Ben Woods

A former national journalist and content creator, Ben leads our Creator Economy coverage. As a specialist on the intersection of technology and entertainment, his focus spans new and traditional forms of video engagement, with close attention paid to creators, AI, and the behavioural habits of Millennial, Gen Z, and Gen A audiences.

With his work underpinned by quantitative and qualitative research skills, his trusted commentary regularly appears in stories by The BBC, The Guardian, Fast Company, Sky News, and at conferences such as IBC and Sónar.

Cover image for Disney Dreamlight Valley

Disney Dreamlight Valley
Laying the foundations for interactive fan worlds

Ben Woods

23 Nov 2023

Product Strategy

To try and capture a slice of the vast popularity of Nintendo’s life simulator Animal Crossing , Disney created its own game in 2022 that allows players to inhabit a fantasy world based on its infamous IP. In Disney Dreamlight Valley , players can create an avatar based on their likeness before farming, fishing, mining, and cooking in a magical k...

Can YouTube’s AI chat bot provide an edge in increasing in-app engagement time?

Ben Woods

9 Nov 2023

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 p...

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Has superstar creator pay peaked now that Twitch has cooled competition with YouTube?

Ben Woods

26 Oct 2023

Twitch YouTube Kick

Twitch’s annual showcase in Las Vegas was the moment new chief executive Dan Clancy put his stamp on the business. What surprised many – and delighted creators – was his decision to significantly cool competition with YouTube and other livestreaming platforms by giving his blessing to simulcas...

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How Kwebbelkop AI is pushing the frontiers of generative-AI content creation on YouTube

Ben Woods

16 Oct 2023

Generative AI Social video Kwebbelkop

The incoming wave of generative-AI content has the potential to dominate social video platforms and reshape the creator economy. As a support act, AI can help content creators improve their production values and reduce time spent creating.

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Cover image for Generative AI

Generative AI
The double-edged sword for social video platforms and content creators

Ben Woods

6 Oct 2023

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 ...

Cover image for Kwebbelkop and WatchMeForever

Kwebbelkop and WatchMeForever
Novelty appeal or AI revolutionaries?

Ben Woods

6 Oct 2023

Generative AI is quickly moving from being a support act for content creation to becoming a content creator itself. AI engines can replicate a human creator’s voice, the tone of their content, and the conceptual ideas needed to sustain a YouTube video or Twitch livestream.

How AI can empower creators by cutting through content saturation

Ben Woods

5 Oct 2023

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 con...

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Why YouTube should disrupt streaming TV’s love affair with TikTok

Ben Woods

28 Sep 2023

YouTube Shorts TikTok south park

It has become a tried and tested tactic for streaming TV services: Take the exclusive show you want to promote, drop the first episode on social media for free, and hope it motivates audiences enough to buy a subscription to your service.

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Why Netflix should become a channel distributor for its streaming rivals

Ben Woods

21 Sep 2023

Netflix Suits Meghan Markle

Long-running legal drama Suits has become a bittersweet tale for NBCUniversal. The show that gave Meghan Markle her pre-royalty taste of stardom was already considered a commercial success after its final episode aired on September 25, 2019.

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Cannibalisation is inevitable for YouTube as the attention economy bites

Ben Woods

13 Sep 2023

Social video YouTube Shorts YouTube

When YouTube launched Shorts in 2021, the social video platform was knowingly risking de-stabilising its core business. The rationale behind launching a short-form video offer was that the risk of not doing so could mean haemorrhaging thousands, if not millions, of viewers to TikTok.

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BlackPink, superfans and the video game threat to social video and streaming TV

Ben Woods

1 Sep 2023

Fandom Superfans streaming tv

Being an entertainment fan in the modern era can be a disjointed experience. Take Star Wars . A fan of the long-standing sci-fi franchise must invest significant amounts of time and money across multiple entertainment platforms if they are to truly indulge in their fandom.

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Innovation feature concept
Building a dynamic social ad experience on FAST

Tim Mulligan and Ben Woods

14 Aug 2023

Freemium advertisers Business Strategy

Building a dynamic social ad experience on FAST Free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) is currently positioned as streaming free-to-air (FTA) TV. However, the early data is building a compelling case that there are two distinct use cases for the new distribution model.

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The FAST advantage
Build sustainable consumer models

Tim Mulligan and Ben Woods

14 Aug 2023

Streaming Amazon Netflix

Inflation and retention pressures are combining to make free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) an appealing go-to-market strategy for video distributors.FAST is still underperforming significantly in engagement terms when compared to its video rivals, but there are promising signs.

DAZN bets on sports streaming future being driven by fandom

Ben Woods

3 Aug 2023

SVOD streaming tv merchandise

The streaming-TV industry has an engagement question to answer. Of late, the dominant services have been preoccupied with soothing investor concerns over the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on subscriptions.

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Live sport 2.0
Capturing younger audiences with the creator economy

Ben Woods

1 Jun 2023

YouTube Apple TV Twitch

The funding model for live sports has created fissures between older viewers who can afford to pay a premium for live access and younger audiences who either cannot, or do not want to. While older generations are accustomed to paying for access to content, younger generations grew up in a world with accessible content galore.

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The Kings League
A sporting competition for the lean-in generation

Ben Woods

1 Jun 2023

Video YouTube Twitch

After a prolonged period of the sporting calendar being dominated by the same storied competitions, new technology and a need to stoke fandom has ushered in new sports challengers. Formula E has started challenging Formula 1 with its electric racing series targeting eco-conscious viewers and sponsors.

Authenticity is at the heart of the video podcast

Ben Woods

31 May 2023

Video podcasts broadcast news Sky News

Video and audio platforms have been equally aggressive when treading upon each others’ turf. The platform flexibility of smartphones and smart TVs has created the opportunity for entertainment companies to extend audience engagement outside their core areas of expertise.

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Telly’s challenge to the smartphone opens a new front in the second screen wars

Ben Woods

24 May 2023

Smart TV Telly FAST

Rarely does a new product manage to redefine its market. In 2007, the launch of the iPhone caused a seismic shift when Apple transformed the mobile phone from a device for calls and texts to an entertainment hub with the computing power of a small laptop.

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Are streaming TV services poised to become pay TV channels in all but name?

Ben Woods

16 May 2023

Netflix Disney+ Amazon Prime Video

The streaming TV landscape is changing rapidly. Leading entertainment industry executives are questioning every aspect of the subscription video on-demand (SVOD) model in pursuit of sustainable profits.

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Amazon Prime Video’s spy drama Citadel forges a new frontier in product placement

Ben Woods

9 May 2023

Amazon Prime Video Citadel

Product placement has a long history helping film and TV producers maximise the monetisation of their content. The use of products by Hollywood stars to promote brands dates backs to the 1920s when Red Crown Gasoline’s logo featured in The Garage starring comedy actors Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Ke...

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