Ben Woods

Ben is a creator economy analyst at MIDiA. He holds a BA in American literature with creative writing from the University of East Anglia. Before joining MIDiA, Ben spent 13 years as a journalist, where he won several industry awards. He previously worked as the tech and media correspondent for the Sunday Times and The Telegraph. His focus spans the creator tools industry, social video platforms, and streaming TV services. He is also a big video games and anime fan.

The great monetisation reset
New ways to monetise streaming video audiences

Tim Mulligan and Ben Woods

April 2023

Free Report

Product Strategy

This keynote took place at the beginning of the MIDiA webinar:The great monetisation reset |New ways to monetise streaming video audiences. The full presentation, panel, and Q&A session, can be found...

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Sports broadcasting is ripe for disruption…and creators know it

Ben Woods

4 Apr 2023

Twitch

Kings League

soccer

The former Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique made a surprising claim last month (March 2023). To promote his Twitch football channel, the Kings League, the retired centre back unfurled a giant banner in...

min read

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Bridging the creator gap
Monetising social video’s micro-communities

Samuel Griffin and Ben Woods

April 2023

Subscriptions

YouTube

Twitch

The pandemic-induced boom in content creation has saturated social video platforms at a time when creators are battling a downturn in digital advertising revenues. These dual pressures of less exposure...

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Good Good Golf
Leveraging the commercial power of the creator group

Case Study

Samuel Griffin and Ben Woods

April 2023

Video

YouTube

Product Strategy

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MIDiA webinar: Surviving and thriving in the new era of streaming TV and social video

Ben Woods

30 Mar 2023

Social media

streaming tv

monetisation

After a prolonged period of unbridled growth, streaming TV and social video platforms have been confronted by multiple challenges in 2023. Subscription growth is slowing and consumer attention is peaking....

min read

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FAST can help video services win the streaming wars… but it’s about more than just ads

Ben Woods

21 Mar 2023

FAST

SVOD

AVOD

Earlier this month, the subscription streaming service DAZN took an uncharacteristic decision around its women’s sports coverage. Rather than using traditional marketing to coax viewers towards subscribing,...

min read

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Rebooting video fandom
Games as a video streaming genre

Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin and Ben Woods

March 2023

Apple

Apple TV

Netflix

With gamers being mainstream, video streaming services and their content offerings can benefit by increasing focus on the preferences of gamers. Crucially, this enables subscription video on demand (SVOD)...

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The Witcher
Netflix’s appeal to gamer fandom

Case Study

Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin and Ben Woods

March 2023

Video

Games

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Why TikTok and YouTube are poised to capture smart TV viewing

Ben Woods

14 Mar 2023

Social video

Smart TV

YouTube

The entertainment consumption habits of Gen Z remain an ongoing source of anxiety for traditional media companies. They are digital natives who mix up their social media bingeing by watching big-budget...

min read

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Creators can narrow the quality gap with streaming services…. if they survive the AI ‘spamnami’

Ben Woods

7 Mar 2023

AI

Social video

SVOD

Twitch chief executive Emmett Shear has sounded a note of caution about artificial intelligence (AI). Responding to a tweet about how creators could make money while sleeping by autogenerating content...

min read

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Not everyone can be a winner in the FAST gold rush

Ben Woods

28 Feb 2023

FAST

SVOD

AVOD

Video streaming executives searching for relief from the high cost of acquiring new subscribers have found a saviour – and it looks a lot like linear TV. Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST)...

min read

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YouTube’s new king must reclaim the title of social video’s great innovator

Ben Woods

23 Feb 2023

Social video

yotube

FAST

YouTube’s changing of the guard has brought forward a stark reality: the social video platform responsible for a seismic shift in how video is created, monetised, and distributed is now looking and feeling...

min read

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Year of change
Themes that will shape entertainment in 2023

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin, Ben Woods and Srishti Das

February 2023

Spotify

YouTube

Amazon

This report deep dives into the themes identified in MIDiA’s 2023 predictions report. These themes will drive innovation in the digital entertainment landscape in 2023 across music, video, games, audio,...

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Watch parties
Rebooting the watercooler moment

Ben Woods

February 2023

YouTube

Amazon

Netflix

Group watching television with family and friends is being consigned to a bygone era. Algorithms are forcing entertainment consumers into silos through an endless stream of personally recommended content...

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DAZN Watch Party

Case Study

Ben Woods

February 2023

Video

Product Strategy

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The streaming wars will be won with technology, not content

Ben Woods

31 Jan 2023

Video

SVOD

Gaming

The modern entertainment industry is a tale of re-invention. The need for vast amounts of content to justify the value of a subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service has made the artists, series, and...

min read

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YouTube has dismantled the walls between social video and SVOD

Ben Woods

24 Jan 2023

Social video

SVOD

YouTube

How do you define YouTube in 2023? The Google-owned app has evolved into a complicated media outfit. It stretches beyond social video content and deep into subscription video on demand (SVOD). It is a...

min read

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Is the net closing in on TikTok?

Ben Woods

17 Jan 2023

Social video

TikTok

YouTube

There is nothing quite like a recession to seemingly transform disruptors into incumbents. As the focus moves from R&D spend to cost-cutting, the customer focus also changes. Efforts to acquire new...

min read

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MIDiA Research video subscription forecasts 2023-2030
APAC to the fore

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Perry Gresham and Ben Woods

January 2023

Online video

SVOD

Marketing Strategy

This report presents the key figures, trends, and drivers of MIDiA’s video streaming subscription forecast model. The revenue figures presented in this report are in billions of US dollars unless otherwise...

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YouTube’s one-stop shop offers a salvation to creator burn-out

Ben Woods

12 Jan 2023

Creator economy

Social video

YouTube

A popular YouTube channel offering tips for fledgling creators made a surprising admission recently. After amassing nearly 200,000 YouTube subscribers around its “how-to guides” for live streamers,...

min read

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