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.

Immersive video fandom
The rise of the centralised interactive fan world

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Ben Woods
Product Strategy
Video IP holders could extract more value from superfans by deploying monetisation strategies used by social video platforms and virtual gaming universes. The music industry has already shown how, through interactive fan worlds. These video game experiences allow IP holders to centralise fan engagement to capitalise on digital monetisation techniques, such as in-app purchasing and incentive-driven advertising.
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Can YouTube’s AI chat bot provide an edge in increasing in-app engagement time?

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Ben Woods
Social video
YouTube
Generative AI
In this entertainment age dominated by technology platforms, in-app engagement time has become a key measure of success. The fierce competition for available viewing time is what makes it crucial. For video, unbroken watch time is the north star – albeit a hard one to reach when social video’s personalised algorithms are duking it out with streaming TV for the viewer’s full attention.
min read
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Generative AI
The double-edged sword for social video platforms and content creators

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Ben Woods
Product Strategy
A significant audience now exists on social video platforms for generative-AI content. However, the speed and scale at which generative AI could produce creator content could destabilise the creator economy. If left unchecked, generative AI could tip the balance towards more inauthentic than authentic human content on social video platforms: a big risk considering authenticity is what gave social video platforms their initial rise in the first place.
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How AI can empower creators by cutting through content saturation

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Ben Woods
Social video
YouTube
AI
When YouTube’s chief executive Neal Mohan recently revealed a suite of AI tools to support creators, he aimed to drastically reduce the time it takes to produce content. Among those innovations were AI-driven topic suggestions for videos; AI generated photo and video backgrounds for short-form content; AI support for selecting copyright-free music; simplified video editing and an AI-powered dubbing tool to help creators expand beyond their core markets.
min read
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