Blog - Page 93

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.

Quick Take: Will stream dj-ing be the renaissance of SoundCloud?

Zach Fuller

19 Oct 2018

SoundCloud Music music industry

After a difficult two yearsthat saw acquisitions fall through and a lack of meaningful uptake of its subscription service, SoundCloud have needed some positive news. Reveredwithin the creator community though still struggling to make a profit, SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainorannounced today at Amsterdam...

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Netflix Q3: The SVOD giant pushes on, but the tail risks are mounting

Tim Mulligan

17 Oct 2018

Netflix SVOD TV

Yesterday’s Q3 earnings results for Netflix were welcomed by a Wall Street unnerved by last week’s US stock sell off and fear that the tech majors, the growth engine for the 10-year bull run,are losing momentum.

Spotify, DistroKid, and the two sided marketplace

Mark Mulligan

17 Oct 2018

DistroKid Spotify spotify as a label

Spotify has taken a minority stake in DistroKid (per Music Business Worldwide ). In itself, it may be a slightly left field but relatively insignificant move, except that it is in fact one small but important step on a much bigger journey.

Event Postponed

Mark Mulligan

17 Oct 2018

Just to confirm that tonight's MIDiA Event is not taking place. The event has been postponed and we will announce the new date shortly.

Is Rugby in a state of crisis?

Alistair Taylor

12 Oct 2018

audience reach Consumer behaviour debt

The value of Rugby has suffered another major blow in what has already been a tumultuous year financially for the sport. The asking price for the Six Nations title sponsorship has plunged 64% to just £6 million ($7.

The Fan Bingbing Story and what it means for China’s 2018 video transformation

Tim Mulligan

11 Oct 2018

China Chinese box office Fan Bingbing

China has come a long way in short time in video. Going hand in hand with the dramatic economic expansion the Country has experienced, China’s domestic box office alone increased 19-fold between 2007 and 2017 to an estimated $8.

Facebook launches its smart speaker: A few strategic considerations for Portal

Zach Fuller

9 Oct 2018

Facebook Facebook portal home devices

Earlier this year, MIDiA predicted that Facebook would join the smart speaker market : " A TV dongle or smart speaker: It makes strategic sense for Facebook to develop a TV dongle like Amazon’s Fire Stick or smart speaker like Apple’s HomePod, to give it a hardware foothold in the home—somethi...

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Advertising week New York: The dynamic, the dead, and the dangerous

Georgia Meyer

9 Oct 2018

brand values digital consumers linear tv

Notoriously overwhelming, this week’s AWNY ramped activities up even further, expanding the number of stages from 8 to 12. A disorientating amount of content to navigate and a somewhat amusing metaphor for today’s digital consumer.

Looking for the music in Tencent Music

Mark Mulligan

5 Oct 2018

China sec Tencent

The Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) F1 filing makes for highly interesting reading, but don’t expect copious amounts of data to give you an inside track in the way that Spotify’s F1 filing did. Instead TME’s F1 bears much closer resemblance to iQyi’s F1, namely a basic level of KPIs, lots ...

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Making free pay: Fine-tuning Freemium

Mark Mulligan

3 Oct 2018

Business Strategy

Streaming is transforming music and TV business models, driving growth in both audiences and revenue. A balance between free and paid tiers and services has been key to this success, but, growth is not always balanced, and as we approach maturity in many western markets, more may be needed of free, ...

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Google reveals interactive YouTube ad tools as it prepares to compete with Amazon

Zach Fuller

2 Oct 2018

digital advertising Online video social commerce

Ads on YouTube are about to get a lot more interactive. With competition from Amazon heating up, Google is doubling down on the competitive advantage of its video assets, namely YouTube’s unrivalled position as a how-to video domain, compared to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video’s more premium offe...

Tencent announces strategic pivot, focusing on Cloud and AI

Alistair Taylor

2 Oct 2018

business services Chinese regulators cloud business

Chinese tech major Tencent announced its first restructuring in six years and third in its 20 year history, including creating a new division to focus on business services such as cloud computing. This pivot comes off the back of the Chinese regulators freezing approvals for games licenses (per Bloo...

The state of California goes head to head with The US Department of Justice on net neutrality

Tim Mulligan

2 Oct 2018

California Net Neutrality Law Net Nuetrality

The Golden State is renowned for doing things differently from the rest of the US and yesterday its liberal credentials were reiterated by California Governor Jerry Brown signing net neutrality legislation into state law.

Can ESPN+ provide Pay-TV networks model to address declining subscribers?

Alistair Taylor

28 Sep 2018

Sports ESPN+ ESPN

ESPN+, Disney’s sports-centric streaming video on demand (SVOD) service, has gained more than one million paying subscribers in just over five months following its launch in April 2018 , with Kevin Mayer, chairman, Direct-To-Consumer and International, The Walt Disney Company announcing (via ESPN ...

Can Xbox All Access help Microsoft tip the games console market share in its favour?

Karol Severin

26 Sep 2018

console gaming Games games consoles

As you probably know by now, Microsoft launched Xbox All Access in the US. It is a bundle deal offering an Xbox console and a two year access to Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live – all this in return for 24 monthly payments of $21.

Comcast has won the first round of the new world media war

Tim Mulligan

24 Sep 2018

Comcast Sky Disney

On Saturday Comcast won the auction battle between itself and rival 21stCentury Fox For the 61% of the company which Fox does not own. In a dramatic end to the three stage bidding process, Comcast offered £4 billion ($6 billion) more than Fox’s bid which was backed by Disney, which will inherit t...

Sirius XM acquires Pandora: Greater than the sum of their parts?

Zach Fuller

24 Sep 2018

media acquisitions music industry Music streaming

In the latest example of media acquisitions, though one less likely to flood the headlines as Comcast’s purchase of Sky, Sirius XM has announced it will be purchasing streaming service Pandora for $3.

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Will direct distribution result in the YouTube-ification of Spotify?

Zach Fuller

21 Sep 2018

Spotify YouTube music industry

Spotify until now has been chiefly about, for want of a better word, the ‘professional musician’. True, many artists on the platform may not be making a living exclusively through their art, but many are still going through some form of label services and distribution deal.

Spotify’s Tencent risk

Mark Mulligan

21 Sep 2018

emerging markets global competition Music streaming

NOTE: a previous version of this post referred to a non-compete clause with Spotify detailed in this SEC filing. I have been advised that the scope of this clause is narrower than I had originally interpreted.

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Has the BBC cured streaming latency?

Alistair Taylor

21 Sep 2018

BBC BBC iPlayer broadcasters

Two weeks ago, the NFL warned subscription video on demand (SVOD) services to up their content delivery game if they are to be taken seriously when bidding for premium rights. It must therefore come as good news for streaming services as it appears the BBC may have potentially broken through the lat...

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