Blog: tech majors

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.

Will the recession change Big Tech’s view on entertainment?

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Mark Mulligan

25 Nov 2022

Music start up Utopia just announced a round of layoffs , fitting into a much bigger dynamic that may reshape the entertainment landscape. There are many reasons why the coming global recession will be unique, but the one that is most relevant to the digital entertainment sector is that it is going to be the first one since modern consumer tech has been truly mainstream.

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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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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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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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Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) October 14th 2019

Cover image for Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) October 14th 2019

Mark Mulligan

14 Oct 2019

fortnite blackhole

Fortnite black hole: In what may be the most audacious global games marketing stunt ever, Epic Games killed off Fortnite in Sunday’s end-of-season event , which one million people viewed live on Twitch.

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Could a Recession Change the Tide for Sports Rights Allocation?

Cover image for Could a Recession Change the Tide for Sports Rights Allocation?

Alistair Taylor

24 Sep 2019

additive services

all-encompassing offering

Revenue remains rights holder’s priority qualifier for allocating rights. However, with an impending recession, we are likely nearing an inflection point whereby rights holders may start to look towards prioritising reach over revenue.

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Sports and the Tech Majors: A Competitive Partnership

Cover image for Sports and the Tech Majors: A Competitive Partnership

Hanna Kahlert

8 Jul 2019

Amazon Prime Instant Video

d-day for sporting rights

We’re pleased to announce the launch of our Sports research practice. The Sports vertical provides comprehensive global analysis of the key players unleashing disruption in the business of sport broadcasting, streaming and e-sports alongside detailed and segmented analysis of consumer engagement by service.

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Heavyweight Battle for Premium Sporting Rights Dependent on Three Factors

Cover image for Heavyweight Battle for Premium Sporting Rights Dependent on Three Factors

Alistair Taylor

3 Jun 2019

broadcast rights

The sports rights landscape has changed fundamentally with the emergence of streaming subscription video on demand (SVOD) services. Digital and broadcast rights used to be separate deals entirely, but now the lines are blurred, and competition is heating up for exclusive coverage of the most sought-after sporting rights.

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Games Console Incumbents Sony and Microsoft Join Forces Against Tech Majors’ Entrance to Games Streaming

Karol Severin

17 May 2019

The enemy of my enemy is my friend – a phrase that nicely sums up the latest major development in games streaming and the console gaming industry. “ Sony and (Microsoft) announced on Thursday that …the two companies will partner on exploring joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services.

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DAZN Financials Highlight Difficulty in Changing Sports Viewing for Fans

Cover image for DAZN Financials Highlight Difficulty in Changing Sports Viewing for Fans

Alistair Taylor

14 May 2019

acquisition target

consumer acquisition

DAZN, the sports-centric streaming service which made headlines in 2018 with several high-profile rights acquisitions , and according to documents seen by SportsPro Media , has managed to dramatically reduce its debt burden by 93% in the year up to 2018.

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Amazon’s Ad Supported Strategy Goes Way Beyond Music

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Mark Mulligan

17 Apr 2019

ad supported strategy

ad supported streaming

Amazon is reportedly close to launching an ad supported streaming music offering . Spotify’s stock price took an instant tumble. But the real story here is much bigger than the knee-jerk reactions of Spotify investors.

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10 Trends That Will Reshape the Music Industry

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Mark Mulligan

3 Apr 2019

The IFPI has reported that global recorded music revenues have hit $19.1 billion, which means that MIDiA’sownestimatespublished in Marchwere within 1.6% of the actual results . This revenue growth story is strong and sustained but the market itself is undergoing dramatic change.

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

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Alistair Taylor

1 Apr 2019

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 conglomerate.

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DAZN Stepping Up Its Domestic Rights Offering – Insurgent come Enforcer?

Alistair Taylor

17 Jan 2019

Having grown its portfolio for premium international and domestic sporting rights, DAZN is now starting to graduate from a disruptor into an established part of the landscape. Emphasised by its latest plan, aiming to snap up domestic Bundesliga rights in Germany for 2021–2025 (provided the terms are economically viable for the SVOD service), and thus significantly upgrade its German market value proposition.

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Why 2021 Could Kill TV, Save Apple and Mark the End of Ads in Broadcast Sports

Georgia Meyer

9 Jan 2019

21st Century Fox

2021–22 are the years when the world’s most expensive premium domestic sports rights come up for renewal. In the US the NFL, MLB and NHL broadcast rights will all be up for tender, whilst in the UK the Premier League (EPL) rights will be up for renewal.

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Has the BBC Cured Streaming Latency?

Alistair Taylor

21 Sep 2018

2018 FIFA World Cup

2022 FIFA World Cup

Two weeks ago , the NFL warned subscription video on demand (SVOD) services to up their content delivery game if they are to be taken seriously when bidding for premium rights. It must therefore come as good news for streaming services as it appears the BBC may have potentially broken through the latency problem facing streamers of live sporting events.

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NFL issues warning to streaming services

Alistair Taylor

6 Sep 2018

Amazon Prime Video

Consumer behaviour

As rights holders and tech majors continue to experiment with streaming video on demand (SVOD) services as a way to broadcast sports content, questions are being raised about the ability of streaming platforms to reliably deliver high-demand premium sports events to paying sports fans.

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Amazon is all in on advertising

Alistair Taylor

31 Aug 2018

ad supported streaming

advertising video on demand

Amazon’s latest play into the TV ad market with the launch of Free Dive, an ad-supported video service for Fire TV users, showcases the company’s intent to further diversify revenue streams from its video services, pushing into advertising video on demand (AVOD).

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Tech Majors Market Shares Q2 2018

Cover image for Tech Majors Market Shares Q2 2018

Mark Mulligan

15 Aug 2018

The tech world has no shortage of acronyms for the big tech companies (GAFA, GAAF, Fang, the four horsemen…). At MIDiA we like to keep things simple, just like the major record labels and major TV studios we call the big four tech companies the Tech Majors.

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Wall Street Begins to Unfriend Facebook

Tim Mulligan

26 Jul 2018

Yesterday (July 25 th ) Facebook announced its Q2 earnings and the results were not what the big financial speculators were looking for. Revenue for the quarter was $13.32 billion versus the $13.36 billion consensus estimate.

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