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.

Tribes are the future of fandom (and that may or may not be a good thing)

Cover image for Tribes are the future of fandom (and that may or may not be a good thing)
Mark Mulligan
Fandom
Tribes
Media and Marketing
At MIDiA, we spend a lot of time exploring the fan economy and how new forms of fandom are redefining media businesses. The most significant underlying dynamic is the fragmentation of fandom: the dynamic whereby we move ever further from mass-reach media, where everyone is exposed to the same content, to a world where entertainment exists in a complex mesh of filter bubbles.
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Reality check: NFTs are still niche, but they do have mainstream potential

Cover image for Reality check: NFTs are still niche, but they do have mainstream potential
Karol Severin
NFT
Games
Audience Insight
The rise of NFTs has certainly been one of the talks of 2021. Looking at emerging trends and then separating the hype from the substance is MIDiA’s specialty. This is particularly pertinent as the most hyped trends are often labelled as ‘going mainstream’ too early, which can be a misleading label that causes stakeholders to over-focus or over-invest on the trend too soon.
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Facebook is about to disrupt itself out of existence…again

Cover image for Facebook is about to disrupt itself out of existence…again
Mark Mulligan
Meta
Facebook
metaverse
Facebook’s rebranding to Meta can be interpreted in many ways. It can be seen as: following Google / Alphabet’s lead in communicating a new chapter in its business; putting distance between the company and its most well-known app, ahead of it beginning to decline; shifting the story away from whistleblower and ethics narratives; signalling a major strategic reboot.
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Lean-in is the future because it is the past

Cover image for Lean-in is the future because it is the past
Hanna Kahlert
Cultural trends
Engagement
Entertainment
The modern mantra of “kids these days” might (in the industry) typically finish with something like “ are killing good music ” or “are on TikTok too much”. The strategists developing the future of propositions look at the ‘silver streamers’ (aged 55+), who over-index for home speakers, pay-TV viewing (now binge-viewing), and slow adoption, and see a continuation of the passive consumption model of entertainment with a digital twist.
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EA’s exclusive FIFA license is under threat as games go cross-entertainment

Cover image for EA’s exclusive FIFA license is under threat as games go cross-entertainment
Karol Severin
FIFA
EA
football
Last week it was reported that FIFA and EA are at an impasse regarding the renewal negotiations of an exclusive license deal. EA stated that it is considering renaming its flagship football title, while FIFA responded with a press release stating that “the future of gaming and esports for football stakeholders must involve more than one party controlling and exploiting all the rights’’ This is less about who is right and who is wrong, and more about the synergy of this once symbiotic partnership having run its course.
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Quick take: What the Apple event’s creator focus means for lean-in entertainment

Cover image for Quick take: What the Apple event’s creator focus means for lean-in entertainment
Hanna Kahlert
creator tools
apple event
mainstream
The October 18th Apple event –for all its usual showmanship – did not have anything hugely innovative to unveil. New colours of the Apple HomePod, a new tier of AirPods, and the return of MagSafe charging, distinctive input ports, and actual keys instead of a touchpad on the upgraded MacBook Pros were the main highlights (aside from the new M1 chip, which was unveiled at the last event and has since merely been upgraded and put into more devices).
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Adele’s success will be best measured in cultural impact – not sales

Cover image for Adele’s success will be best measured in cultural impact – not sales
Mark Mulligan
adele
30
Streaming
Adele is something of an anomaly in the modern music business, a throwback to how things used to be. These days even the biggest artists struggle to get mainstream attention for their new releases in a flooded market that is defined by more releases than ever before, and the ‘always on’ artist who is continually releasing new music and talking to their audience.
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The key winners and losers of the Covid-bounce effect in games

Cover image for The key winners and losers of the Covid-bounce effect in games
Karol Severin
games engagement
Fortnite
Roblox
As we have covered before, games engagement began to experience effects of the Covid-bounce . As usual, however, there are winners and losers within the wider micro-dynamics. The following graph demonstrates how 20 key games franchises fared in the US between Q2 2020 and Q2 2021, in terms of consumer penetration growth: Roblox and Rockstar are the biggest winners Roblox grew 49% in penetration year on year.
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