Blog: distribution

By now, TikTok’s impact on popular music is well-established. The platform routinely catapults songs to hit status, and it has become a regular part of digital marketing campaigns. But behind the scenes, something deeper is happening.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I had to take some time off in the last two weeks. It is never good to have to step away from the buzz of daily games industry developments, but the silver lining is that the brief pause enabled me to look at seemingly unrelated games news of the last two weeks in one chunk; a true , as we call it at MIDiA.

Tech major Amazon is reportedly looking to add to its burgeoning sports right portfolio, targeting the domestic broadcast rights for English Premiership Rugby. London Irish owner, Mick Crossan, confirmed the giant’s entry into the tender process to the Mail on Sunday , following Amazon’s experiment with live streaming rugby after its acquisition and £20 million lifeline for the exclusive UK broadcast rights to last months’ inaugural Autumn Nations Cup .

DAZN’s recently-established position as the ‘Netflix of sport’ has been a hard fought one, requiring extensive rights investment in order to carve out a compelling proposition. In the markets where it has the best rights it has experienced the strongest adoption, with the converse equally true.

The IRB Rugby World Cup (RWC) commenced last Friday with hosts Japan producing a fine victory over second-time qualifiers Russia, 30-10. The first RWC to be held in Asia provides Australasian countries with a much more sociable tournament in terms of kick-off times.

With both the ICC Cricket World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup approaching their climaxes, the stark difference in audience engagement raises the question, is pay-TV killing off niche sports? Deciding the medium through which to distribute live sports has never been more crucial.

Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc. has followed up on its huge publicity around its recent IPO (Initial Public Offering) to land a significant content deal with Vice Media. Rapper chef Action Bronson (real name Arian Asllani) is set to host an eight episode dating series developed by Vice’s pay-TV channel Viceland entitled “Hungry Hearts With Action Bronson”.