Evan Shapiro, Founder and CEO at ESHAP, award-winning producer, self-proclaimed media cartographer and one of Jupiter Festival Miami's keynote speakers. Evan chats to the Jupiter team about the fragmenting media world and where the future of content is heading.
- In your opinion, what is the future of content?
The future is fragmented. The number one channel on TV today is YouTube. YouTube is 4.6 million channels. Fragmentation is not a bug it’s now the central operating system of entertainment. The cure for fragmentation is fandom and engagement.
- What excites you about the inaugural Jupiter Festival this October?
The industry needs to meet in real life. Gathering our most important thinkers and leaders together in the fall, after the upfront and before the new year will be incredibly important.
- By attending the Jupiter Festival, what can leaders in the industry capitalize on? What new content ideas can be partnered on?
Radical fragmentation is the new normal. The industry needs to rethink how we speak to and attract new generations of consumers who do not consume entertainment the way their parents and grandparents did. So here we’ll have a chance to reinvent through collaboration.
- Jupiter Festival CEO William Mellis says "our industry [is jumping] to a new paradigm driven by simultaneous fragmentation and consolidation." Do you agree? What does this new paradigm look like in regard to content?
I do agree. Fragmentation is disrupting past norms. However, consolidation for consolidation’s sake is not the answer. In many cases, it’s driven by lazy, backward thinking; by the idea that they can buy themselves back to relevance. Meanwhile Creators are taking the audience away from the moguls. The fans are in charge. They are the programmers. The top-down model of content won’t work any longer. Community will.
- Some fear that the entertainment marketplace is in decline due to increasing amounts of content creation and distribution online. Do you agree? Is there a case to be made about why the industry is not in danger.
I strongly disagree. The TRADITIONAL entertainment business is in decline because it has resisted change. Creators can now speak directly to their fans, without the bottleneck of gatekeepers. Fans program their media diets themselves. This upends the economic model, yes. But it also allows for niche-based fandom around new and diverse voices that was never possible under the gatekeeper model. So, it’s up to the publishers and advertisers to reinvent their models to meet the moment and the audience where THEY are or get the fuck out of the way for those who will!
Hear from Evan Shapiro, Founder and CEO of ESHAP, one of our incredible speakers at Jupiter Festival Miami, taking place October 6–9, 2026 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. You can book Early Bird tickets now to secure your place at the event. Book Early Bird tickets here.