Blog: d2c

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.

Disney’s direct-to-consumer business is now profitable – so what comes next?

Cover image for Disney’s direct-to-consumer business is now profitable – so what comes next?

Tim Mulligan

7 May 2024

direct-to-consumer

Today, Disney announced its fiscal second quarter 2024 financial results (calendar Q1 2024). All eyes were on the Entertainment Segment, where its direct-to-consumer (D2C) division matched MIDiA’s call that it would finally post its first ever operating profit four and a half years after the launch of Disney+.

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Expect Warner Bros. Discovery’s forthcoming full year 2023 results to open up vital strategic choices

Cover image for Expect Warner Bros. Discovery’s forthcoming full year 2023 results to open up vital strategic choices

Tim Mulligan

20 Feb 2024

Warner Bros. Discovery

On Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will announce its full year 2023 financial results to investors in its fourth quarter 2023 earnings call . It is going to make for hard reading by both investors and WBD senior management alike.

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The engagement dilemma means that film has to embrace the future

Cover image for The engagement dilemma means that film has to embrace the future

Tim Mulligan

6 Dec 2022

hybrid entertainment

Hollywood is in flux right now, with producers such as Jason Blum taking to social media andexpressing their frustrations: “Gotta get out to those movie theatres folks. We don’t want to be streamed to death!” Agents representing film talent (both acting and production) are busy lobbying the leading direct-to-consumer (D2C) services to prioritise theatrical releases over straight-to-streaming releases for significant productions.

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Disney’s latest results means the media major is now at an inflection point

Cover image for Disney’s latest results means the media major is now at an inflection point

Tim Mulligan

16 Aug 2022

Ad-support Subscriptions

Last week’s Q3 22 (calendar Q2 22) earnings represented a high point in Disney’s transition to streaming juggernaut. With its number of global direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscribers now higher than Netflix, the media major is way ahead of its April 2019 pre-Disney+ launch commitment of achieving 60-90 million Disney+ subscribers by FY 2024.

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Why entertainment could reach new levels of fragmentation in 2022

Cover image for Why entertainment could reach new levels of fragmentation in 2022

Hanna Kahlert

6 Apr 2022

Since the direct-to-consumer (D2C) ‘big bang moment’ of video in 2019, entertainment propositions have been multiplying rapidly across all entertainment genres. This is about to become critical as the attention economy constricts post-Covid, with the return of ‘in real life’ (IRL) activities and remote working driving increased screen fatigue.

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Why the markets are wrong about Paramount

Cover image for Why the markets are wrong about Paramount

Tim Mulligan

22 Feb 2022

Last Tuesday’s investor’s day presentation by Sheri Redstone, the chair of ViacomCBS and the president of National Amusements, should have been a milestone for the future of the media major. The event was held to announce the rebranding of the company to Paramount (the iconic name of its flagship production business) and a reiteration of the entity’s determination to focus on its streaming-first future.

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Why it is becoming more difficult to acquire video subscribers for Netflix in 2022

Cover image for Why it is becoming more difficult to acquire video subscribers for Netflix in 2022

Tim Mulligan

25 Jan 2022

Netflix Q4 21 earnings

Last Thursday’s Q4 earnings result for Netflix was badly received. This was despite the strong financial results, which announced that the year-on-year revenues were up by 19.2%, reaching $29.5 billion (an 18.

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The next evolution of direct-to-fan will be fan-to-fan

Cover image for The next evolution of direct-to-fan will be fan-to-fan

Tatiana Cirisano

10 Jan 2022

Last month, we wrote about creator burnout and the need for more sustainable paths toward financial stability for artists. The abundance of creator platforms has opened the door for anyone to share their music, but it has also turned artists (and other creators) into 24/7 content creation machines who are racing against the ever-rising pace of consumption and whittling attention spans.

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The key strategic drivers that will shape D2C video in 2022

Cover image for The key strategic drivers that will shape D2C video in 2022

Tim Mulligan

4 Jan 2022

We are one week away from the Hybrid Futures | MIDiA 2022 Predictions Webinar ,where the MIDiA Research team will be going through the big trends that are sweeping across digital entertainment in 2022.

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Peacock arrives to disrupt the European streaming market

Cover image for Peacock arrives to disrupt the European streaming market

Tim Mulligan

16 Nov 2021

Today, November 16th, Peacock finally arrives in Europe with its soft launch in the UK and Ireland via Comcast’s European subsidiary, Sky. At no additional cost, Peacock will be made available to Sky TV and NOW Entertainment members in the UK and Ireland.

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ViacomCBS points the way to D2C sustainability

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Tim Mulligan

10 Nov 2021

The streaming video revolution over the previous two years is busy transforming from growth at any cost, towards establishing a viable path to exist beyond the current surge of investment. The ultimate business objective is for streaming to be seen as viable post-broadcast business model for the transitioning media majors that still dominate TV and film.

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Why HBO Max needs to invest in the new global hit model

Cover image for Why HBO Max needs to invest in the new global hit model

Tim Mulligan

26 Oct 2021

Last week, the AT&T Q3 earnings announcement revealed that HBO Max has now reached 69.4 million subscribers (up 12.5 million from last year, and up 1.9 million from the previous quarter). Today, HBO Max went live in the Nordics and Spain, beginning its 27-territory rollout in Europe.

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What YouTube TV’s stand-off with NBCU reveals about phase 2 of D2C disruption

Cover image for What YouTube TV’s stand-off with NBCU reveals about phase 2 of D2C disruption

Tim Mulligan

29 Sep 2021

YouTube TV’s stand-off with NBCU is approaching decision-making time, as tomorrow, September 30th, is the cut-off point for the streaming platform to meet the distribution terms of NBCU. If no agreement is reached, then YouTube TV subscribers will lose access to a wide range of NBCU channels, from regional sports networks to NBC, SyFy, USA, and Bravo, among others.

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Could HBO Max disrupt Europe?

Cover image for Could HBO Max disrupt Europe?

Tim Mulligan

10 Sep 2021

On October 26th, HBO Max will establish its European beachhead, which is launching inSweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain and Andorra. The D2C video service will then roll out in 2022 into Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

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Netflix versus Amazon Prime Video – depth versus breadth

Cover image for Netflix versus Amazon Prime Video – depth versus breadth

Tim Mulligan

10 Jun 2021

The first half of 2021 has been a year of continued change and disruption for subscription video. The global incumbent subscription video on demand (SVOD) leaders, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, have been busy signalling to the financial markets how they intend to entrench their market dominance in light of the ongoing market acquisition pushes unleashed by the D2C disruptors following the D2C ‘big bang’ moment of Q4 2019 – Q2 2021.

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Why video streaming needs to stop fighting the last consumer war

Cover image for Why video streaming needs to stop fighting the last consumer war

Tim Mulligan

28 May 2021

Silver Streamer

Video streaming services have achieved mainstream engagement, with binge viewing now eclipsing linear TV viewing as the leading form of TV show consumption. While the digital disruptors may revel in their newfound status as the masters of TV consumption, and the TV and film industry are forced to adapt to this new reality, a subtler shift in mindset needs to occur.

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The rise of the silver streamer

Cover image for The rise of the silver streamer

Tim Mulligan

11 May 2021

Silver Streamer

Video streaming

MIDiA’s webinar last month on future-proofing growth and curtailing subscriber churn post-pandemic focused on the emerging trends which will define the next year as we emerge from the COVID crisis, and how to retain newly-acquired streamers gained during the great lockdown boom of 2020/21.

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Why Netflix is now the canary in the peak streaming coal mine

Cover image for Why Netflix is now the canary in the peak streaming coal mine

Tim Mulligan

5 May 2021

After 10 years of uninterrupted growth, culminating in the entertainment bonanza of the great lockdown of 2020, Netflix is now post-growth after missing Q1 subscriber targets. Cue a 10% fall in Netflix’s share price, and angst-ridden analytical pieces about how Netflix is now losing market share, both in absolute growth (the streaming service missed its Q1 2021 subscriber target), and in engagement time.

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Super League feels the cost of forgetting fans

Cover image for Super League feels the cost of forgetting fans

Hanna Kahlert

23 Apr 2021

Sports has an age problem among its audiences. Around half of consumers over the age of 45 watch live sports on TV, dropping to less than a third of those under the age of 24 as of Q1 2021 (source: MIDiA Research Consumer Survey).

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Fans come first in the attention recession

Cover image for Fans come first in the attention recession

Hanna Kahlert

2 Mar 2021

Media and Marketing

As vaccine rollouts gain momentum, the clock is ticking on the attention boom enabled by lockdowns over the last 12 months. The 12% of additional time spent on entertainment is going to contract sharply as consumers are freed to spend time outside of their homes on pre-pandemic activities and compelled to take back up the commute.

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