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Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Is this the beginning of the end for Instagram?

Hanna Kahlert

19 Jan 2021

Media and Marketing Cultural trends

It has been a rocky month for social media – and a not-so-promising beginning to a new year. Years of debate have raged over the role of platforms like Facebook and Twitter in the content they host, and the impact it has – ranging from filter bubbles, to “fake news”, to campaigns against min...

3 min read

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Music has developed an attention dependency

Mark Mulligan

15 Jan 2021

Music

The attention economy defines and shapes today’s digital world. However, we have long since reached peak in the attention economy with all available free time now addressed. What this means is that previously, when digital entertainment propositions grew, they were often using up users’ free tim...

4 min read

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Why the NFL is targeting ‘cord-nevers’

Alistair Taylor

14 Jan 2021

Sports Video Covid-19

For decades, rights holders have prioritised (and relied upon) exponentially increasing broadcast revenues as a mechanism for sustainability and growth, a legacy approach that is in dire need of a review with ‘ D-day’ for sporting rights upon us in 2021.

4 min read

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Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars: The role of imperfection in the fandom formula

Hanna Kahlert

13 Jan 2021

The much-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 was released last month on December 10th, as both the most expensive game ever made and with one of the most high-profile acting casts. Following the studio’s highly-successful Witcher games, which resulted in the popular Netflix show, expectations were high –...

4 min read

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Does the video streaming world need Struum?

Tim Mulligan

11 Jan 2021

Video

This spring, a new start-up will arrive on the scene for US video streaming consumers. Called Struum , it plans to offer a solution to an ongoing challenge of the streaming era – the need for reaggregation.

3 min read

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WMG invests in Roblox, a major step in bridging music and gaming

Karol Severin

11 Jan 2021

Warner Music Group has invested an eight-figure sum in Roblox as a part of its $520 million fundraising round. This in an important strategic move for the label, as it marks a milestone on its journey to build symbiotic, rather than transactional, relationships with games companies – a fundamental...

2 min read

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Virtual concerts: A new video format

Mark Mulligan

8 Jan 2021

The global pandemic thrust the live music sector into chaos, with global revenues falling by 75% in 2020 compared to one year previously. The music industry was rocked by first-order impacts (no concerts, no fan engagement) and second-order impacts (many artists realising that streaming did not add ...

4 min read

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Line change for the NHL: COVID-enforced innovation arrives as ‘D-Day’ commences

Alistair Taylor

7 Jan 2021

D-Day Year 0 Sporting rights

With 2021 commencing, the start of ‘ D-day’ or ‘ Year 0’ for sporting rights is upon us, as the major domestic sports rights start coming up for renewal. Nowhere is ‘D-day’ for sporting rights more important than for the NHL, with 2021 shaping up to be the most significant year in the le...

5 min read

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The live versus streaming demographic paradox

Hanna Kahlert

5 Jan 2021

Artists demographic insight

As we begin 2021 with a vaccine on the near horizon, live venue businesses are holding on with whitening knuckles through the intermediate stricter lockdowns. However, the world has changed much in the year since the first social distancing measures were put in place – and navigating the future wi...

4 min read

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2021 TV show demand starts with a very familiar look

Tim Mulligan

4 Jan 2021

As 2020 drew to a close the top in-demand shows by Wikipedia page views in the US were dominated by direct-to-consumer (D2C) disruptors Disney+ and HBO Max ,with streaming video hegemon Netflix displaced to third position.

3 min read

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What measures an artist's success in today's music industry?

Keith Jopling

23 Dec 2020

Strategy Media Streaming Music

It’s that time of year again for lists. Endless top albums and song rankings that can be a bonus for a music artist to be included on. A placement on an influential list (which ones those are is more of a debate these days, but let’s say Pitchfork for example, or Rolling Stone, or perhaps Fader ...

7 min read

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Disney+ and HBO Max tip Netflix’s crown

Tim Mulligan

22 Dec 2020

Video

As 2020 draws to a close, the year that was always going to be defined for the TV industry by the streaming direct-to-consumer ‘big bang moment ’exceeded even the most ambitious demands of the new streaming entrants.

3 min read

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While Disney+ grabs the D2C limelight, Amazon Prime continues its steady expansion

Tim Mulligan

18 Dec 2020

Disney+ spent last week being the centre of attention in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) space with its Investor Day presentation on December 10th . During the four-hour presentation, Disney rightly made a big thing out of the target-beating growth of Disney+ , which comes at the end of its first year ...

3 min read

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2021 Predictions: The year of the immersive web

Mark Mulligan

18 Dec 2020

As we approach the end of 2020 it is time to look forward to what 2021 may bring. MIDiA has published the fifth edition of our Annual Predictions report which clients can read here . There are 27 predictions in the report, but I am sharing a few of them here.

4 min read

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English Premiership Rugby gets set for a digital shake-up

Alistair Taylor

17 Dec 2020

English Premiership Rugby Amazon tech major

Tech major Amazon is reportedly looking to add to its burgeoning sports right portfolio, targeting the domestic broadcast rights for English Premiership Rugby. London Irish owner, Mick Crossan, confirmed the giant’s entry into the tender process to the Mail on Sunday , following Amazon’s experim...

4 min read

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Can Roblox get a better value out of its IPO postponement?

Karol Severin

16 Dec 2020

Roblox IPO cross-entertainment

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Roblox is delaying its IPO to 2021. WSJ states that “…company officials decided that the gravity-defying performance this week ofAirbnb andDoorDash made it too difficult to determine the right price for the videogame company’s shares”.

4 min read

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Facebook faces anti-trust lawsuits, sounding a warning to big tech

Hanna Kahlert

16 Dec 2020

ads data Facebook

Last Wednesday, 48 US State attorneys general and the US Federal Trade Commission filed lawsuits against Facebook, echoing the hearings before Congress earlier this year in declaring that the company’s practices violate fair competition laws.

3 min read

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Global independent label survey

Mark Mulligan

14 Dec 2020

Music

MIDiA Research is conducting a major study of independent label revenue in order to create a definitive review of the independent sector’s contribution to the global music market. MIDiA conducted this work for a number of years on behalf of the Worldwide Independent Network and is now independentl...

3 min read

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Discovery enters streaming race with discovery+ and Olympics offering

Alistair Taylor

9 Dec 2020

Discovery Eurosport discovery+

Last week , Discovery announced it will launch discovery+, ‘the definitive non-fiction’ subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD), on January 4th, 2021. Consumers in the US can expect the largest-ever content library for a new streaming service from launch, with more than 55,000 episodes from Discover...

4 min read

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Blockbuster disruption comes to the streaming wars courtesy of HBO Max

Tim Mulligan

8 Dec 2020

SVOD HBO Max Warner Media

An unprecedented year for the entertainment industry has now taken yet another decisive turn. Last Thursday Warner Media’s CEO Jason Kilar announced that all Warner Bros’ 2021 releases will be available to stream exclusively on its direct-to-consumer (D2C) service HBO Max on the same day they ha...

3 min read

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