How movies and series are becoming ‘visual muzak’ – by design.
Over the past decade, the term ‘second screen’ has gone from referring to bonus content to the main event – or, depending on your perspective, the other way around.
‘Second screen’ once meant, for example, an app which provides supplementary information for the movie or show you are watching. Nowadays, it’s the entertainment strategy of what was formerly main event: movies and TV shows designed to be half-watched, while the viewer is more focused on their phone or laptop, as elucidated by Eunice Kim, who became CPO at Netflix CPO after, tellingly, coming from YouTube.
Jameela Jamill explains it to Romesh Ranganathan:
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck explain how second screen programming has changed filmmaking (via JRE):
Meanwhile, in her role as a consultant on the use of artificial intelligence for SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee, actor and film-maker Justine Bateman reveals the “visual muzak” entertainment strategy of studios, like Netflix, looking to supplant human creativity with AI (via The Hollywood Reporter):
Justine Bateman responds to Amazon‘s use of an AI tool to dub English voice tracks for multiple Japanese anime series on Prime Video, which called “soulless” and “embarrassing” by angered viewers, before the AI dubs were quietly removed days later:
In November, Amazon used an AI tool to dub English voice tracks for multiple Japanese anime series on Prime Video. The move was met with anger and ridicule. Fans called the dubs “soulless” and “embarrassing,” and the company quietly removed them days later.
— TIME (@TIME) February 19, 2026
For filmmaker and… pic.twitter.com/PnIyonLk68
In the age of the algorithm, the more polished and frictionless something is, the more it gets viewed.
‘Slop Economics‘ – Pillar of Garbage
Pillar of Garbage explains the entertainment products of this business model as “content for viewers to not pay attention to”, otherwise known as AI Slop:
John Oliver on the implications of the rise of AI slop on social media:
Further Viewing
Daphne Rena Idiz writes for the International Journal of Communication, USC about ‘Local Production for Global Streamers: How Netflix Shapes European Production Cultures’ (2024):
AI is encroaching on production itself – with the help of investment and endorsements from A-listers such as the aforementioned Affleck and even Martin Scorsese: