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.

TV advertising vs. lockdown hiatus: Welcome to the Super Bowl LV

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Tim Mulligan
Online video
Sports
advertising
This coming Sunday will see the most financially important domestic sports event on the planet take place when the Super Bowl LV is hosted in the Florida city of Tampa. The Raymond James Stadium will see defending champions Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (which is the first time in history a team will play a Super Bowl hosted in their own stadium) in the culmination of the American Football season.
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Equitable remuneration, artist income and unintended consequences

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Mark Mulligan
Streaming economy
streaming inquiry
equitable remuneration
The UK Parliament’s inquiry on the economics of streaming appears to be building a case for equitable remuneration (ER). There are many iterations of what ER can mean, but a simplified description of what is in play here is: a share of streaming revenue being paid directly by the DSPs to an entity which then distributes directly to artists, thus bypassing the whole ‘do labels pay artists enough’ debate.
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Women making music

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Hanna Kahlert
Music
Women
diversity
Even taking into account the impact of the pandemic, it has never been a better time for independent creators in the music business. The various 2020 lockdowns may have prevented artists from earning vital touring income and disrupted release and promotion cycles, but for many it also pushed new creativity, with nearly 70% of independent artists choosing to use the time to write or make new music.
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Football looks to build digital engagement through Fortnite collaboration

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Alistair Taylor
endeavor
IMG
WME
Endeavor-owned IMG, acting as Epic Games’ licensing representative, has brokered deals with 23 football clubs to appear in the publisher’s free-to-play battle royale-style game Fortnite. Looking to capitalise on an increasingly valuable market, with diversifying revenue streams a paramount objective, sport is starting to play its way into the world of micropayments and in-app purchases, turning fandom into revenue .
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Netflix as blockbuster behemoth?

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Tim Mulligan
Netflix
Netflix Q4 Results
SVOD
Today Netflix announces its Q4 2020 results. Widely recognised as one of the standout business winners of 2020, Netflix avoided any D2C ‘Big Bang ’disruption by seeing its dominant streaming video position enhanced through the 1 5% of additional entertainment time which suddenly became available to consumers during the successive waves of lockdown which were rolled out by governments across the world to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Is this the beginning of the end for Instagram?

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Hanna Kahlert
Media and Marketing
Cultural trends
It has been a rocky month for social media – and a not-so-promising beginning to a new year. Years of debate have raged over the role of platforms like Facebook and Twitter in the content they host, and the impact it has – ranging from filter bubbles, to “fake news”, to campaigns against minority groups resulting in violence in Myanmar , have all brought to bear the responsibility of becoming mainstream portals to the Internet of Everything.
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Virtual concerts: A new video format

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Mark Mulligan
The global pandemic thrust the live music sector into chaos, with global revenues falling by 75% in 2020 compared to one year previously. The music industry was rocked by first-order impacts (no concerts, no fan engagement) and second-order impacts (many artists realising that streaming did not add up without live income alongside it).
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