Blog: HBO

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.

Online culture is fragmenting: Why White Lotus spoilers are not flooding the internet

Cover image for Online culture is fragmenting: Why White Lotus spoilers are not flooding the internet

Hanna Kahlert

9 Apr 2025

Cultural trends

Key takeaways from this blog: Audience fragmentation is growing, with platforms like TikTok losing influence and shows like White Lotus thriving in niche, offline conversations Oversaturation of content is making it hard for entertainment to create shared cultural moments As MIDiA explores in our 'Analogue revival' report , Culture is moving offline, as people seek real-world connections and entertainment companies need to adapt to a fragmented digital landscape White Lotus is not the internet viral darling that shows like Tiger King or Game of Thrones (GoT) once were.

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House of spoilers: Leaks are bad for services, but good for fans

Cover image for House of spoilers: Leaks are bad for services, but good for fans

Hanna Kahlert

26 Oct 2022

The finale of House of the Dragon aired this Sunday (or Monday, for countries to the east of the US), culminating a wildly successful first season of HBO’s first Game of Thrones spinoff. To be specific; the official version aired Sunday / Monday in 4K.

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Hate-watching: The rise of contextual consumption

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Hanna Kahlert

24 Aug 2022

In the over-saturated entertainment ecosystem , attention is the name of the game. All propositions are competing for the most focused attention, striving for more dynamic engagement , and trying to find and monetise superfans for all that they are worth.

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The content versus culture conundrum

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Hanna Kahlert

3 Jun 2021

Creating something which will please audiences in the moment and also have resonant staying power among the surrounding culture is a puzzle faced by the content strategists of today. It is also the age-old struggle of artists throughout history.

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HBO Max Now Has Its Launch Date-Will This Turn Out To Be Good Or Bad Timing?

Cover image for HBO Max Now Has Its Launch Date-Will This Turn Out To Be Good Or Bad Timing?

Tim Mulligan

24 Apr 2020

On Tuesday, AT&T subsidiary Warner Media announced the launch date for its forthcoming D2C streaming video service HBO Max. On May 27 th HBO Max will launch into a world radically different from the one envisaged at the HBO Max debut event held in October 2019.

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Peacock Goes for Gold

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Alistair Taylor

23 Jan 2020

On the 16 th of January , Comcast (owner of NBCUniversal) unveiled further details of its direct to consumer (D2C) proposition, Peacock. Peacock is set to debut on the 15 th of April exclusively for Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex customers, before being rolled out nationally across the US on July 15 th .

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Netflix Bewitches the Internet

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Tim Mulligan

9 Jan 2020

Andrzej Sapkowski

Netflix, the current subscription video on demand (SVOD) global leader, has topped Wikipedia searches for the second week of 2020 with its new fantasy scripted drama original, The Witcher . The show is based upon a story universe created by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which originated in novel form and has since morphed into – among other adaptations – a hugely popular game franchise with 40 million unit sales to date.

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Why Apple Wants The Father of Dragons On Board

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Tim Mulligan

20 Nov 2019

Game of Thrones

The November 1 st launch of Apple TV+ has thrust the world’s leading personal device company into the increasingly frenetic world of TV. While the TV networks have long battled for supremacy over ratings and talent, leading SVOD service Netflix aggravated the market by aggressively bidding for exclusive production deals with leading show runners and their production companies.

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Disney+ Recovers From Initial Blunder to Surpass 10 Million Sign Ups on Debut!

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Alistair Taylor

14 Nov 2019

21st Century Fox

all-encompassing offering

AppleTV+. Market saturation

Disney claims unexpected traffic on its newly-launched service was at fault for the buffering and technical issues of Disney+’s launch Tuesday . The issues highlight just how difficult it is transitioning from a media company to a tech player, with technical glitches an enormous issue for digital-native subscribers.

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Welcome to the Post-Peak Emmys

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Tim Mulligan

27 Sep 2019

Digital audiences

Sunday night saw the 71 st Emmy Awards broadcast live on Fox. Traditionally the Emmys have been the cornerstone of TV production credibility alongside the BAFTAs. However, the Oscars of the TV industry is facing two existential challenges which threaten its relevance: plummeting ratings, and the ongoing encroachment of the streaming services.

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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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HBO, Game of Thrones and the Warner Media D2C Dilemma

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Tim Mulligan

26 Jun 2019

Game of Thrones

May 2019 saw the controversial final episode of HBO’s flagship scripted drama series, Game of Thrones. With the final season alone taking up an estimated quarter of HBO’s entire original content budget, Warner Media’s premium TV network invested heavily in transforming a niche TV show into the flagship title for the whole network.

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Is Spotify’s Acquisition of Gimlet (the ‘HBO for audio’) the Beginning of the Audio Influencer Boom?

Georgia Meyer

7 Feb 2019

Audio ad engagement

Following six days of speculation, Spotify announced yesterdaythat it is acquiring Gimlet Media (comprising Gimlet – the production house, and Anchor – the production, distribution and monetisation software tool), for an undisclosed sum.

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Brand Awareness Is The Other Side Of Fandom

Tim Mulligan

7 Nov 2017

Game of Thrones

One of the many metrics we track in our new trends and insights offering, Video Trends by MIDiA , is the level of awareness audiences have of a TV show in a market. TV show awareness among consumers is the flipside of fandom.

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Game of Thrones Is Not The Most Popular TV Show

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Tim Mulligan

27 Oct 2017

Game of Thrones

The TV industry is currently undergoing a period of disruption as profound as what the music industry experienced in the first decade of this millennium, and it has all been led by the streaming revolution.

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Netflix Is Now The Fifth Highest Ranked TV Network For Show Fandom

Cover image for Netflix Is Now The Fifth Highest Ranked TV Network For Show Fandom

Tim Mulligan

28 Sep 2017

We are proud to announce the inaugural results of our new TV Show Brand Tracker. The findings reveal how streaming is impacting TV show audiences and which networks are performing best. Based on data from more than 60 TV shows across the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, CBS’s The Big Bang Theory is the leading TV show in terms of audience fandom, followed by NCIS (also CBS), with the BBC’s Sherlock in third place.

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What The New Season Of Game Of Thrones Tells Us About YouTube Engagement

Tim Mulligan

20 Jul 2017

Game of Thrones

YouTube has been notoriously coy about its user growth, with the official PR line for the company still stating that it has ‘Over one billion users.’ For a company that has been the driving force behind online video consumption for the last 12 years, YouTube has been both derided for the superficiality of its video content and for using its safe harbour privileges to undermine existing media models.

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How Free Is Defining Digital Content Strategy

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Mark Mulligan

24 Feb 2016

The internet’s ‘gift’ to media companies was free. And it’s the gift that just keeps giving. Record labels, newspapers, online publishers, TV companies, games publishers continue to grapple with how to convince audiences to pay when their product or direct alternatives are ubiquitously available for an investment of nothing more than a swipe of a finger.

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Is Apple Poised To Disrupt The Pay-TV Industry By Buying HBO?

Tim Mulligan

14 Jan 2016

As opportunities go, it doesn’t get much bigger than this: the opportunity to buy the most lucrative content creator in video. Rumours are running around that ( click here to see the Market Watch Article ) that Apple is running the rule over HBO in the event of a dispersal sale by its parent company Timer Warner Inc.

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Why P2P Is Still The Big Deal For TV That It Used To Be For Music

Cover image for Why P2P Is Still The Big Deal For TV That It Used To Be For Music

Mark Mulligan

6 Jan 2016

Piracy tracking website Torrent Freak released the chart of the 10 most downloaded TV shows on BitTorrent in 2015 . There are few surprises. The most successful TVs shows are also the most pirated TV shows.

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