Blog: Media

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.

The future of trust in media: Why transparency is key

Laura Fisher

29 Oct 2025

Content Media audience

What is the future of trust in media? It feels like a multi-million-pound question. A recent webinar by The Media Leader explored the topic, which then prompted me to crystallise some of my own thoughts on the subject.

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Why digital natives and data science are key to embracing the creator economy

Ben Woods

17 Oct 2025

Cultural trends Creators Creator economy

Social platforms and the creator economy have been re-writing the rules of audience engagement for some time now. Together, they have accelerated the fragmentation of entertainment and made niche the new mainstream.

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Saudi Arabia’s $55 billion EA acquisition: What it means for gaming and global investment

Brandon Sutton

16 Oct 2025

Video Entertainment Gaming

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will purchase Electronic Arts (EA), alongside private equity firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners – a move which sent shockwaves through both the gaming and investment worlds (via Electronic Arts ).

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Forget catalogue; creators are the new valuable IP

Hanna Kahlert

16 Oct 2025

Business Strategy Streaming Fandom

The value of entertainment catalogue and content has shifted over the last decade. Licensing usage and distribution used to underpin the system, but challenges arose as digital consumption became the default.

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Is the internet re-localising?

Hanna Kahlert

8 Oct 2025

Cultural trends Social media Social

It’s been a busy few weeks for the social media world. TikTok is on the verge of a US sale – which could also see the app returning to India. Meanwhile, Meta is now offering subscriptions in the UK and Europe.

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AI AI, Cap’n: Shifting headwinds to the promised land of tech innovation

Hanna Kahlert

11 Sep 2025

Product Strategy Content Social

In any industry, the simple bits tend to be the most stable. For every ice cream, there’s the company that makes the sticks; for every book publisher, there’s the company selling the paper. By the same logic, in the midst of the AI boom, Nvidia – which manufactures chips that make the technolo...

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From niche to mainstream: How video games adaptations are taking over movies and television

Brandon Sutton

3 Sep 2025

Product Strategy Entertainment Games

Today’s most successful movies and television shows are video game adaptations. For those who remember the media landscape of the 1980s and 1990s, this represents a marked shift in the entertainment industry.

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The life of a cultural narrative: Where are 2025’s iconic moments?

Hanna Kahlert

26 Aug 2025

Cultural trends Entertainment Media

Eras are defined by their moments. The 2000’s saw low-rise jeans, a neon palette, and pop star drama. The 2010’s had barn weddings and ‘Gangnam Style’. With time comes the benefit of hindsight, and clarity on what was big versus what faded quickly.

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Building fandom is about the journey, not the destination

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jul 2025

Fandom Entertainment Media

“Superfans” remain the headline topic for the entertainment industries , in music and beyond. They are the biggest cheerleaders amongst their peers, the most engaged on social media and streaming, and the highest spenders across the board.

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There is no Pirates of the Caribbean 6: How long is the internet going to work?

Hanna Kahlert

29 Apr 2025

Cultural trends Disney Google

Generative AI is improving, and its use is increasing. AI tools have rapidly accelerated , and, as a result, AI is now widely used to generate lesson plans, find recipe measurements, and draft lists of potential client companies.

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Creators want to learn, and Adobe’s AI assistants want to listen

Ben Woods

11 Apr 2025

Business Strategy Social media Creators

Key takeaways from this blog: Creators want more than just productivity. Over half of video creators want tools that help them improve their skills, not just speed up production (according to MIDiA's Video Creator Tools Survey Q2 2024) AI assistants should support and engage creators.

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Chaos and uncertainty: Tariffs’ impact on gamers and the games market

Rhys Elliott

10 Apr 2025

Business Strategy Subscriptions Games

Tariff turmoil related to the US’ trade war is intensifying. Other countries have retaliated, and while Trump has eased tariffs in some countries, the situation is far from being resolved. The tariffs have major implications for the games market in the US.

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The case for more digestable games: Over a third of console and PC gamers play LESS than 5 hours a week

Rhys Elliott

20 Feb 2025

YouTube Netflix TikTok

The attention economy is oversaturated. Games are not just competingwith other games but with TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, and well ... life. But the games industry – especially premium games on console and PC – has a unique twofold challenge: Supply : New AAA games can take five years or more to m...

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How PlayStation broke its hardware and active user records in Q4

Rhys Elliott

13 Feb 2025

Business Strategy Netflix TikTok

Sony released its financial results for calendar Q4 2024. Here are the high-level results: Sony generated revenues of $27.9 billion As always, its Game & Network Services (G&NS) Segment – PlayStation – was the biggest segment (38%) Sony Music accounted for 11% and Sony Pictures for 9% of...

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DeepSeek and Rednote signal the dawning era of APAC

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Netflix TikTok

The AI race is a tense one. Billions of dollars have been poured into the likes of OpenAI. Meanwhile, the US and UK governments, among others, have pledged to invest heavily in AI development, suggesting that they feel it is of critical importance to “win” the new space race.

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A regulation-heavy year for social looms in 2025

Hanna Kahlert

17 Dec 2024

Social media Social Product Strategy

The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has published guidelines around the Online Safety Act, warning that most social platforms are not adequately meeting standards. Sites that fail to comply can be faced with high fines and potential bans (per The Guardian ).

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Greatest Hits Radio is a strategy execution masterclass for ‘old media’ incumbents

Keith Jopling

14 Mar 2023

Media Audio Strategy

Credit where it is due, Bauer Media’s launch and rollout of Greatest Hits Radio (GHR) is the best execution of strategy we have seen in a while by an incumbent media business. Not something you would necessarily associate with a commercial radio network brand.

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Why Musk’s Twitter takeover will not be the last attempt at a social platform acquisition

Hanna Kahlert

21 Apr 2022

Twitter Social platform

Elon Musk is not one to shy away from making waves with strategic curveballs – and his latest moves to acquire Twitter are no exception. Less than a month after attaining the second largest shareholding position in the company at 9.

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Why entertainment could reach new levels of fragmentation in 2022

Hanna Kahlert

6 Apr 2022

d2c Media Social

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...

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Government intervention in digital entertainment and social media is now a reality

Hanna Kahlert

9 Sep 2021

Social media regulations Media

The tension between rapidly innovating tech and government regulations seems to be peaking at long last. China has made the first comprehensive move to crack down on digital entertainment , with children under 18 now regulated to no more than three hours of gaming per week and one hour per day on we...

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