Blog - Page 21

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.

Why increased ad-based engagement is hampering Netflix’s revenue growth

Tim Mulligan

16 Jan 2024

Netflix Netflix ARPU Growth Netflix basic with ads

Speaking at the Variety Entertainment Summit in Las Vegas, Netflix’s president of advertising, Amy Reinhard, revealed that the company now has more than 23 million monthly active users globally on its ad tier (up from the 15 million announced in November 2023 one year after launching the plan ).

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For years, we said to take games efforts of these companies seriously – now they are serious players

Karol Severin

12 Jan 2024

Netflix Apple Arcade Games

MIDiA has always been bullish about traditionally non-gaming tech companies’ opportunity in games. The first time we wrote about Netflix’s opportunity in games was in 2017. We also wrote about the significance of Apple Arcade early on ( here , here , and reiterated reasons for the games industry...

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Here is how livestreaming can pay its way in 2024 – and creators will not like it

Ben Woods

11 Jan 2024

livestreaming Twitch Creator economy

Twitch has become the latest company to provide a sobering outlook for the creator economy. On Wednesday (January 11th, 2024)chief executive Dan Clancy confirmed press rumours that Twitch would be cutting more than 500 staff from its workforce.

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The slow-TV opportunity

Samuel Griffin

11 Jan 2024

Video Product Strategy

Since its debut in 2010, Netflix’s Fireplace for Your Home – consisting of three one-hour long episodes of crackling, rolling, digital flames – has been a semi-popular release on the platform. This year, for the first time, however, the show made it into the global top 10 most watched shows du...

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Why the era of spatial computing will need its entertainment moment

Tim Mulligan

11 Jan 2024

spatial computing VisionPro Apple

On Monday, Apple announced the February 2ndlaunch date for the Vision Pro. For those unfamiliar with this hybrid augmented reality virtual reality device, it is, in the words of the press release : “A revolutionary spatial computer that transforms how people work, collaborate, connect, relive memo...

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Are we approaching an analogue revival?

Hanna Kahlert

11 Jan 2024

analogue dvds Vinyl

It is now 2024 (yikes), and New Year’s resolutions are making the rounds. Anecdotally, at least seven of us at MIDiA have resolved to go more analogue this year. More broadly, many people, alongside the traditional attempts to go to the gym more or do ‘Dry January’, seem to be opting to cut do...

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Podcasts have a recommendation problem

Rutger Rosenborg

10 Jan 2024

Audio Podcasts Algorithms

Podcasts do not go viral. A video clip of an out-of-touch tech billionaire stoking controversy might make the rounds on social media, but podcasts themselves — at least since the Serial phenomenon — do not “trend” in the same way that Netflix shows, products on TikTok, and Spotify tracks do.

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Smart TV operators are gamifying engagement – here is how they can dial it up a notch

Ben Woods

4 Jan 2024

Smart TV Sky roku

Tracking Father Christmas’ journey on a smartphone app is a festive tradition of the modern era. Much like leaving a carrot out for Rudolf, many families are now logging on come Christmas Eve to keep tabs on his progress via different tracking apps.

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Like Netflix, music needs a ‘second screen’ strategy

Tatiana Cirisano

4 Jan 2024

Music streaming Netflix SVOD

The attention economy is more competitive than ever, with all entertainment types increasingly competing with each other for the same finite time. This has led to new levels of multitasking, like listening to a podcast while doing the daily Wordle, or online shopping from your iPhone while catching ...

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Audiobooks enter their streaming era, but will it pay off?

Rutger Rosenborg

3 Jan 2024

Audiobooks Spotify Streaming

Most people agree that streaming saved the recorded music industry, but that only happened because demonetised digital consumption helped bring it to the brink of death in the first place. The internet has also helped gut print media over the last two decades.

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Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse and the blending of fan and franchise

Hanna Kahlert

3 Jan 2024

Disney mickey mouse copyright

Long known for its strict intellectual property strategy, Disney is seeing one of its core characters – the 1928 version of Mickey Mouse – enter the public domain, presenting an excellent case study on how fan engagement in entertainment has evolved in today's digital age.

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Despite its hyper-futurism, 2023 was a return to the past

Tatiana Cirisano

21 Dec 2023

Social media Music creators fragmentation

From politics to tech to entertainment, the past few years can best be described as unprecedented. In 2023, daily life felt especially futuristic and surreal, with artificial intelligence dominating the discourse.

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Will 2024 be the year of podcast unbundling?

Rutger Rosenborg

21 Dec 2023

Podcasts spotify podcasts Spotify

Before Spotify, YouTube, and Netflix disrupted music and video, bundled consumption helped drive profitability. From albums to TV networks, consumer preferences were largely dictated by the bundle, allowing record labels and television providers to leverage the fact that consumers would pay a lot fo...

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Who will be the winners in video as the walled gardens of entertainment recede?

Ben Woods

21 Dec 2023

YouTube Paramount+ Amazon

Protectionist measures that kept the streaming wars alive are being wound back. Licenced content is back in vogue, despite streaming TV being built on exclusive shows. Competitive tensions are cooling as entertainment looks to bundle services to combat the cost-of-living crisis, and super aggregator...

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2024 will be a year of change (as if there has not been enough already)

Hanna Kahlert

19 Dec 2023

2024 AI Streaming

Four years ago today, the Covid-19 pandemic was but a rumour on the wind. Since then, it would be an understatement to say that much has changed. Digital entertainment consumption boomed and rapidly overwhelmed all forms of activity, making it almost hard to remember what entertainment was like pre-...

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Predicting what happens next in video….

Tim Mulligan

19 Dec 2023

2024 predictions video predictions OpenAI

If 2023 was the year of consolidation in video, 2024 is poised to be one of experimentation and disruption. First up, the lag in content output as a result of this year’s writers and actors strikes left significant gaps in new content.

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More games will need to grow time spent in 2024 – what type of research can help do it?

Karol Severin

18 Dec 2023

research Strategy time spent

While the new year is usually a time for hope and new beginnings, 2024 may not necessarily be smoother sailing for the global games industry than 2023. Yes, companies have experienced reduced operational expenditure following thousands of layoffs and are not entering the new year with as much of a c...

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MIDiA’s 2024 predictions: The algorithm is not listening

Mark Mulligan

18 Dec 2023

midia predictions 2024 predictions tech predictions

November is one of my favourite times of year, as an analyst anyways. Why? Because it is when the MIDiA team pool their collective brainpower to formulate our end-of-year predictions. What gives our predictions their unique angle is that they are constructed within an inter-connected framework, fact...

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How back catalogue shows can soften the blow from the Hollywood strikes in 2024

Ben Woods

15 Dec 2023

Netflix NBC Universal Hollywood Strikes

It is that time of year when MIDiA Research makes its annual predictions for 2024 . While there is a strong track record of accuracy, there will always be unforeseen opportunities and challenges that boost and buffet the music, video, and games industry over the next 12 months.

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Podcasts are following in the footsteps of TV and film…. should they?

Rutger Rosenborg

14 Dec 2023

Spotify Netflix Podcasts

Spotify’s 17 percent workforce reduction was one of the biggest headlines in music, audio, and tech last week. Those layoffs coincided with the cancelation of some of the most critically-acclaimed podcasts to come out of Spotify’s acquisition drive: Heavyweight and Stolen .

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