Between Satellites and Streams: 20 Years of Global Media Consult

This month marks 20 years since I started Global Media Consult, my boutique consultancy for strategy and business development in the TV, Broadcast and Media Industry.

I still remember those early days back in October 2005: “streaming” as we know it today didn’t exist, and digital TV was the hottest topic in town. The industry felt sorted, almost easy to grasp — though already buzzing with first signs of disruption and innovation.

As a consultant, it felt like the world was your oyster. Opportunities were everywhere. Conversations with peers and executives were honest, often deep, and there was a shared sense of curiosity about where this industry was heading. People cared;  not just about growth or quarterly numbers, but about shaping the future of media. And we all had the illusion (or perhaps luxury) of feeling in control.

What stayed with me wasn’t the deals or the decks; it was the conversations. Honest ones. Curious ones. The kind where people weren’t posturing for panels or pitching for LinkedIn likes. We sat together and made sense of things. Sometimes slowly, often intuitively, even more often over some bottles of wine. But always with a shared sense that we were shaping where the industry was going.

And now today’s industry is feeling like in constant chaos

It feels that we all run around in a new terrain without proper maps or compass.

What was once a landscape now feels like a cosmos: it is complex, expanding, sometimes chaotic. Even after 30 years in this space, I still pause and wonder: what exactly are we looking at?

The industry now feels like an entirely different creature. The change and disruption has become harder to navigate, more challenging to understand, and often difficult to accept.

The industry has also become much noisier.

Conversations have shifted too. Social media has turned dialogue into a shouting match where volume wins over insight. Shiny new acronyms, buzzwords, and data dashboards are paraded on conference stages as if they alone can solve the complexity we face.

Somewhere along the way, the work began to orbit around noise.

But my work never lived in that orbit.  It’s never been about chasing trends or collecting acronyms. I’ve never been interested in counting just the trees. My work has always been about seeing the entire forest and often the ecosystem beyond the forest. Connecting dots others overlook. Asking the deeper questions when everyone else is busy chasing the next hype metric. Doing the slow, sometimes uncomfortable work with clients who are lost in the jungle of disruption, helping them find a path that makes sense for their unique DNA.

It’s about pattern recognition. Helping clients not just zoom in, but also step back. To see the whole forest, sometimes even the climate. To ask the harder questions, the human ones, long after the crowd has moved on.

Some of those clients have been with me since the very beginning. That kind of loyalty – in an industry so quick to rebrand itself – means more to me than any keynote or client logo.

The ever-expanding TV universe

I like to think of this industry as an ever-expanding universe.

In 2005, it already felt big. Compared to 1995, it was enormous. But compared to today? It was a small constellation. Now, every year brings new galaxies: platforms, formats, business models, interfaces – and each with its own gravity.

And despite what some might wish, this universe doesn’t orbit one sun.

Like the cosmos, it’s not ruled by a single sun or pharaoh. It thrives because of many stars, many systems, many orbits – and all are interdependent.  No mogul, no metric, no “universal platform” holds it all together. Its strength lies in plurality, in creative outliers, regional breakthroughs, and uncomfortable collisions.

Which is why I’m wary when someone tries to sell the answer.  It’s never been about finding one model to rule them all. The magic lies in the mix. In the stories told between cultures. In the misfits who build something original not by asking “what’s trending,” but “what matters here?”

What keeps it all from flying apart?

If these two decades have taught me anything, it’s this:  This industry doesn’t run on hype. Or data. Or dashboards. This industry is not thriving because of tech-capitalism, nor because it chases constantly another hype.

It runs on something much older and more human: care.

Care for the work we do.

Care for each other’s success.

Honest interest in listening, collaborating, and understanding.

That’s the glue that keeps the universe from flying apart.

Without that, it all fragments – no matter how advanced the tech stack or sleek the UX.

Looking ahead

For me personally, these two decades have been a mix of consulting, cheerleading, sometimes bystanding, sometimes being an outlier. There have been successes, failures, strange detours, and moments of clarity.

Over this months, I’ll share a few lessons. Not just polished insights, but the rougher bits too: the detours, the doubts, the moments that didn’t fit into a trend report and the moments where I felt that I do not fit in anymore. Not just as a consultant, but as a long-time traveler in this strange, fascinating industry.

Because here’s what I believe after 20 years: Television is not dying.  It’s not exploding nor imploding.  It’s still expanding.  And it’s up to us to make sure that expansion creates more light than heat.

I want to remind us all and myself why this industry exists in the first place. Not to chase trends.  Not to “own audiences.”  Not to turn human beings into faceless metrics on a churn report.

We are in the business of attention – but also of emotion.  We entertain, inform, inspire, and sometimes even educate.  We give people stories to feel, ideas to ponder, and moments to share.

That’s the real work. That’s the soul of this universe.  Somewhere along the way, we’ve started to treat people as data points.  Hidden behind ARPU and engagement rates, the human being – the viewer, the citizen, the curious mind on the other end of the screen – has disappeared.

Maybe this 20-year mark is a good moment to remember:  This industry isn’t about platforms or pipelines. It’s about people.  If we forget to care, we lose the very reason we’re here.

So here’s to what comes next.  To more depth, more soul  and more human connection.

Thank you for walking this path with me. For your trust, your partnership, your presence.

Your Industry Navigator, Christian Knaebel

If this resonates with you, we should talk.

What I talk about above is not just theory. It is based on work we do here at Global Media Consult:  helping broadcasters, media companies and the related industries to rethink their strategies, navigate complexity, and design models that reflect their values, audiences, and long-term goals.

We support teams who want to build something different. Something rooted. Something that lasts. Discreetly. Thoughtfully. Without hype.

👉 Get in touch if you are ready to move beyond the noise.