Rethinking media in a cross-channel world

There is one line from the Making Sense report that sums up this year’s findings: “Same needs. Just different ways of meeting them.”

That has been the consistent evolution of media consumption across the last seven reports. People still seek out information, entertainment, reassurance and connection, as Simon Frazier, Head of Marketing, Data Innovation & The Making Sense Unit at the IPA, puts it, just across more channels.

A few key takeouts really stood out for me from the findings:

The screen binary: Big vs small

One Alice-in-Wonderland-esque binary is emerging: large screens or small screens. The ones in the middle are losing relevance, even among older audiences who were early adopters and consistent users. Now that mobile screens are larger and mobile streaming content easily hops to the big screen, the use of tablets and PCs for media consumption is dropping off.

Appointment-to-view and the decline of serendipity

It feels like all media has become increasingly appointment-to-view. TV is becoming less of a lean-back medium, mirroring audio’s shift with the rise of podcasting and music streaming, where choice rules.

Gone are the days of endless TV channel surfing to find something mildly entertaining. Perhaps that has simply been replaced by modern-day doomscrolling: the same need, just on a different channel and device.

Does that point to the decline of serendipity? Where we once stumbled upon content on the radio, linear TV, in magazines and in weekend papers, discovery is now dominated by curated social feeds. This shift is being witnessed across all demographics.

Think encounters, not channels

This makes it vital to think about media encounters rather than traditional channels, since the data shows that traditional media behaviours now span many channels. Video, for example, sits across TV, BVoD, SVoD, social, audio streaming and online news.

It is important to think about the media encounter we want to foster. Is it long-form emotional storytelling to a lean-in audience? Then cinema, TV through ad-funded programming with longer 60-to-90-second spots, online news and podcasts can all serve this well.

Short functional nudges, meanwhile, can be deployed through OOH, radio, social, online display, print and mail.

Of course, there are many more media encounters to unpack, stretching from long-form information to short emotional reminders.

Legacy classifications fail modern audiences

Traditional media silos still dominate industry thinking, but they no longer serve us well when consumer behaviours span every touchpoint.

Take news. Someone seeking information might turn to physical print, digital publishing, social media, podcasts, radio or TV. Media owners aiming to capture and grow audiences have been expanding into all these channels rather than staying trapped within a single channel silo.

This IPA data is yet another rallying cry to retire legacy channel classifications.

What the 2026 data underscores is that, now more than ever, we need to be properly thinking cross-channel, not just for aggregated reach but also for the diversified media behaviours of our audiences.