Blog: coronavirus

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.

Staggered vaccine rollouts will prime entertainment for (further, faster) innovation

Cover image for Staggered vaccine rollouts will prime entertainment for (further, faster) innovation

Hanna Kahlert

4 May 2021

Media and Marketing

The ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ of COVID-19 is theoretically drawing closer. Yet, as we blogged about last week , staggered vaccine rollouts mean that the ‘new normal’ will begin for some consumers sooner than others – painting a year-ahead picture of a global marketplace as different and difficult to predict as from this time last year.

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Live streaming and the role of music artist empowerment in the digital era

Cover image for Live streaming and the role of music artist empowerment in the digital era

Hanna Kahlert

19 Oct 2020

Music streaming

As the coronavirus lockdowns have forced venues to close and people indoors, artists have been unevenly impacted across the music industry. While many bigger studios were forced to cease operations, and some artists unable to release or record music – often relying on previous recordings they could still send to post-production – smaller independent artists took advantage of being home-bound.

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Zombies and vaporwave: Consumer vibes in 2020

Cover image for Zombies and vaporwave: Consumer vibes in 2020

Hanna Kahlert

12 Sep 2020

News has become culturally vital in 2020. In a year of global health, social and economic disruption, it now possesses a relevant edge to compete vigorously for consumer attention in a saturated content marketplace.

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Return of the fan: COVID-19 thwarts fan pilot sporting events amid regional spikes in cases

Cover image for Return of the fan: COVID-19 thwarts fan pilot sporting events amid regional spikes in cases

Alistair Taylor

6 Aug 2020

Just when sports fans thought it was safe to go back into the water, COVID reared its ugly head once more. UK fan pilot sporting events were all set to start allowing fans back into arenas and attend live events, but government restrictions have now been re-imposed to limit the spread of coronavirus, crippling any chances of normality resuming in the near-term.

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New Webinar on What Comes After Lockdown

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Mark Mulligan

9 Jun 2020

Want to know what happens in the post-Lockdown era? Join us for our free-to-attend Recovery Economics webinar tomorrow (Wednesday 10thJune) at 4pm BST / 11am EST / 8am PT for insight on music, radio, games, TV, sports and media.

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Travis Scott has Only Scratched the Surface of Music Games Tie Ups

Cover image for Travis Scott has Only Scratched the Surface of Music Games Tie Ups

Mark Mulligan

1 May 2020

In February 2019 Marshmello caused ripples of almost tidal proportions across the music business when 10.7 million Fortnite fans watched him perform a ‘concert’ in the game. Then in April 2020 Travis Scott followed in his shoes with his own Fortnite concert, pulling in 12 million players.

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Spotify Q1 2020: Choppy Waters Ahead

Mark Mulligan

29 Apr 2020

Spotify’s first quarter earnings were a mixed bag, with a largely positive picture for Q1 but some warning signs for the remainder of the year: Subscribers: Spotify’s Q1 earnings may not have matched Netflix’s for over-performance but subscriptions did show over performance, reaching 130 million, one million above MIDiA’s pre-COVID forecasts.

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Lockdown Listening and the Independent Artist

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Mark Mulligan

24 Apr 2020

coronavirus covid-19

After an initial lockdown lull, streaming levels are – on the surface – beginning to normalise. Underlying the macro-level normalisation, ‘lockdown listening’ is in fact resulting in dramatic shifts in listening behaviour, from using the commute time for activities other than listening to music, through using smart devices to listen at home to spending more time on YouTube.

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Streaming Services Are Going to Have to Change Their MO

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Mark Mulligan

17 Apr 2020

New music is the fuel in the streaming engine, creating a virtuous circle of increased label and artist output to meet DSP-stimulated user demand. Now though, with COVID-19 disrupting the production of music, everything is set to change.

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The COVID Bounce: Part II

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Mark Mulligan

2 Apr 2020

coronavirus consumer behaviour

In their early stages, COVID-19 self-isolation measures have quickly created new consumer behaviour patterns, oriented around four key axes: Communication Entertainment Information/news Education (for children at home) The demand for the first two of these behaviour groups is clearly illustrated by the mobile apps that consumers are downloading.

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The COVID Bounce: How COVID-19 is Reshaping Entertainment Demand

Cover image for The COVID Bounce: How COVID-19 is Reshaping Entertainment Demand

Mark Mulligan

27 Mar 2020

The economic disruption and social dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is not evenly distributed. Some business face catastrophe, while others thrive. Across the entertainment industries the same is true, ranging from a temporary collapse of the live business through to a surge in gaming activity.

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Film Studios Pause Production; Is This the New Era of Anime?

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Hanna Kahlert

26 Mar 2020

animated content

With national lockdowns becoming the norm and the majority of nonessential workers being sent to work remotely, the video industry is set for some interesting changes over the next few months. As recently published in MIDiA Research’s report, COVID-19 | Entertainment and Leisure Industry Impact Assessment (a free, redacted version available for download here ), the new landscape will be a mixed bag for video content.

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Disney+ Launches in the UK on the First Day of a National Lockdown

Tim Mulligan

24 Mar 2020

The last two weeks have been dramatic for public companies in the wake of extreme investor reactions to the still unknown long-term economic impacts of the global coronavirus pandemic. However, media major Disney is in the fortunate position of launching its family-centric Disney+ streaming service in the UK on the first day of a UK national lockdown, with kids now being home-schooled and parents nervous about their financial futures particularly disposed towards the competitive pricing deals being offered for year-long subscription discounts.

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How COVID-19 Will Affect the Media Industries

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Mark Mulligan

23 Mar 2020

coronavirus impact

coronavirus impact on media

The spread of COVID-19, and the responses of industry and governments alike, is unprecedented. It is, however, the restrictions on movement of people along with the response of consumers and investors that is causing the biggest disruption and will have the most impact on entertainment businesses.

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Kingdom: Global Events Correlate with Show Awareness

Cover image for Kingdom: Global Events Correlate with Show Awareness

Hanna Kahlert

19 Mar 2020

Chart Of The Week

From George Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead to the more recent Walking Dead, to even Game of Thrones’ whitewalkers, zombies have been a cultural zeitgeist metaphorically teasing at our inner fears about humanity at large for decades.

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Why Games Could Benefit from Coronavirus

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Karol Severin

17 Mar 2020

Yes, it’s another coronavirus-related one, but this time hopefully a more cheerful story than what we’ve been reading and hearing over the last few weeks – at least for gamers and the games industry.

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How Coronavirus Will Affect the Entertainment Industries

Cover image for How Coronavirus Will Affect the Entertainment Industries

Mark Mulligan

12 Mar 2020

coronavirus going out

coronavirus recession

The coronavirus is a global pandemic . Regardless of what its actual infection and mortality rates might be, it is already having seismic impacts on stock markets and consumer behaviour – the result of which might be to tip the global economy into recession.

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Marketplace Pandemic: How Will Media Companies Fare in a Recession?

Cover image for Marketplace Pandemic: How Will Media Companies Fare in a Recession?

Hanna Kahlert

11 Mar 2020

With the 9 th of March dubbed by market analysts as “Black Monday” after S&P and Nasdaq suffered the worst share falls since the 2008 financial crisis, seeing trading briefly suspended before resuming with all three major stock markets down over 6%, the market is clearly in a volatile place.

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