Blog: subscribers

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.

Unintended consequences – the year ahead for streaming

Cover image for Unintended consequences – the year ahead for streaming

Mark Mulligan

8 May 2025

Business Strategy

Streaming may be maturing from a revenue perspective but with two-tier (‘artist centric’) licensing and supremium, 2025 is set to be a year of transformative change in both product and business terms.

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We pinpointed the right price for Super Premium. Here is how

Cover image for We pinpointed the right price for Super Premium. Here is how

Tatiana Cirisano

8 Apr 2025

Business Strategy

Music streaming

There is broad consensus across the music industry that it is time to introduce new tiers for streaming, including one with extra benefits that is often nicknamed “Super Premium”, or “Supremium” for short.

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Music subscriber market shares 2024: Slowdown? What slowdown?

Cover image for Music subscriber market shares 2024: Slowdown? What slowdown?

Mark Mulligan

27 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

Record label streaming revenue growth slowed to 6% in 2024 but there was no such slowdown in subscriber growth. In our just published ‘ Music subscriber market shares Q4 2024 ’ report, we reveal that the 85 million net* new subscribers added in 2024 was only two million less than in 2023, resulting in 818 million subscribers and growth of 12% i.

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Bringing fandom to life: the rise of IRL superfan experiences

Cover image for Bringing fandom to life: the rise of IRL superfan experiences

Olivia Jones

12 Feb 2025

Much of the recent discussion around music superfan monetisation has focused on online superfans, especially as more superstars join fan platforms like Weverse. These monetisation strategies capitalise on fans’ growing desire for artist-fan interaction but often rely on artists’ active participation, adding yet another task to their ever-growing list of marketing responsibilities.

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How Apple Podcasts is helping spur a new era of podcast analytics

Cover image for How Apple Podcasts is helping spur a new era of podcast analytics

Annie Langston

30 Aug 2023

Podcast analytics have been more or less untouched since the format’s inception. The podcast investment boom was more about major platforms catching up with competitors by integrating traditional analytics, rather than innovating the availability of data itself.

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Key takeaways for podcasting from SiriusXM and Spotify’s earnings

Cover image for Key takeaways for podcasting from SiriusXM and Spotify’s earnings

Annie Langston

4 Aug 2022

Two audio giants with investments in podcasting — Spotify and SiriusXM — published their second quarter earnings for the year. SiriusXM saw marginal year-over-year growth in revenue – around 4% – although it was still able to increase its paid subscribers by 23,000 users, bringing its total subscribers to 34 million.

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Why the NFL is targeting ‘cord-nevers’

Cover image for Why the NFL is targeting ‘cord-nevers’

Alistair Taylor

14 Jan 2021

For decades, rights holders have prioritised (and relied upon) exponentially increasing broadcast revenues as a mechanism for sustainability and growth, a legacy approach that is in dire need of a review with ‘ D-day’ for sporting rights upon us in 2021.

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Discovery enters streaming race with discovery+ and Olympics offering

Cover image for Discovery enters streaming race with discovery+ and Olympics offering

Alistair Taylor

9 Dec 2020

Last week , Discovery announced it will launch discovery+, ‘the definitive non-fiction’ subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD), on January 4th, 2021. Consumers in the US can expect the largest-ever content library for a new streaming service from launch, with more than 55,000 episodes from Discovery’s iconic brands such as the BBC’s Natural History collection, A&E Networks, Group Nine and more.

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Why the sports broadcast model is now under threat

Cover image for Why the sports broadcast model is now under threat

Alistair Taylor

6 Nov 2020

Sinclair Broadcast Group

sports broadcast

The Sinclair Broadcast Group reported its Q3 2020 results earlier this week, which highlighted the detrimental impact sporting investments had on its balance sheet. A 37% year-on-year (YoY) increase in consolidated revenue (to $1.

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Why DAZN is adapting to German consumer nuances with linear and digital bets

Cover image for Why DAZN is adapting to German consumer nuances with linear and digital bets

Alistair Taylor

22 Oct 2020

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.

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The Premier League going pay-per-view means a sucker-punch for sports fans

Cover image for The Premier League going pay-per-view means a sucker-punch for sports fans

Alistair Taylor

15 Oct 2020

English Premier League

English Premier League (EPL) clubs have agreed an ‘interim solution’ to allow fans to continue watching their teams live. EPL fixtures not selected for broadcast in October will be available to fans on a pay-per-view (PPV) basis.

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German Bundesliga faces 20% decline in value for its international rights

Cover image for German Bundesliga faces 20% decline in value for its international rights

Alistair Taylor

1 Oct 2020

German business publisher Sponsors has announced the German Football League (DFL) is facing a 20% decline in the total value of its overseas’ broadcast rights for the 2020/21 campaign. This is down from the €250 million ($292 million USD) that Bundesliga International (the league’s international sales operation) generated last year.

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DAZN financials: Growth reliant on premium domestic rights

Cover image for DAZN financials: Growth reliant on premium domestic rights

Alistair Taylor

14 Sep 2020

DAZN’s 2018 financials highlighted the difficulty of encouraging a transition to consume live sports digitally with its existing portfolio of rights. DAZN has not yet released its 2019 financials, but MIDiA has constructed a robust and accurate subscriber and revenue model for the sport-centric streaming service which will be published in full as part of our DAZN Financials and Subscriber Deep Dive report.

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Reach for the win: BT Sport to air UEFA Champions League final on YouTube

Cover image for Reach for the win: BT Sport to air UEFA Champions League final on YouTube

Alistair Taylor

23 Jul 2020

Media & Marketing

UK pay-TV incumbent BT Sport has announced it will air this year’s (COVID-delayed) UEFA Champions League (UCL) final free-to-air (FTA) on Google-owned YouTube. YouTube’s head of sport in EMEA, Tomos Grace confirmed the move with SportsPro Media :“BT Sport have been amazing partners for YouTube and we’re very privileged to be working with them.

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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 Battle Down Under

Cover image for The Battle Down Under

Alistair Taylor

23 Apr 2020

#playerstogether

additive services

With COVID-19 exposing the vulnerability of pureplay sport streaming services , the importance of building out a robust and downturn-proof offering is fundamental to the viability of these currently additive services.

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Self-Isolation: DAZN Concedes to COVID-19

Alistair Taylor

6 Apr 2020

additive services

all-encompassing offering

Sports streaming insurgent DAZN has announced last week it plans to inform rights holders of its intent to defer its payments of rights fees for any content not yet delivered (i.e. postponed / cancelled games) during this pandemic-enforced freeze on live sports.

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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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‘If You Ain’t First, You’re Last’: Revenue-Over-Reach Argument Not Refuted for F1

Cover image for ‘If You Ain’t First, You’re Last’: Revenue-Over-Reach Argument Not Refuted for F1

Alistair Taylor

9 Jan 2020

audience viewership

2019 audience figures for Formula One (F1) provide the latest example of a rights holder opting for short-term revenue optimisation over long-term strategic growth, to the detriment of its viewing audience.

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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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