Blog: digital natives

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.

Sports broadcasting is ripe for disruption…and creators know it

Ben Woods

4 Apr 2023

Twitch

Kings League

soccer

The former Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique made a surprising claim last month (March 2023). To promote his Twitch football channel, the Kings League, the retired centre back unfurled a giant banner in the Catalonian capital that read: “The thought of us filling up Camp Nou really scares them”.

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Why the sports broadcast model is now under threat

Alistair Taylor

6 Nov 2020

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sinclair

sports broadcast

The Sinclair Broadcast Group reported its Q3 2020 results earlier this week, which highlighted the detrimental impact sporting investments had on its balance sheet. A 37% year-on-year (YoY) increase in consolidated revenue (to $1.

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Foxtel, diversifying for reach, launches freemium Kayo service

Alistair Taylor

28 Oct 2020

foxtel

News Corporation

Kayo

Australian pay-TV organisation Foxtel is launching a free version of its sport-centric streaming service Kayo in 2021. This follows a difficult year for the streaming service that saw its subscriber numbers recover to over 600,000 after suffering a significant decline following the initial COVID-19 outbreak.

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Fortnite’s Party Royale provides sports untapped avenue for reaching digital natives

Alistair Taylor

19 Aug 2020

Universal platform

Fortnite

Epic Games

Burgeoning universal platform Fortnite’s ‘ Party Royale ’ is slowly becoming the gateway for rights holders to reach digitally native audiences. Party Royale, Fortnite’s ‘ experimenta l’ game mode has been a breakthrough for the platform ever since it was released.

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TwitchSports: Amazon throws sports into the starting line-up

Alistair Taylor

29 Jul 2020

Video

Sports

Games

Amazon-owned Twitch is no newcomer to sports. However, in a deliberate move to double down, Amazon has conceded that it needs to improve the discoverability of live sporting events for its platform users – so, as of last Wednesday, ‘Sports’ has become a standalone category with the return of Twitch.

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Six Nations Behind a Paywall: Can Rugby Afford to Bench Free-To-Air?

Alistair Taylor

6 Mar 2020

business model

consumption habits

cricket

Six Nations organisers are reportedly considering awarding the exclusive distribution rights for its annual competition to pay-TV operator Sky, in an unprecedented £300 ($384) million deal. Organisers have said they ‘would not rule anything out’ as the Rugby Paper reported the championship would go behind a paywall on Sky .

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Keeping with the Times: Sports Plays Catch-Up with Younger Digital Audiences

Alistair Taylor

27 Jan 2020

digital natives

e-sports

Gamers

Sports as a product is feeling the squeeze of the peak attention economy. Sports fans in the traditional sense are ageing, and appealing to a younger digitally-native audience is a fundamental issue that rights holders can no longer ignore.

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BT Sport’s Key Ingredient for Competing in an Increasingly Saturated Landscape

Alistair Taylor

22 Nov 2019

American football

basketball

broadcast audience

The strategic dilemma as to whether rights holders should seek revenue over reach when allocating domestic rights is inevitably impacted by how dependent services are on premium rights for securing subscriber revenue.

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Why Short Form Content Resonates with Younger Generations

Amanda Stears

2 Oct 2019

China

digital natives

douyin

Digital natives – be they classified as millennials or generation Z – have always had the term “instant gratification” associated with them. This is a reflection of the way technology has shaped and moulded every aspect of their daily lives and interactions.

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Big Brother Axed By Channel 5, But It Is Not All Bad News For Endemol

Alistair Taylor

14 Sep 2018

Big brother

Channel 4

Channel 5

Dutch production house Endemol is no longer going to be making cult reality TV show Big Brother for Viacom’s UK terrestrial channel, Channel 5. It announced that it was “disappointed not to reach an agreement with Channel 5”, following Channel 5’s admission to the BBC that “the forthcoming series of Big Brother will be the last – of either celebrity or civilian versions – on Channel 5”.

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The Imminent Launch Of Comic-Con HQ Highlights The Trend Towards Online Video Fragmentation

Tim Mulligan

17 Mar 2016

comic-con

comic-con hq

digital natives

On March 14th, Comic-Con and Lionsgate jointly announced the imminent launch of Comic-Con HQ a new SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) service. The new platform will allow Beta access on the 7th of May in advance of its official launch in in June.

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MIDiA Data Point Of The Day: 16-24 Year Old's Mobile Video Usage

Mark Mulligan

29 Oct 2015

Data Point Of The Day

digital natives

Mobile content

43% of US 16-24 year olds watch TV shows on phones and tablets. 16-24 year olds are the first generation to engage in multi-screen viewing. TV viewing viewing for the Digital Native is as much about convenience as screen preference.

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The Digitally Native Music Consumer

Mark Mulligan

5 Aug 2015

digital music

digital natives

free music

MIDiA Research has published a new report looking at the music attitudes and behavior of Digital Natives. The report “The Digitally Native Music Consumer: A Digital Native Music Behaviour Deep Dive” is immediately available to MIDiA Research clients along with an entire data set and presentation.

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