Blog: Attention economy

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.

Can the smart TV become a canvas for content creation?

Cover image for Can the smart TV become a canvas for content creation?

Ben Woods

21 Feb 2025

Audience Insight

YouTube’s growing strength on smart TVs is a head scratching moment for the video industry. The social video platform recently revealed that US consumers watched 1 billion hours of YouTube content daily on their smart TVs in December 2024.

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The case for more digestable games: Over a third of console and PC gamers play LESS than 5 hours a week

Cover image for The case for more digestable games: Over a third of console and PC gamers play LESS than 5 hours a week

Rhys Elliott

20 Feb 2025

The attention economy is oversaturated. Games are not just competingwith other games but with TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, and well ... life. But the games industry – especially premium games on console and PC – has a unique twofold challenge: Supply : New AAA games can take five years or more to make (and often have budgets in the hundreds of millions) Demand : Player attention and play time are already maxed out MIDiA’s consumer research for Q4 2024 underlines just how little time consumers have to play.

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How PlayStation broke its hardware and active user records in Q4

Cover image for How PlayStation broke its hardware and active user records in Q4

Rhys Elliott

13 Feb 2025

Business Strategy

Sony released its financial results for calendar Q4 2024. Here are the high-level results: Sony generated revenues of $27.9 billion As always, its Game & Network Services (G&NS) Segment – PlayStation – was the biggest segment (38%) Sony Music accounted for 11% and Sony Pictures for 9% of revenue share respectively We'll be focusing on PlayStation for the rest of the article.

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The unflattening of music

Cover image for The unflattening of music

Mark Mulligan

30 Jan 2025

Cultural trends

[This post builds on two other recent MIDiA posts: Background music and What got you here ] At the half way point of the decade it is a good time to reflect on how the business of music is reshaping the culture of music – and where this is heading.

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What Drake got wrong — and right — with 100 Gigs

Cover image for What Drake got wrong — and right — with 100 Gigs

Tatiana Cirisano

15 Aug 2024

fragmented fandom

Bifurcation theory

On August 6th , with no prior announcement, Drake unloaded 100 gigabytes’ worth of content, including songs and video clips, to a personal website and directed fans there via his Instagram burner account.

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The case for shorter games

Cover image for The case for shorter games

Karol Severin

11 Jul 2024

Attention economy

Following the post-pandemic slowdown of global games revenue growth, cost-cutting measures are now in full force. However, games continue to grow in scope and length, with budgets often exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars.

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The state of the attention economy: why don’t fan-first platforms work?

Cover image for The state of the attention economy: why don’t fan-first platforms work?

Hanna Kahlert

5 Jun 2024

The music industry is increasingly looking to fan-first solutions to drive its next era of growth (and solve artists’ financial woes), with all eyes towards the Taylor Swift model of fan frenzy. At the heart of this quest is a tension inherent in the ‘everything everywhere all the time’ model.

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We need ‘real’ artists for the return to reality

Cover image for We need ‘real’ artists for the return to reality

Kriss Thakrar

1 May 2024

The big theme of MIDiA’s 2024 predictions is that ‘ the algorithm is not listening ’. A third of the way into the year, we are seeing more and more evidence that this is the case. The past few years have seen social media feeds become hyper-personalised to the point where algorithms now know us too intimately.

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Like Netflix, music needs a ‘second screen’ strategy

Cover image for Like Netflix, music needs a ‘second screen’ strategy

Tatiana Cirisano

4 Jan 2024

Music streaming

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 up on The Crown .

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Clutter versus curation: The cure to entertainment’s attention saturation woes

Cover image for Clutter versus curation: The cure to entertainment’s attention saturation woes

Hanna Kahlert

18 Aug 2023

digital saturatoin

Attention economy

Across digital content –be that music, TV, social video, or just photos on Instagram – algorithms favour a “more is more” approach. More content, more often, means better visibility, better discovery, and better monetisation opportunities.

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Misaligned incentives make the music business a zero-sum game

Cover image for Misaligned incentives make the music business a zero-sum game

Tatiana Cirisano

17 Aug 2023

streaming services

“Pop Stars Aren’t Popping Like They Used To”, Billboard ’s Elias Leight writes in a recent article, in which record label executives stress over the struggle to break new artists. The article (or at least, the headline) stirred up a storm on Twitter — ahem, X — last week, where many users took the opportunity to slam record labels’ misguided focus on virality.

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Live services: Is the success of the few clouding the strategic judgement of the many?

Cover image for Live services: Is the success of the few clouding the strategic judgement of the many?

Perry Gresham

19 May 2023

microtransactions

EA are heavily committed to the live service model, with their earnings release for financial year ending March 2023 putting their share of games revenues from full game purchases at just 26%, meaning that 74% came from live services and other revenue sources.

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Spotify’s vertical feed could change music discovery, but not for the reason you think

Cover image for Spotify’s vertical feed could change music discovery, but not for the reason you think

Tatiana Cirisano

9 Mar 2023

Music streaming

Just a few years ago, Spotify’s Rap Caviar playlist was a harbinger for culture. But a lot has changed. Artists want (and need) to build deeper relationships with fans, and gen Z consumers want more active content experiences.

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Artificial 'intelligence' is the new smartphone (for better and for worse)

Cover image for Artificial 'intelligence' is the new smartphone (for better and for worse)

Hanna Kahlert

11 Jan 2023

Media and Marketing

Long have we awaited the coming of the next new smartphone moment . 2022 saw some false starts: the metaverse, NFTs, VR (again). All have lingered in the shadows of their own potential, with no real momentum elsewhere.

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The YouTube advantage: How social video platforms could seize the podcast market

Cover image for The YouTube advantage: How social video platforms could seize the podcast market

Annie Langston

7 Dec 2022

After launching a podcasts page for US users in August, YouTube is debuting its first official trends podcast . Like & Describe: The Official YouTube Trends Podcast is hosted by Matpat , a long-time YouTuber with 16.

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Welcome to the era of attention inflation

Cover image for Welcome to the era of attention inflation

Perry Gresham

2 Sep 2022

attention inflation

attention recession

The covid pandemic and associated lockdown dynamic allowed entertainment consumption to reach new heights amongst a temporary surplus of free time. However, after restrictions eased, consumers found the constraints on their newfound time tighten, and had to make sacrifices, often preferring to return to real life activities at the expense of digital entertainment.

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If the future of entertainment is niche, how does the Meta approach fit in?

Cover image for If the future of entertainment is niche, how does the Meta approach fit in?

Hanna Kahlert

3 Aug 2022

The last week has undoubtedly been a hectic one for the developers of Instagram, which recently began trialling a TikTok-esque, video-first focus on its app to some users. The update was not well received, with Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian themselves coming out and sharing the plea to “make Instagram Instagram again”.

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The attention recession meets the economic recession

Cover image for The attention recession meets the economic recession

Mark Mulligan

22 Jul 2022

attention recession

cost-of-living crisis

We are living in uncertain times. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting consumers’ pockets, driven by rising fuel and food prices. The effects of the pandemic are still present, the global economy may be entering a recession, and the geo-political landscape is being increasingly shaped by conflict.

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Twitter versus Musk will decide the future of social

Cover image for Twitter versus Musk will decide the future of social

Hanna Kahlert

14 Jul 2022

In a turn of events, Elon Musk has backed out of his dramatic, very public proposal to buy Twitter. It is a broken courtship characterised by bad-faith public exchanges , on-platform polls, and plot twists.

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The future of entertainment innovation lies in exclusive experiences, not content

Cover image for The future of entertainment innovation lies in exclusive experiences, not content

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jun 2022

Media and Marketing

In the age before digital engagement went mainstream, entertainment had clear access channels and multiple price points. Video was able to rely on movie tickets, (expensive) TV sets, and the individual purchases of cable subscriptions, video tapes, DVDs, Blu-rays, and their associated equipment; the closest equivalent to subscriptions were Blockbuster or Netflix DVD rental memberships.

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