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.

FAST can help video services win the streaming wars… but it’s about more than just ads

Cover image for FAST can help video services win the streaming wars… but it’s about more than just ads

Ben Woods

21 Mar 2023

Earlier this month, the subscription streaming service DAZN took an uncharacteristic decision around its women’s sports coverage. Rather than using traditional marketing to coax viewers towards subscribing, the sports streamer opted for the in-vogue monetisation model known as free ad-supported st...

min read

Rebooting video fandom
Games as a video streaming genre

Cover image for Rebooting video fandom

Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin and Ben Woods

March 2023

Apple

Apple TV

Netflix

With gamers being mainstream, video streaming services and their content offerings can benefit by increasing focus on the preferences of gamers. Crucially, this enables subscription video on demand (SVOD) services to drive engagement, broaden reach and improve retention.

The Witcher
Netflix’s appeal to gamer fandom

Cover image for The Witcher

Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin and Ben Woods

March 2023

Read the case study …

Why TikTok and YouTube are poised to capture smart TV viewing

Cover image for Why TikTok and YouTube are poised to capture smart TV viewing

Ben Woods

14 Mar 2023

The entertainment consumption habits of Gen Z remain an ongoing source of anxiety for traditional media companies. They are digital natives who mix up their social media bingeing by watching big-budget TV series and movies on their smartphones.

min read

Creators can narrow the quality gap with streaming services…. if they survive the AI ‘spamnami’

Cover image for Creators can narrow the quality gap with streaming services…. if they survive the AI ‘spamnami’

Ben Woods

7 Mar 2023

Twitch chief executive Emmett Shear has sounded a note of caution about artificial intelligence (AI). Responding to a tweet about how creators could make money while sleeping by autogenerating content on services such as ChatGPT, he warned how it risked fuelling a sharp rise in spam content.

min read

Not everyone can be a winner in the FAST gold rush

Cover image for Not everyone can be a winner in the FAST gold rush

Ben Woods

28 Feb 2023

Video streaming executives searching for relief from the high cost of acquiring new subscribers have found a saviour – and it looks a lot like linear TV. Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) is becoming a necessity for video services whose strategy of spending big on exclusive content to ...

min read

YouTube’s new king must reclaim the title of social video’s great innovator

Cover image for YouTube’s new king must reclaim the title of social video’s great innovator

Ben Woods

23 Feb 2023

YouTube’s changing of the guard has brought forward a stark reality: the social video platform responsible for a seismic shift in how video is created, monetised, and distributed is now looking and feeling like an incumbent.

min read

Year of change
Themes that will shape entertainment in 2023

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Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin, Ben Woods and Srishti Das

February 2023

Spotify

YouTube

Amazon

This report deep dives into the themes identified in MIDiA’s 2023 predictions report. These themes will drive innovation in the digital entertainment landscape in 2023 across music, video, games, audio, cultural trends, and the creator economy. Expect 2023 to be a of period significant disruption and innovation forced upon the digital entertainme...

Watch parties
Rebooting the watercooler moment

Cover image for Watch parties

Ben Woods

February 2023

YouTube

Amazon

Netflix

Group watching television with family and friends is being consigned to a bygone era. Algorithms are forcing entertainment consumers into silos through an endless stream of personally recommended content and the fallout is a relentless battle for audience engagement across a myriad of devices.

DAZN Watch Party

Cover image for DAZN Watch Party

Ben Woods

February 2023

Product Strategy

Read the case study …

The streaming wars will be won with technology, not content

Cover image for The streaming wars will be won with technology, not content

Ben Woods

31 Jan 2023

The modern entertainment industry is a tale of re-invention. The need for vast amounts of content to justify the value of a subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service has made the artists, series, and franchises of yesteryear just as valuable to platforms as the next blockbuster hit.

min read

YouTube has dismantled the walls between social video and SVOD

Cover image for YouTube has dismantled the walls between social video and SVOD

Ben Woods

24 Jan 2023

How do you define YouTube in 2023? The Google-owned app has evolved into a complicated media outfit. It stretches beyond social video content and deep into subscription video on demand (SVOD). It is a wholly different business to the platform that posted its first user-generated video – Me at the ...

min read

Is the net closing in on TikTok?

Cover image for Is the net closing in on TikTok?

Ben Woods

17 Jan 2023

There is nothing quite like a recession to seemingly transform disruptors into incumbents. As the focus moves from R&D spend to cost-cutting, the customer focus also changes. Efforts to acquire new customers lose their lustre when there is a need to hold onto those already engaged with a service.

min read

MIDiA Research video subscription forecasts 2023-2030
APAC to the fore

Cover image for MIDiA Research video subscription forecasts 2023-2030

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Perry Gresham and Ben Woods

January 2023

Online video

SVOD

Marketing Strategy

This report presents the key figures, trends, and drivers of MIDiA’s video streaming subscription forecast model. The revenue figures presented in this report are in billions of US dollars unless otherwise stated. An Excel file posted alongside this report provides complete region and country-level data, as well as a detailed methodology statemen...

YouTube’s one-stop shop offers a salvation to creator burn-out

Cover image for YouTube’s one-stop shop offers a salvation to creator burn-out

Ben Woods

12 Jan 2023

Creator economy

A popular YouTube channel offering tips for fledgling creators made a surprising admission recently. After amassing nearly 200,000 YouTube subscribers around its “how-to guides” for live streamers, Stream Scheme told some of its viewers to quit streaming altogether.

min read

Pivot point
MIDiA 2023 predictions

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Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston and Ben Woods

January 2023

Business Strategy

MIDiA analysts dive into our 2023 predictions, and why we believe it will be the ' pivot point '. Watch the webinareither on YouTube or LinkedIn ....

Stream, interact, repeat
Why SVOD needs a social engagement revolution

Cover image for Stream, interact, repeat

Ben Woods

January 2023

YouTube

Netflix

roku

Audience engagement with subscription video on demand (SVOD) services is sliding, with multi-tasking on social media often relegating shows to background viewing. Social media is the threat, but also the catalyst for a radical recalibration of the SVOD viewing experience that will help these services claw back what is lost.

Cult of the Lamb

Cover image for Cult of the Lamb

Ben Woods

January 2023

Read the case study …

Twitch can fight the digital advertising downturn with Guest Star

Cover image for Twitch can fight the digital advertising downturn with Guest Star

Ben Woods

20 Dec 2022

When Twitch influencer Freckled Science wanted to puncture the falsehoods surrounding the beauty industry, she patched in Dr. Michelle Wong for a live interview . The co-stream, incorporating the feeds of both streamers, was among the early try-outs of Guest Star – the livestreaming platform’s l...

min read

2023 MIDiA predictions
Pivot point

Cover image for 2023 MIDiA predictions

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin, Kazia Rothwell and Ben Woods

December 2022

Apple

YouTube

Amazon

In this report, MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, games, marketing, audio and cultural trends in 2023 and beyond. Themes for 2023: Cost-of-living crunch: Entertainment spending will weaken, but some formats will fare better than others Perceived value wil...

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