Blog: Freemium

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.

Elden Ring’s early success shows that traditional gaming experiences are still relevant

Cover image for Elden Ring’s early success shows that traditional gaming experiences are still relevant

Perry Gresham

24 Mar 2022

niche is the new mainstream

From Software’s hardcore action role-playing game (ARPG), Elden Ring, has outperformed even the most optimistic predictions, resulting in the biggest game launch in recent history (excluding yearly titans...

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Foxtel, diversifying for reach, launches freemium Kayo service

Cover image for Foxtel, diversifying for reach, launches freemium Kayo service

Alistair Taylor

28 Oct 2020

News Corporation

Australian pay-TV organisation Foxtel is launching a free version of its sport-centric streaming service Kayo in 2021. This follows a difficult year for the streaming service that saw its subscriber numbers...

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NBCUniversal hopes to draw level with Premier League move

Cover image for NBCUniversal hopes to draw level with Premier League move

Alistair Taylor

15 Jul 2020

With Comcast’s NBCUniversal-owned Peacock launching today (July 15th), sports fans will be excited ahead of NBCU’s repositioning of its English Premier League (EPL) rights, giving paying subscribers...

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Amazon’s Ad Supported Strategy Goes Way Beyond Music

Cover image for Amazon’s Ad Supported Strategy Goes Way Beyond Music

Mark Mulligan

17 Apr 2019

ad supported strategy

ad supported streaming

Amazon is reportedly close to launching an ad supported streaming music offering . Spotify’s stock price took an instant tumble. But the real story here is much bigger than the knee-jerk reactions...

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Apple Joins The Games Subscription Race With Arcade

Karol Severin

26 Mar 2019

Apple has announced that it will launch a games subscription service called Arcade. For a monthly payment (price point to be determined), the service will feature over 100 original games which users will...

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Is YouTube Serious About Music Subscriptions This Time Round?

Cover image for Is YouTube Serious About Music Subscriptions This Time Round?

Mark Mulligan

17 May 2018

In 2014 YouTube launched its inaugural music subscription service YouTube Music Key in beta. The following year YouTube announced it was closing it ahead of the launch of YouTube Red , a multi-format subscription...

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Announcing MIDiA’s New Research Practice: Paid Content

Mark Mulligan

11 Jan 2017

Digital Media Strategy

facebook strategy

We are proud to announce the launch of MIDiA’s latest research practice: Paid Content. We’ve been working on this service for the past 9 months and it is headed up by our Paid Content analyst Zach...

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Spotify, Pandora And YouTube: In Search Of The Real Value Of Free

Mark Mulligan

20 Jun 2016

per stream rates

The music industry remains in a fix over free. The freemium wars in late 2014 almost saw the freemium tier of Spotify turned off in the face of pressure from Apple’s Jimmy Iovine. The majors eventually...

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How Free Is Defining Digital Content Strategy

Cover image for How Free Is Defining Digital Content Strategy

Mark Mulligan

24 Feb 2016

The internet’s ‘gift’ to media companies was free. And it’s the gift that just keeps giving. Record labels, newspapers, online publishers, TV companies, games publishers continue to grapple with...

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Vevo Must Break The Mould When It Goes Premium

Mark Mulligan

18 Feb 2016

Vevo has long been in search of an identity. In fact you could make an argument that it has had an identity crisis since its inception as a music industry appendage/Trojan Horse superimposed on YouTube...

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Why Reddit Has To Get Mobile Right

Karol Severin

15 Dec 2015

app monetization

mobile app strategy

Reddit has had a tough time going mobile. Their initial attempt at an official app failed in 2011. Since then, a plethora of independent Reddit apps emerged, capturing a part of Reddit’s potential mobile...

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MIDiA Chart Of The Week: The Mobile App Funnel

Cover image for MIDiA Chart Of The Week: The Mobile App Funnel

Mark Mulligan

14 Dec 2015

acquiring mobile users

Chart Of The Week

App companies lose users and revenue right across the user acquisition and retention process. Thus as the global app market grows the amount of lost revenue accelerates also. MIDiA’s app funnel analysis...

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Quick Take: Vevo Buys ShowYou But Will It Seize The Opportunity?

Mark Mulligan

8 Dec 2015

Music streaming

Vevo has acquired video curation/discovery platform ShowYou . There’s a lot of talk about how this could preface a move into subscriptions for Vevo, given that ShowYou launched subscription functionality...

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App Bubble Update: Hit Mobile Game Publishers Are Running Out Of Steam

Cover image for App Bubble Update: Hit Mobile Game Publishers Are Running Out Of Steam

Karol Severin

12 Nov 2015

app bubble burst

We pointed out the risks associated with the app economy being too dependent on a few hit apps back in 2014. The big question always was whether new titles of hit mobile game publishers could replicate...

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Fighting Free With Free: How Youtube Usurped BitTorrent

Mark Mulligan

13 May 2015

MIDiA Research has published a new report: 'Fighting Free With Free: How YouTube Usurped BitTorrent'. What follows are a few highlights from it. The full report and its accompanying datasets are available...

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