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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.

MIDiA Chart Of The Week: The Steady Decline Of The CD Buyer

Mark Mulligan

8 Feb 2016

cd buyers cd sales Chart Of The Week

As much as we may be in the era of streaming, nearly half of recorded music revenue globally is still derived from physical sales, with the CD making up the vast majority of that. So, for all the understandable focus on how YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud & co are shaping the future of the music bu...

3 min read

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Quick Take: Instagram Removes Friction For Super-Users

Karol Severin

8 Feb 2016

audience metrics engagement metrics Instagram

Instagram started testing a functionality that allows switching seamlessly between multiple accounts on mobile. While this might sound like a minor improvement for most casual single-account users, the move directly caters to the demographic segment, which plays a key role in Instagram’s monetizat...

3 min read

How Ad-blocking Spreads Conflict In A Free For All Ecosystem

Karol Severin

4 Feb 2016

ad blockers Ad Blocking ad-blocker

Last year in September, the release of iOS9 shifted the ad-blocking debate to a new level, not only because general public is becoming increasingly aware of ad blockers, but also because one of the world’s largest tech giants openly supported ad-blocking by implementing the functionality.

5 min read

YouTube Just Broke The Chart’s Back

Mark Mulligan

3 Feb 2016

Artists charts Music

Or rather the music industry just broke the chart’s back with YouTube, although it doesn’t realise it yet. And here’s why… It is normal when switching between old and new worlds to use equivalents, deutschmarks to euros, inches to centimetres, circulation numbers to unique visitors etc.

4 min read

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Google And The Battle For The TV Set

Tim Mulligan

2 Feb 2016

Amazon Apple Facebook

The Future of TV Coalition , a coalition of US Pay-TV companies whose 47 members include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Dish Network has reacted strongly to Google’s latest attempt to enter the premium video content market (or Pay-TV market as it has largely been up until t...

5 min read

Why Apple Will Win The Smartphone Market Maturation

Karol Severin

1 Feb 2016

Apple apple products apple services

Apple is expecting iPhone sales to drop in the next quarter, for the first time ever. Apple’s stock has plummeted more than 6% since the announcement. The iPhone represents the majority of Apple’s revenue and any slowdown in this stream naturally spooks investors.

4 min read

Paid Content Analyst: MIDiA Research Is Hiring

Mark Mulligan

29 Jan 2016

MIDiA Research midia research jobs Paid Content Analyst

We’re looking for a Paid Content Analyst to join our small but quickly growing team. The position will be based in our London Tileyard office. The analyst will provide analysis on digital content monetization strategies across all three of our research areas (Music, Online Video and Mobile Content...

3 min read

The Music Industry Is Forcing Consumers To Choose Between Buying a Lexus And Taking The Bus

Mark Mulligan

28 Jan 2016

CÜR Music digster Innovation

It has been an eventful few days for the digital music market with developments such as the launch of a whole new breed of unlicensed Spotify clones using the APIs of Spotify and YouTub e, and with Spotify raising another $500 million and targeting an IPO within 12 months.

5 min read

Why Netflix and Amazon Are Outbidding The Competition For The Best Of Sundance

Tim Mulligan

27 Jan 2016

Amazon manchester by the sea Netflix

Amid the cold wintery weather of Utah, something extraordinary is happening, and it is not just the annual Sundance Film Festival currently being held in the scenic location of Park City. For the world’s preeminent independent film festival is now firmly in the sights of the two largest global SVO...

4 min read

Why Spotify Is Getting Into Video

Tim Mulligan

26 Jan 2016

Online video Online video short form video

This week looks set to herald the launch of video content on Spotify’s Android app with a video enabling update coming to the service’s iOS app coming later. Initially the video viewing functionality will be available to Spotify users in the U.

3 min read

MIDiA Chart Of The Week: Mobile App Buyers

Mark Mulligan

25 Jan 2016

The global mobile app market was worth $35 billion in 2015 with revenue market share virtually split down the middle between Apple and Google. A host of big mobile app publishers such as King.com, Supercell and Mojang are the poster boys of paid content yet the app economy is first and foremost a fr...

1 min read

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Full Stack Or Media-Tech Conglomerate? Just What Kind Of Empire Is Access Industries Building?

Mark Mulligan

21 Jan 2016

Access Industries Bertelsmann Crowdsurge

Deezer announced yesterday that it had closed a further €100 million investment round led by existing investors Access Industries and French telco Orange. There is no doubt Deezer needs the growth capital to re-establish momentum in a market where Apple Music has almost instantly shunted it into t...

5 min read

How Pay-TV Can Get Netflix Off Its Front Lawn

Tim Mulligan

20 Jan 2016

emerging markets Netflix Online video

Amidst all the positive news about Netflix’s continuing growth story, some interesting points were touched upon in yesterday’s Netflix Q4 2015 Earnings Interview with analysts. Perhaps the most revealing meta narrative for the whole management zeitgeist was summed up Netflix’s CFO David Wells ...

5 min read

Why An Indie Film Streaming Service Looks To China To Disrupt Its Competitors

Tim Mulligan

19 Jan 2016

Media and Marketing

If one was to seek out two areas of video streaming that are currently wide open and waiting for consolidation then right at the top of that list would be film and the China market. Ever since last September when Netflix decided to downplay its feature film commitment when it declined to renew its $...

4 min read

WhatsApp Drops Annual Fee As It Hits 990 Million Users – Next Stop: Monetization

Karol Severin

18 Jan 2016

Facebook Jan Kaum messenger

The CEO of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, announced in Munich that WhatsApp now has 990million users. There have been many talks about Facebook overpaying for WhatsApp. However, it managed to double its user base since the acquisition and played a significant role in helping Facebook dominate the mobile messag...

4 min read

MIDiA Chart Of The Week: YouTube Subscribers

Mark Mulligan

18 Jan 2016

Chart Of The Week Facebook Facebook video

Video is eating the world and as it does so YouTube’s role is evolving in a subtle but crucial way. YouTube used to be the undisputed home of short form video but that role is now challenged by Facebook now registering 8 billion daily video views and Snapchat 7 billion.

2 min read

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Periscope’s About To Change Twitter Forever

Karol Severin

15 Jan 2016

live broadcast Mobile content mobile content strategy

Periscope now plays live streams directly in Twitter feeds on iPhones, with Android and desktop functionality to come. It is a move that will change the way Twitter works and its audience uses it. Though integrating the two was a long anticipated and easily predicted, its potential impact is huge.

6 min read

Is Apple Poised To Disrupt The Pay-TV Industry By Buying HBO?

Tim Mulligan

14 Jan 2016

Apple HBO Online video

As opportunities go, it doesn’t get much bigger than this: the opportunity to buy the most lucrative content creator in video. Rumours are running around that ( click here to see the Market Watch Article ) that Apple is running the rule over HBO in the event of a dispersal sale by its parent compa...

3 min read

Why Virtual Reality Will Not Break Through To The Mainstream in 2016

Tim Mulligan

13 Jan 2016

CES occulus rift Online video

The premier of Fox Home Entertainment’s second VR (Virtual Reality) content offering was received with much excitement at CES last week. 21st Century Fox’s blockbuster science fiction smash hit The Martian is the subject of the new VR project which is a combination of video game functionality an...

4 min read

Kakao Corp Turns MelOn Into A Full Stack Music Company

Mark Mulligan

12 Jan 2016

full-stack Full Stack Music Company Kakao Corp

Korean messaging app company Kakao Corp has acquired a 76.4% stake in South Korean entertainment company Loen Entertainment for $1.6 billion , valuing the company at $2 billion. Kakao operates the mobile messaging app Kakao Talk which has around 50 million users, 39 million of which are in South Kor...

3 min read

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