Your Cut, Their Rules

The Hidden Hand of Platforms Will Shape What You See

We used to know who made a show. Writers wrote. Directors called the shots. Showrunners stitched it all together. There were arguments, egos, and conflicting notes, but at least there was a clear chain of creative responsibility. The credits told you who to thank and who to blame.

That may soon no longer be the case. In the future of television, some of the most important decisions about what we watch, how it’s shaped, and when it reaches us won’t be made by the people in the room. They’ll be made by the systems that sit between the content and the audience. The interface. The platform. The feed.

These systems won’t be designed to just deliver media. They’ll shape it. They’ll decide what version of the story you see. They’ll determine pacing and sequence. They’ll modify framing, titles, thumbnails, and possibly even tone. Not once, but continuously. Quietly and without fanfare but with permission.

Some viewers might never notice. And that will be the design. Invisible authorship will become a feature of the system. You won’t be watching the story, instead you’re watching your version of it, generated in real time based on everything the system knows, predicts, or wants to test.

We’re already seeing this play out in live sports, often a proving ground for new media technology. Alternate camera angles, real-time overlays, and feed-based personalization are being tested now. But this isn’t limited to sports. The same mechanics could apply to movies, streaming shows, or even local news. Imagine a nightly broadcast that adapts its tone, content mix, or runtime to fit your interests and habits, the way Google News once reshaped headlines for the individual reader.

So here’s the question this piece explores:

If the platform curates the experience, edits the presentation, and personalizes the story at every stage, is it now the showrunner?