Blog: Critical Developments

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.

It’s social’s stage now: MIDiA’s 2025 predictions webinar

Cover image for It’s social’s stage now: MIDiA’s 2025 predictions webinar

Mark Mulligan

28 Nov 2024

2025 predictions

One of my favourite parts of the MIDiA year is creating the MIDiA predictions report and webinar. It is always a true team effort, with our team of analysts spending weeks brainstorming ideas, proposing predictions, stress testing those to within an inch of their lives, and then writing the report.

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Beyond the obvious: Building future-focused strategy

Cover image for Beyond the obvious: Building future-focused strategy

Mark Mulligan

11 Oct 2024

Business Strategy

Business strategy has long been demarcated across sustaining and disruptive innovation. In the digital realm, the latter has had the upper hand, but now, as digital enters a slower growth phase, sustaining innovation is back in favour.

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The frequency factor - when daily just isn’t enough

Cover image for The frequency factor - when daily just isn’t enough

Mark Mulligan

22 Jul 2024

Entertainment behaviour

media consumption

Daily Active users

In our digital lives today, we tend to use our favourite apps throughout the day. So, why does the entertainment tech industry still focus on daily, weekly, or, in way too many cases, monthly usage (we’re looking at you, Spotify!).

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Net Neutrality 2.0 - Back to the future or is this something different?

Cover image for Net Neutrality 2.0 - Back to the future or is this something different?

Tim Mulligan

30 Apr 2024

The decision taken last Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to restore the regulated status of open access to the internet has re-ignited the net neutrality wars in the US. In it its official press release , the FCC stated that it had “voted to restore a national standard to ensure the internet is fast, open, and fair.

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Regulatory decisions around AI will shape the future of digital ecosystems

Cover image for Regulatory decisions around AI will shape the future of digital ecosystems

Hanna Kahlert

27 Sep 2023

Looking back, the Francis Haugen testimony spelled a turning point for social platforms. It represents a moment where they, and tech more generally, went from being able to ‘build fast and break things’ with no one really paying attention, to an environment where not only users were watching closely, but regulators were too.

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Social media regulation is imminent; here is how it will shape the future of entertainment

Cover image for Social media regulation is imminent; here is how it will shape the future of entertainment

Hanna Kahlert

24 May 2023

Media and Marketing

Critical Developments

Last week, the US state of Montana banned (new downloads of) TikTok within its borders. This week, the US surgeon general has issued an official advisory about the negative mental health impacts of social media on young people.

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The Meta push for efficiency

Cover image for The Meta push for efficiency

Ashleigh Millar

16 Mar 2023

This week (14th March), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a memo for his employees entitled “ Update on Meta's Year of Efficiency ”, forewarning its upcoming strategy changes, organisational restructuring, and job cuts (10,000 of them).

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The future lies beyond tech – a long(er) read

Cover image for The future lies beyond tech – a long(er) read

Hanna Kahlert

14 Dec 2022

As entertainment companies start planning their next big steps for the coming year, the success and failure of their strategic decisions will hinge on one big, and perhaps surprising, existential question : is this it for the tech industry? Planning for 2023 seems to mean planning for disruption, and this is no easy thing to do – especially given the changes already wrought by the last three years of predominately virtual working.

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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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The cost-of-living crisis is here; it just has not hit entertainment yet

Cover image for The cost-of-living crisis is here; it just has not hit entertainment yet

Hanna Kahlert

31 Aug 2022

The attention crunch in the wake of ended lockdowns and resumption of ‘in real life’ (IRL) activities has not been as pronounced as feared. Hints of it have been visible in the drop in Netflix subscriptions in Q1 of this year, which was also attributed to the war in Ukraine and banning of Russian accounts.

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Andrew Tate, the manosphere and social media platform responsibility

Cover image for Andrew Tate, the manosphere and social media platform responsibility

Ashleigh Millar

30 Aug 2022

Millennials among us may remember Hunter Moore, a man that Rolling Stone aptly named “the most hated man on the internet” , and who is now the subject of Netflix’s recent documentary series of the same title.

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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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Are we headed towards subscription fatigue?

Cover image for Are we headed towards subscription fatigue?

Hanna Kahlert

21 Jul 2022

When streaming first made headway in the entertainment world, it shifted the very dynamic of consumption. Ownership became a status symbol of yester-year; access to everything, at all times , was the new value driver.

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Retention and engagement are both key to streaming resilience in 2022

Cover image for Retention and engagement are both key to streaming resilience in 2022

Tim Mulligan

7 Jun 2022

attention recession

The great video subscriber gains made between the D2C big bang era of 2019 and 2021, and the engagement gains of the Covid-19 pandemic, are being eclipsed by the increasing pressures of the attention economy and the cost of living crisis.

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The Attention Recession: How inflation and the pandemic are reshaping entertainment

Cover image for The Attention Recession: How inflation and the pandemic are reshaping entertainment

Mark Mulligan

25 May 2022

attention recession

Attention economy

Media and Marketing

Netflix and Meta were the canaries in the proverbial mine for the attention recession and it is looking increasingly likely that difficult times lie ahead. If the attention crunch was not enough on its own, it has been compounded by the perfect storm of headwinds: the cost of living crisis, rising interest rates, energy and global grain supply constraints, and the Russo-Ukrainian war.

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Webinar: Games companies’ video opportunity

Cover image for Webinar: Games companies’ video opportunity

Karol Severin

3 Mar 2022

Traditionally, games companies predominantly used games video for marketing purposes. This made perfect sense in the era of unit sales and early-adoption stages of games-related video. Today, 30% of console gamers view games-related videos every month.

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Quick Take: Spotify Expands Premium Duo into Latin America

Zach Fuller

5 Sep 2019

latin America music market

latin America streaming

Music streaming

Spotify has announced that its Premium Duo plan will be expanding to another 17 countries, 14 of which are in Latin America. The plan, which is effectively a mini version of its popular family offering, has been created with the express intention of servicing couples who reside at the same home address.

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Why Spotify and Netflix Need to Worry About a Global Recession

Mark Mulligan

23 Aug 2019

economic downturn

entertainment spend

global recession

A growing body of economists is becoming increasingly convinced that a global recession is edging closer. The last time we experienced a global economic downturn was the 2008 credit crunch. Although the coming recession will likely be a bigger shock to the global economy, it nonetheless gives us a baseline for what happens to consumer spending habits.

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Should Streaming Services Produce TV Shows in a Linear Format?

Amanda Stears

17 Jul 2019

Game of Thrones

Streaming video on demand (SVOD) giant Netflix is famous for cultivating the binge-watch phenomenon, fuelled by the popularity of its originals. In the pre-streaming era, people were dependent on traditional scheduled TV for engaging with TV shows.

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Privacy Concerns and Digital Advertisers: Why Brands That Demand Attention Will Lose out in the Post-Peak Shift of the Attention Economy

Hanna Kahlert

16 Jul 2019

attention economy peak

digital marketer

digital marketing

Mid-2019 sees the digital market mid-quagmire. The saturation of the attention economy is driving further and further competition between brands to create propositions that can stand out enough to earn adoption, in a market where overwhelming choice vastly outweighs the total adoption potential of consumers.

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