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.

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Watch parties
Rebooting the watercooler moment

Ben Woods

1 Feb 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.

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DAZN Watch Party

Ben Woods

1 Feb 2023

Video Product Strategy

DAZN, the live sports streaming service, is leading innovation in developing the potential of watch parties. While modest in its capability at present, DAZN is pushing beyond communal viewing to transform Watch Party into a hub where fans can also celebrate their fandom, regardless of the device.

The streaming wars will be won with technology, not content

Ben Woods

31 Jan 2023

Video SVOD Gaming

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.

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YouTube has dismantled the walls between social video and SVOD

Ben Woods

24 Jan 2023

Social video SVOD YouTube

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 ...

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Is the net closing in on TikTok?

Ben Woods

17 Jan 2023

Social video TikTok YouTube

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.

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

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Perry Gresham and Ben Woods

15 Jan 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

Ben Woods

12 Jan 2023

Creator economy Social video YouTube

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.

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Pivot point
MIDiA 2023 predictions

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

12 Jan 2023

Free Report

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 ....

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

Ben Woods

4 Jan 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.

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Cult of the Lamb

Ben Woods

4 Jan 2023

Video Games Social video

Cult of the Lamb is an action-adventure strategy game that achieved criticaland commercial success shortly after its launch in August 2022 by embracinglivestreaming engagement on Twitch. Developed by Massive Monster and published by Devolver Digital, the title takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to the concept of a religious cult.

Twitch can fight the digital advertising downturn with Guest Star

Ben Woods

20 Dec 2022

Twitch live streaming Fandom

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...

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2023 MIDiA predictions
Pivot point

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

20 Dec 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...

How Chloe Grace Moretz has created a virtuous circle for Amazon Prime Video and Twitch

Ben Woods

15 Dec 2022

Twitch Amazon Prime Video live streaming

In Amazon Prime’s sci-fi opus, The Peripheral , the actress Chloe Grace Moretz plays a virtual reality gamer who uses her skills to navigate the near future. It is a canny piece of casting considering Moretz is also a gamer in real life.

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Welcome to the Metaverse, where audience fragmentation reigns

Ben Woods

8 Dec 2022

metaverse SVOD Services Social video

In Ernest Cline’s dystopian novel Ready Player One , the metaverse unfurls as a virtual universe where choice over identity and experience are boundless. Such is the seamless experience of Cline’s ‘Oasis’ that it competes, and wins, when pitted against conventional reality.

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What broadcasters should learn from Sky Sports misstep with influencer IShowSpeed

Ben Woods

29 Nov 2022

Content Creators influencer live sports

After collaborating with the social media influencer IShowSpeed (Speed) earlier this month, Sky Sports was left with a bitter taste. Speed, who has amassed 13 million subscribers on YouTube for his livestreams featuring gaming and slapstick content, had flown to the UK to watch his favourite footbal...

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Video reports bundle
Available for a limited time

Tim Mulligan and Ben Woods

28 Nov 2022

This bundle contains three of our most recent video reports, providing you with a wide selection of insights and content from our analysts. Take this opportunity to get some of our most recent data at a discounted price. Friction TV:Addressing the user experience disconnect in streaming TV Streaming TV is now the default way to consume TV content.

Social video’s shopping push will be a rare recession winner

Ben Woods

22 Nov 2022

Social video e-commerce influencer

Despite pressure on Joe Biden’s administration to ban TikTok , the social video app made a fresh incursion into America earlier this month by bringing its live-streaming e-commerce service TikTok Shop to US consumers.

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Can Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover trigger a revolution for creator pay?

Ben Woods

15 Nov 2022

Twitter Social media Creator economy

Amid Twitter’s subscription turmoil, Elon Musk unveiled plans for a land grab on his social media rivals. The likes of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch moved into his sights as he recently declared that he is preparing new financial incentives for creators to encourage the biggest influencers to take...

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Unlocking the saturation conundrum
Key video trends going into 2023

Tim Mulligan, Hanna Kahlert, Samuel Griffin and Ben Woods

14 Nov 2022

A key challenge confronting the video streaming landscape in the current attention inflation era is maintaining engagement. Up until now, video streaming has been fixated on growth. In a saturated marketplace buffeted by the cost-of-living crisis, the strategic focus has shifted towards retention both of in terms of subscribers for subscription vid...

Patreon is making video a battleground for creator allegiance

Ben Woods

8 Nov 2022

Social video YouTube Patreon

With jitters building in the advertising market, YouTube appears vulnerable to challengers. Google’s parent Alphabet, the ultimate owner of YouTube, recorded its slowest sales growth for two years last month when the souring ad market hit its performance in the third quarter.

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