend, but we welcome it too. Socials have their place, and we work with some great creators. But our origins lie with long-form screen entertainment, and getting it talked about on the best audio outlets, whether radio or podcasts. It’s great to see quality and patience coming back. As consumers, we’re not logging off; we’re simply recalibrating, and reconsidering which kinds of content truly merit our attention.

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‘Tragedy for traditional TV’ screamed the headline in The Times when it was revealed that YouTube had 51.9m viewers in the UK in December, a million more than all four BBC TV channels combined.

But we dug into that data – from Barb, the UK’s most trusted source of viewing figures – and it’s clear that ‘traditional’ TV is far from dead. There is something really significant happening with how we’re using YouTube, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but here’s why the stats don’t tell the whole story.

First, that headline figure is based on how many people watched content from each provider for three consecutive minutes on any type of device. Three minutes suits a platform like YouTube which majors on shorts, but you spend at least thirty minutes with a BBC show. Even the fifteen-minute figure sees the advantage swing decisively back to the BBC and other long-form content producers. Same if you only consider content viewed on the UK’s televisions: for now, at least.

The second point is that YouTube is a platform and not one of those content producers. People watch stuff on YouTube which just doesn’t compete with the BBC or Netflix on form or quality, even if it does compete for our time and attention. Live streams, for example. And some of YouTube’s content is made by those big producers and viewed on their channels there. The BBC has 16m YouTube subscribers, and BBC News has 19m. You can already get pretty much all the BBC news you need on YouTube, and a recent UK Government green paper asked whether the BBC should make even more of its content available there.

The comparison between YouTube and the broadcasters isn’t the important thing here, not least because such comparisons are difficult. Instead, what really interests us is how YouTube is evolving. It turns 20 this year. Many of us at Cameo are YouTube natives. Our younger team members grew up with the platform and are sticking with it. If you started watching YouTube in your mid-teens, you’re in your mid-30s now. You’re now a lot more attractive to advertisers, and the platform is cleverly evolving and maturing with its audience.

The most noticeable change has been the shift to watching YouTube on our televisions. A recent article in the Financial Times described YouTube as ‘the dominant force in US living rooms’. In the US in 2024 it was viewed more on TVs than on digital devices, and early last year it established a consistent lead in all TV streaming consumption there. The UK isn’t far behind: around 40 per cent of YouTube views are on TV sets now. While the media focus has been on the rapid growth and potentially attention-corrosive effects of YouTube shorts, the platform says that its long-form content has been ‘thriving’ too, reflective of its maturing demographic and how they’re choosing to watch.

It’s still unlikely that YouTube will make its own content directly. It has tried that a couple of times before, and retreated. And it just doesn’t have to. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan calls the platform’s independent creators ‘the new Hollywood’. Unlike the BBC or Netflix, YouTube doesn’t have to fund content up-front, or risk misjudging what we want to watch. And with nearly three billion active users, its scale means it can dominate without even trying. At Cameo we make podcasts, and place talent and spokespeople on existing podcasts. Guess which platform now dominates podcast consumption? Correct. Those who run the big content makers will be as envious of Neal’s business model as his viewing figures.

YouTube might not make content, but it will continue to acquire rights to properties whose appeal it can supercharge by giving open access to such a huge user base. In what one analyst described as a ‘holy crap’ moment, YouTube has secured exclusive rights to the Oscars from 2029. Audiences for the awards have declined to just a third of their mid-90s peak. With easy global access and YouTube’s creators interviewing old Hollywood’s stars on the red carpet, the event might once again get the eyeballs to match its glamour.

Our view? We’ve worked with those ‘traditional’ TV makers for years. We love the scale and quality and bravery of their content, and they’re very far from dead. Quite the reverse. But the context in which they operate is getting more complex, and YouTube’s growth reflects a deeper generational shift.

Could 2026 be the year in which the film industry finally shakes off the hangover of the pandemic and the strikes? Full slates from the major studios suggest that it might, and IndieWire is boldly predicting that six films will take more than $1bn at the box office worldwide this year, up from four in 2025. We’ll list them below so you can check back in a year’s time.

Last year closed out strongly with the release of Wicked: For Good, Disney’s Zootropolis 2 and James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash. The excitement they created among the broadcasters, podcasters and influencers we speak to has carried over into this year and created strong appetite for movie content. And that’s an appetite for all films, and not just the billion-dollar blockbusters. We’re going to be busy this year on behalf of all our clients, from independents to the streamers and the big studios.

Box office receipts rose in the US and the UK in 2025 despite a mixed year of releases, and are almost certain to rise again over 2026. But we’re unlikely see cinema attendance recover to pre-pandemic levels this year. At Cameo we’re huge fans of the broadcasters and streamers, watch their content voraciously and value them as clients, but like almost everyone else in this industry we have a romantic attachment to cinema. We hope that the real value of a year of blockbusters will be in rekindling regular cinema-going among those who got out of the habit over lockdown, or when slates were sparse after the strikes. We hope every extra bum our coverage puts on a cinema seat for a billion-dollar release returns the following week for new director’s first film.

IndieWire’s six billion-dollar movies for 2026:

Avengers: Doomsday

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Moana

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Toy Story 5

The Odyssey