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.

Video - Day 1: Future-proofing growth and curtailing subscriber churn post pandemic

Cover image for Video - Day 1: Future-proofing growth and curtailing subscriber churn post pandemic
Dara Jegede
The ‘COVID-bounce’ effect from the 2020 pandemic created a business windfall for many video providers and OTT services – some of which saw multi-year subscriber increases happen within months. Video experienced the biggest bump in engagement and will be doubly impacted as the rebound to ‘in real life’ and pre-pandemic activities continues.
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Games - Day 2: Beyond gaming to cross-entertainment partnerships

Cover image for Games - Day 2: Beyond gaming to cross-entertainment partnerships
Dara Jegede
Building on the discussions from Day 1, Day 2 looks at opportunities in cross-entertainment partnerships and in-game spending. In-game spending increased in 2020 as gaming’s cultural importance grew to become an ideal destination for young consumers to define and express their digital personas during a time of limited social interaction, highlighting the commercial opportunity for games companies to serve the image and sense of belonging needs of consumers via virtual goods and services in games environments and beyond.
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Microsoft’s interest in Discord confirms MIDiA’s prediction

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Karol Severin
In November 2020, we wrote the below in our annual predictions report . “Upping gaming experiences via ‘infrastructural acquisitions’: As non-gaming entertainment increasingly embeds in games, companies will look to upgrade their ecosystems to cater beyond consumers’ gaming needs and instead focus across their entire digital entertainment and social lives.
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How Amazon could enhance its NFL coverage with virtual concert experiences

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Kriss Thakrar
Amazon Prime has acquired the exclusive Thursday Night Football (TNF) rights to 15 NFL games, marking a new era for the world’s most valuable sports league. This shift is a giant step towards the normalisation of live entertainment on SVOD platforms as it takes Amazon’s four-year coverage of TNF beyond digital and into exclusive broadcast territory – making the ecommerce platform the only place to view TNF between 2023 and 2033.
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Addison Rae will not be owned: The pitfalls of the major label business model

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Kriss Thakrar
TikTok stars are rejecting major labels. It is no secret that major labels are being outpaced by independent artists in the overall market. Addison Rae has a combined following of over 100 million between TikTok and Instagram alone, and she has leveraged her position to independently put together an all-star team for her first release.
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Why Roblox is well set to withstand the COVID bounce effect

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Karol Severin
Roblox has launched an initial public offering (IPO) this week. Timing-wise, the twice-delayed IPO aligns with the world getting closer to opening up, and out-of-home competitive pressures returning. This invites questions around how much of the current valuation is aided by a temporary, artificial COVID-related boost, as opposed to fundamental trends which will drive growth for Roblox during the ‘new normal’.
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Recorded music revenues hit $23.1 billion in 2020, with artists direct the winners – again

Cover image for Recorded music revenues hit $23.1 billion in 2020, with artists direct the winners – again
Mark Mulligan
The global pandemic caused widespread disruption to the music business, in particular decimating the live business and impacting publisher public performance royalties. Although the recorded music business experienced a dip in the earlier months of the pandemic, the remainder of the year saw industry revenue rebound, making it the sixth successive year of growth.
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