Blog: Star Wars

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.

Are console platforms about to push smartphone-style subscription plans?

Rhys Elliott

17 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

Games

assassin’s creed

Diminishing returns on console generations, cash-strapped consumers, and increasing console prices might just open up a new pricing model for consoles – one in which consoles look increasingly like smartphones.

min read

AI cannot replace creators… and the proof, surprisingly, is books

Hanna Kahlert

17 Apr 2024

Fandom

Creator economy

The asset-class-ification of entertainment has tended to reduce art to content made only to ensnare views, which lends itself to generative AI uptake. However, in a digital economy increasingly looking towards fandom for solutions, this environment has not exactly fostered the development of ideas, ...

min read

Who will be the winners in video as the walled gardens of entertainment recede?

Ben Woods

21 Dec 2023

YouTube

Paramount+

Amazon

Protectionist measures that kept the streaming wars alive are being wound back. Licenced content is back in vogue, despite streaming TV being built on exclusive shows. Competitive tensions are cooling as entertainment looks to bundle services to combat the cost-of-living crisis, and super aggregator...

min read

BlackPink, superfans and the video game threat to social video and streaming TV

Ben Woods

1 Sep 2023

Fandom

Superfans

streaming tv

Being an entertainment fan in the modern era can be a disjointed experience. Take Star Wars . A fan of the long-standing sci-fi franchise must invest significant amounts of time and money across multiple entertainment platforms if they are to truly indulge in their fandom.

min read

Fandom’s Icarus phenomenon: The hype cycle of the attention economy

Hanna Kahlert

6 Aug 2021

Fandom

attention economy peak

Attention economy

Fandom is now entrenched as the success determinator of the saturated attention economy. With so much entertainment competing at all times, it is sentiment which draws audiences back for more. Rather than purely “I like this” – there is, after all, so much to like – fandom is more than the s...

min read

Lockdown & Dragons: Fantasy proves the fandom effect

Hanna Kahlert

8 Apr 2021

Games

Media and Marketing

Fandom

With vaccine rollouts gaining momentum, the post-COVID attention crunch is looming large for the digital entertainment propositions which have all experienced booms over lockdown. The competition is on – making it more essential than ever to understand the trends behind shifting consumer behaviour...

min read

What Star Wars in Fortnite Tells Us About the Future of Digital Entertainment

Karol Severin

10 Dec 2019

cross-entertainment strategy

cross-format entertainment

cross-platform entertainment

It has been revealed that Disney will soon be premiering a scene from its upcoming The Rise of Skywalker film. What makes this a truly newsworthy story is that the event will take place inside Fortnite’s Risky Reels digital drive-in theatre, apparently with J.

min read

Disney+ Has Tapped the Cultural Zeitgeist with the Mandalorian

Tim Mulligan

6 Dec 2019

Star Wars

The Mandalorian

Video

With 10 million sign ups in its first day (per The Verge ),there is no doubt that Disney+ has tapped strong latent demand in what is already a highly saturated US streaming video market. What differentiates market insurgent Disney+ from incumbent Netflix is that it is trading on big individual brand...

min read

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-...

min read

Fox News to ‘New Fox’: What is Left After Disney Deal

Alistair Taylor

1 Apr 2019

CBS

Disney

Equity stake

On the 20th March 2019 , The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Rupert Murdoch’s 21 st Century Fox became official. What did Disney acquire? The $71.3 billion merger significantly strengthens Disney’s value proposition as a service, solidifying its position as the world’s largest media con...

min read

Corporate Mergers and the Battle for Fandom

Zach Fuller

22 Jun 2018

Comcast

corporate mergers

Disney

Back in 1999, the Cluetrain Manifesto appeared across the nascent web as a predictive gospel of what this new technology meant for commerce. Still revered among software entrepreneurs, the ebook outlined the paradigm shift of business in the digital era from a transactional model of one-off payments...

min read

Disney At The End of 2015: A Tale Of Two Brands

Tim Mulligan

23 Dec 2015

Disney

ESPN+

lucas films

Friday’s downgrade of Disney stock by BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield to a sell rating was based upon the current travails of its Sports broadcasting flagship ESPN. This resulted in a 4% decline in Disney’s share price.

min read