Critical Developments blog by MIDiA Research

Blog: Critical Developments - Page 3

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the digital entertainment world. Check out the latest from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage - games, video, music, audio, social, or critical developments.

Apple, Eros And The Billion Dollar Content Play

Tim Mulligan

8 Aug 2017

emerging markets

On August 7th the Economic Times ran a story on Apple’s perceived interest in acquiring the film and music catalogue of the Eros Group, which is the largest movie producer in India. Although not particularly...

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Bertelsmann and Penguin Random House: A Strategy Based on Extremes

Zach Fuller

24 Jul 2017

Having created a next-gen music publisher in BMG, German media giant Bertlesmann are applying a similar strategy to their publishing division. Consistent with BMG’s tactic of investing heavily in legacy...

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How Social Influences Impact Tech Innovation

Zach Fuller

21 Jul 2017

artificial intelligence

We know we cannot predict the future, yet the fortunes of investors and entrepreneurs continue to be made and lost in trying. Whether you are Nostradamus or a staff writer on Black Mirror , the future...

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Why Net Neutrality Is Central To The Streaming Economy

Tim Mulligan

13 Jul 2017

The existential question of the digital era is net neutrality. Since the utopian days of 1989 when World Wide Web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee first connected his colleagues via computers at CERN in Switzerland,...

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How A Month With Spectacles Changed My Outlook On Snap’s Future

Karol Severin

7 Jul 2017

When the SnapBot finally popped up in Berlin, I eagerly trekked to the location to see whether the product would change my existing opinions about the company’s future. It did. I made my way to the SnapBot...

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Dalian Wanda’s Global Ambition Comes Up Against The Cold Logic Of Financial Reality

Tim Mulligan

27 Jun 2017

Atletico Madrid

Last week Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda, which is controlled by China’s second wealthiest individual Wang Jialin, was placed under a regulatory probe by the China Banking Regulatory Commission ....

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Altice And The Future Of The US Pay-TV Industry

Tim Mulligan

19 Jun 2017

media investment strategy

On Monday last week, Altice, the fourth largest US pay-TV operator, laid out the details of its planned IPO (Initial Public Offering). With a projected initial public stock price offering of $27-$31 per...

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How Tencent’s Appeal To Western Games Companies Drives Its Global Gaming Domination

Karol Severin

12 May 2017

games acquisition

games industry in china

gaming landscape

Tencent announced a $90 million investment into Pocket Gems, a US-based studio best known for its major titles Episode and War Dragons. It is hardly news that Tencent has been on a gaming acquisition spree...

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Can Twitter Successfully Transition Into A Live Streaming Destination?

Tim Mulligan

4 May 2017

At yesterday’s first ever Digital Content NewFronts, struggling social media platform Twitter made a bold play for relevance in the video-centric world of digital content. With much fanfare, Twitter...

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Google Rumoured To Plan A Built-In Ad Blocker In Chrome

Karol Severin

20 Apr 2017

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Google may be planning to introduce an ad blocking feature to its Chrome browser on desktop and mobile. The article clarifies that this is not a confirmed...

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Exclusive: Deezer Is Exploring User Centric Licensing

Cover image for Exclusive: Deezer Is Exploring User Centric Licensing

Mark Mulligan

19 Apr 2017

music licensing

Music Streaming

One of the great, though less heralded, successes of streaming in 2016 was keeping the lid on artist angst. Previous years had been defined by seemingly endless complaints from worried and angry artists...

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Palmer Luckey Leaves Facebook: Corporate Politics And VR's Trough Of Disillusionment

Zach Fuller

31 Mar 2017

Critical Developments

Palmer Luckey, once the boy wonder of VR’s renaissance, has announced he will be leaving the Oculus team at Facebook. Luckey had co-founded the Virtual Reality hardware company in 2012, thus ushering...

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Apple Just Put Another Nail In Snapchat’s Proverbial Coffin

Karol Severin

22 Mar 2017

Yesterday Apple announced it will launch Clips in April, a video-making app that allows users to capture photos and videos, combine multiple videos and include a variety of features like Filters, Overlays,...

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Welcome To The Post-DIY Era

Mark Mulligan

20 Mar 2017

I recently took part in the True Music Forum in Madrid, an event organized by Boiler Room. I was on a panel that explored whether DIY is now coming of age with a host of high profile artists, most of them...

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Shine Pivots From Advertising’s ‘Nuclear Threat’ To Advertising’s Rainbow

Karol Severin

24 Feb 2017

ad verification

I have written about the journey of the network-level adblocker Shine numerous times. The company has come into the public eye due to its disruptive effort of offering adblocking at the network level to...

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Four Companies That Could Buy Spotify

Mark Mulligan

15 Feb 2017

21st Century Fox

For much of 2016 it looked nailed on that Spotify would IPO in 2017 and that the recorded music industry would move onto its next chapter, for better or for worse. The terms of Spotify’s $1 billion debt...

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Sarnoff’s Law and the Media Valuation Shift

Zach Fuller

10 Feb 2017

The story of David Sarnoff is the archetypal American Dream. A Belarusian child immigrant arriving in New York City at the turn of the 20th century, the ambitious Sarnoff would demonstrate an early instinct...

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YouTube’s Super Chat Is A Guerrilla Marketing Gift To Advertisers

Karol Severin

9 Feb 2017

Critical Developments

Super Chat is an interesting attempt at monetizing mobile messaging and live video both, for creators and YouTube. The company has announced its launch this week in 20 countries, giving creators and communication-thirsty...

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A Tale Of Two Technologies: The Narrative And The Numbers For VR And Voice

Zach Fuller

1 Feb 2017

In the tradition of effective storytelling, the technology industry’s romantic narrative often involves two basic troupes: a garage and a dream. This alluring chronology is so embedded in start-up folklore...

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Obama’s Farewell Speech Frames Filter Bubbles as a Personal Responsibility

Zach Fuller

11 Jan 2017

‘For too many of us, it has become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or college campuses or places of worship or our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look...

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