Blog - Page 65

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.

Netflix brings chess back to the mainstream with Queen’s Gambit power move

Hanna Kahlert

30 Nov 2020

Media and Marketing

When Netflix aired its chess-themed TV series The Queen’s Gambit on October 23rd, the choice of topic seemed a quizzically niche one. Chess has not seen mainstream enthusiasm since Cold-War-era face-offs between Russia and the West, with a match between US prodigy Bobby Fischer and formidable Sovi...

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Creator tools: The music industry’s new top of funnel

Mark Mulligan

30 Nov 2020

For most of 2020, MIDiA has been working on a major piece of work around the fast-growing creator tools space. The themes we had already started working on became rocket propelled with the onset of the pandemic, with an unprecedented volume of artists starting to engage with music production tools, ...

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Time to move beyond the song economy

Mark Mulligan

27 Nov 2020

Music

The UK parliament is currently running an inquiry into the streaming music economy, having called for evidence from across the music business. Earlier this week were the first verbal submissions, from a number of UK artists including Tom Gray (Gomez), Guy Garvey (Elbow), Ed O’Brien (Radiohead) and...

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The curious growth in the streaming power of factual

Tim Mulligan

25 Nov 2020

Back in August, CuriosityStream, a subscription video service specialising in factual content, announced a merger agreement with Software Acquisition Group, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

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Social media propositions are competing by homogenising?

Hanna Kahlert

24 Nov 2020

Media and Marketing

‘Tis the season for new social media layouts, it seems. Recently, Instagram has introduced a new layout featuring a combined Reels/Stories tab and a shopping tab; Twitter has rolled out its own form of stories, called “Fleets” (get it? Because they’re fleeting?) and Snapchat has, directly in...

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Why TikTok’s regulatory countdown has been extended yet again

Tim Mulligan

20 Nov 2020

Online video Media Video

One of the many knock-on effects of this month’s US Presidential election has been the temporary reprieve granted to social video app TikTok. The app is owned and operated by ByteDance, the Beijing-based Chinese tech company which has been propelled into the ranks of the leading tech majors follow...

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Snapchat buys Voisey to enter the music market

Mark Mulligan

20 Nov 2020

Snapchat parent company Snap Inc is reported to have acquired music collaboration tool Voisey . Voisey is a relatively new start-up, having raised its first major round mid-2019 and launching later the same year .

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DraftKings is making its own strategic bet on the rise of the US sports betting market

Alistair Taylor

19 Nov 2020

DraftKings Sportsbook betting company

US-based sports betting company DraftKings’ stock value has grown 11% following a strong third-quarter performance in which its revenues increased 98% year on year (YoY) to reach $132.8 million, up from $67 million in Q3 2019.

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YouTube at two billion: Still much more music opportunity to be had

Mark Mulligan

17 Nov 2020

Music

YouTube just announced its milestone of reaching two billion music users on the platform . YouTube has long been the largest music service on the planet, and it has just extended that lead. In 2019, its official total user number was two billion.

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Virtual Reality: The flying cars of the 21st century

Hanna Kahlert

16 Nov 2020

Virtual reality – or “VR” – has been described as a potentially media transforming technology for years now . Desperate trend seekers have long harked its “potential”, certain that this little-understood, sci-fi-esque innovation will feature heavily in our digital futures (although, as M...

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Are rights holders missing the point with Twitch?

Mark Mulligan

13 Nov 2020

Twitch has apologised to its users for the growing volume of rights holder takedown notices for music used in Twitch videos . Twitch is in an awkward transitionary phase with music rights holders, not dissimilar to where YouTube was when it was acquired by Google.

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WWE Q3 Earnings – An innovative digital strategy helps WWE overcome COVID-19 disruption

Alistair Taylor

12 Nov 2020

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment covid

WWE’s Q3 2020 results provide a fascinating insight into how a live event-focused entertainment business has successfully navigated a global pandemic. In its financials for the quarter , WWE saw a 19% revenue increase year-on-year (YoY), with Q3 2020 revenue at $221.

Post-pandemic programming webinar replay

Dara Jegede

12 Nov 2020

If you missed the Post-Pandemic Programming webinar on Tuesday, November 10, you can relive the discussions in the video below. To ensure you don't miss another MIDiA event, register here to stay in touch .

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Catch up with MIDiA's post-pandemic programming podcast series

Dara Jegede

11 Nov 2020

Video Music Games

MIDiA has long said that podcasts are a rising force in the audio entertainment market – and we’ve put our efforts where our insights are, launching our first podcast series. Our episodes are now available to listen to on Spotify , Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music .

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MIDiA expands academia support to gaming community through MetArena partnership

Dara Jegede

11 Nov 2020

Games

We are pleased to announce that the University of Kentucky is the first to benefit from a new partnership between MIDiA Research and MetArena, which will see students receive access to the MIDiA platform for 12 months, at no additional cost to the universities or students.

Disney+, one year on…

Tim Mulligan

10 Nov 2020

Video Disney+

On Thursday 12 November, Disney will announce its Q4 (Calendar Q3) earnings. The date is particularly poignant, as it is exactly one year since Disney launched its direct-to-consumer (D2C) service Disney+ in North America, Australia and the Netherlands.

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Why Take-Two Interactive does not need to adopt games subscriptions yet

Karol Severin

10 Nov 2020

take two interactive t2 games subscriptions

Take-Two Interactive (T2) reported quarterly results, with revenue dipping slightly, but profitability improving. On the call, T2 reiterated scepticism over the future of the games subscription models.

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Why the sports broadcast model is now under threat

Alistair Taylor

6 Nov 2020

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair sports broadcast

The Sinclair Broadcast Group reported its Q3 2020 results earlier this week, which highlighted the detrimental impact sporting investments had on its balance sheet. A 37% year-on-year (YoY) increase in consolidated revenue (to $1.

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The video streaming shift from sports to news

Tim Mulligan

5 Nov 2020

News Video Streaming

Yesterday the Sinclair Broadcast Group reported its Q3 2020 results . A 37% increase in consolidated revenues was undone by a $4.2 billion impairment on the local sports segment due to the COVID-19 disruption wrought on its regional sports network.

Discovery Mode: Understanding how Spotify thinks

Mark Mulligan

4 Nov 2020

Spotify’s Discovery Mode announcement looked at the very best a poorly timed announcement, coming at a time when artists and songwriters are more concerned about their income than at any other since the music business returned to growth more than half a decade ago.

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