Blog: Peak Attention

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.

Welcome to the era of attention inflation

Cover image for Welcome to the era of attention inflation

Perry Gresham

2 Sep 2022

attention inflation

attention recession

The covid pandemic and associated lockdown dynamic allowed entertainment consumption to reach new heights amongst a temporary surplus of free time. However, after restrictions eased, consumers found the constraints on their newfound time tighten, and had to make sacrifices, often preferring to return to real life activities at the expense of digital entertainment.

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The attention recession meets the economic recession

Cover image for The attention recession meets the economic recession

Mark Mulligan

22 Jul 2022

attention recession

cost-of-living crisis

We are living in uncertain times. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting consumers’ pockets, driven by rising fuel and food prices. The effects of the pandemic are still present, the global economy may be entering a recession, and the geo-political landscape is being increasingly shaped by conflict.

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Forget peak Netflix, this is the attention recession

Cover image for Forget peak Netflix, this is the attention recession

Mark Mulligan

20 Apr 2022

peak attention economy

Attention economy

Forget peak Netflix, this is the attention recession Netflix’s Q1 2022 results caused a stir, with subscriber numbers down by 0.2 million from one quarter earlier. Some are calling this ‘peak Netflix’, but this is not a Netflix-specific issue.

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Can LiveScore learn valuable lessons from Eleven Sports’ UK failings?

Cover image for Can LiveScore learn valuable lessons from Eleven Sports’ UK failings?

Alistair Taylor

24 Aug 2020

streaming service

Streaming insurgent LiveScore launched its first ever over-the-top (OTT), ad-supported direct-to-consumer (D2C) streaming proposition in the UK back in June, harbouring a similar rights portfolio to that of Eleven Sports’ failed proposition back in 2018 .

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COVID fallout: BBC no longer considers UK Athletics value for money

Cover image for COVID fallout: BBC no longer considers UK Athletics value for money

Alistair Taylor

19 Aug 2020

COVID-19 exposed live entertainment as a vulnerable asset class , specifically following the pandemic-enforced postponement of live sports . One of the hardest hit during this hiatus and ensuing uncertainty has been athletics, which saw its largest engagement driver and the ‘greatest show on earth’ in the Olympic games postponed till 2021 .

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FuboTV adds key sporting rights to portfolio following Disney deal

Cover image for FuboTV adds key sporting rights to portfolio following Disney deal

Alistair Taylor

2 Jul 2020

Sporting rights

FuboTV, the US over-the-top (OTT) internet-delivered TV service launched back in January 2015 as a soccer-centric proposition. In that time it has established itself as a niche distributor of live streams of MLS and LatAm soccer matches to US, Canadian and Spanish audiences.

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The Show Must Go On – NFL Throws Screen Pass at COVID-19 with NFL Draft

Cover image for The Show Must Go On – NFL Throws Screen Pass at COVID-19 with NFL Draft

Alistair Taylor

2 Apr 2020

The NFL’s commissioner Roger Goodell announced to all 32 teams in a memo on March 26th that the NFL draft will go ahead as scheduled from the 23 rd to 25 th of April, despite growing pressures resulting from COVID-19 to postpone the event.

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Tale of the Tape: UFC or Bundle Driving ESPN+ Adoption?

Cover image for Tale of the Tape: UFC or Bundle Driving ESPN+ Adoption?

Alistair Taylor

11 Feb 2020

Walt Disney’s pureplay sports streaming service ESPN+, which launched back in April 2018, has surpassed 7.6 million paid subscribers, Disney’s chief executive Bog Iger reported during last week’s earnings call .

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Can BT Lay the Smackdown on Its Rivals?

Cover image for Can BT Lay the Smackdown on Its Rivals?

Alistair Taylor

3 Jan 2020

addressable audience

This Saturday at 1am GMT BT will debut its live broadcast for WWE Smackdown, having acquired the exclusive rights from long-term UK broadcaster Sky in June 2019 . This signalled the end of Sky’s tenure as the home of WWE content, which first began broadcasting wrestling coverage to fans back in the 1980s with WWF.

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Post-Peak Attention and the Case for Micropayments

Zach Fuller

9 Dec 2019

Success in new business paradigms involves wasting what is abundant to capture what is scarce. The Industrial Revolution did this by taking advantage of technologies that used the finite resource of human physical labour (steam, electricity) and made it considerably more efficient, allowing for bigger factories and the advent of mass production.

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

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

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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How the D2C Revolution Might Accelerate an Impending Recession

Cover image for How the D2C Revolution Might Accelerate an Impending Recession

Tim Mulligan

30 Oct 2019

peak attention economy

Recessions are notoriously difficult to accurately predict, and the next global recession is still hovering on the edge of reality. The macro-economic view is increasingly gloomy, with the ongoing Brexit process in Europe being exacerbated by increasingly fraught trade disputes between the US and China – the world’s largest and second-largest consumer economies.

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Sports, Television, Music, Politics – Cultural Cohesion in a Climate of Division

Hanna Kahlert

8 Aug 2019

cultural insight

History (so they say) repeats itself. While in some instances this might bring about the comfort of cyclical certainty, in others – as we near a new roaring 20’s with what looks to be thematic similarity to all the economic boom and political chaos of the last – this can prove, shall we say, disheartening.

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Privacy Concerns and Digital Advertisers: Why Brands That Demand Attention Will Lose out in the Post-Peak Shift of the Attention Economy

Hanna Kahlert

16 Jul 2019

attention economy peak

digital marketer

digital marketing

Mid-2019 sees the digital market mid-quagmire. The saturation of the attention economy is driving further and further competition between brands to create propositions that can stand out enough to earn adoption, in a market where overwhelming choice vastly outweighs the total adoption potential of consumers.

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Why the UFC Wants to Replicate the Yao Ming effect

Alistair Taylor

25 Jun 2019

audience culture

The NBA is the third highest grossing league globally, generating $7.4 billion in 2017, behind domestic rivals MLB and NFL. Whereas the MLB and NFL have largely struggled to entice a truly global following, the NBA have become synonymous with Chinese sports fans, and offers a template for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to grow its international fanbase.

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Is Cricket the New ‘Greatest Show on Turf’?

Alistair Taylor

19 Jun 2019

21st Century Fox

addressable audience

Even before the St. Louis (now LA) Rams were setting records in the NFL during the 1999-2001 seasons, earning the nickname ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’, the Super Bowl was viewed as an unrivalled opportunity to advertise brands, products, and movie trailers to the masses that tune in (or increasingly stream) to watch the showpiece for the world’s most valuable league .

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Battle of the Docuseries: Who Mirrored Who?

Cover image for Battle of the Docuseries: Who Mirrored Who?

Alistair Taylor

13 Jun 2019

addressable audience

Leeds United are set to become the latest soccer club to feature in an original documentary series, with tech major Amazon securing a deal for a behind-the-scenes look at Argentinian manager Marcelo Bielsa’s dramatic first season in charge of the English Championship side, according to the Daily Mail .

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Sports SVOD Services: The Underdogs’ Game

Hanna Kahlert

29 May 2019

addressable audience

carriage partnerships

Cord cutting and “the attention economy” are the landscaping trends reshaping everything video in 2019, and sports television – despite its reliably existent fanbase – is no exception. New sports proposition streaming video on demand (SVOD) entrants face hefty competition on all sides, from regionally established SVOD services with more varied offerings to tech majors waiting in the wings to buy up the biggest rights before moving onto the scene.

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Major Games Publishers Are Feeling The Impact Of Peaking Attention

Cover image for Major Games Publishers Are Feeling The Impact Of Peaking Attention

Karol Severin

12 Feb 2019

activision results

activision staff

Just last week (February 5th) Electronic Arts (EA) reported disappointing quarterly results, now Activision has laid off nearly 800 staff, mostly in marketing and sales. As MIDiA has reported multiple times before , engagement has declined throughout the sector, suggesting that the attention economy has peaked.

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