Packageless LED is moving the Direct View category out of its industrial adolescence and into a far more strategic phase. As the supply chain contracts, differentiation is shifting away from cabinets and modules and toward the brands that can command vertical markets through control systems, workflow software, and application-specific solutions.

Futuresource Consulting has released its latest Perspectives report, Live Sport in the Streaming Era: Evolution, Not Revolution, revealing how the rapid growth of streaming has reshaped, but not replaced the traditional sports broadcasting ecosystem. 

The report highlights a decisive shift since 2020, as major streaming platforms move from experimentation to long-term commitment in live sport. Landmark multi-year rights deals, including Amazon’s NFL Thursday Night Football and Netflix’s ten-year WWE Raw agreement, signal a structural change in how streaming services approach premium content.  

As the global entertainment market stabilises, new findings from Futuresource Consulting’s latest Living With Digital study reveal a shift away from platform competition towards a more interconnected content ecosystem.

Drawing on a nationally representative study of 14,000 consumers, across 7-markets, the research highlights how audiences are increasingly engaging across cinema, streaming and transactional formats, with each playing a distinct role in the content journey. 

After two years of disruption, the digital transactional market is starting to find its stride again. That’s according to the latest Digital Transactional Market Outlook Report from Futuresource Consulting. Despite a weaker final quarter and continued pressure from a softer theatrical slate, the global market held steady at $7.6 billion in 2025. Now, with a pipeline of tentpole releases and stronger premium window activity, the market is forecast to return to growth in 2026, rising 5% globally to $8.0 billion.

As the professional display industry looks beyond traditional LCD and LED technologies, new research from Futuresource Consulting highlights the growing role of e-paper signage (EPD) as a complementary, energy-efficient alternative.

AI has moved beyond hyperscale infrastructure, datacentre buildouts and billion-dollar model training. In personal electronics, the emphasis is beginning to shift. According to a new Perspectives report from Futuresource Consulting, more AI processing is moving onto the device itself, changing the role of smartphones, smartwatches and true wireless hearables in the process.

NAB 2026 was about long-established boundaries collapsing under pressure, rather than a few isolated breakthroughs. That’s the central conclusion of Futuresource Consulting’s new free-to-download NAB 2026 Post Show Report, which explores the forces reshaping media technology. This year, AI and automation met creator-led production head-on. Cloud pragmatism ran through conversations on scale and monetisation, and broadcast, Pro AV and enterprise video increasingly appeared to be moving in the same direction.

The global DRAM shipment saw a 6.6% QoQ decline in Q4 2025, according to Futuresource’s Q4 quarterly storage tracking reports.  This is attributed to rising costs, tightened supply, and wafer-capacity prioritisation toward high-margin HBM and DDR5 limited availability. Regionally, shipments fell 4.5% in the Americas, 11.9% in APAC, and 1.9% in EMEA, reflecting varying sensitivity to pricing and supply shortages. These shipment contractions coincided with sharply accelerating contract prices and multi-year-low supplier inventories as manufacturers restricted output while redirecting production to advanced-node memory.

China’s storage market entered a structural transition in Q4 2025, as AI‑driven supply pressures pushed DRAM and NAND prices sharply upward despite weakening device shipments. According to Futuresource quarterly reports, DRAM volumes fell 3% QoQ, SSD shipments declined 4%, and internal HDD volumes dropped 12%, while external HDDs remained broadly flat quarter‑on‑quarter.

New Futuresource Consulting report dives into how EU battery regulation could reshape product architecture, pricing and competition.

The way headphones are designed is about to change. From February 2027, new EU regulations will require portable batteries in consumer devices to be user-replaceable. This is a direct challenge to the sealed, miniaturised designs that have defined the modern headphone market. 

New Future Sessions video reveals how shifting user needs and market pressures are changing the way displays are specified and deployed. 

Professional displays are moving up the priority list, as shifting deployment strategies and rising cost pressures reshape the AV market. That’s the focus of the latest Future Sessions video from Futuresource Consulting, featuring insights from David Thompson and Johnny Woodman, who break down how these shifts are influencing deployment decisions, total cost of ownership and the wider competitive landscape.