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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.

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) September 22nd 2019

Mark Mulligan

22 Sep 2019

Amazon, hi-def bet: Amazon has launched its long-slated Amazon Music HD service, delivering lossless FLAC files to a new HD streaming tier. Amazon is betting on its older, higher-income user base to care more about quality than Spotify users.

3 min read

Cover image for Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) September 22nd 2019

The Future of Music: A Vision of Post-Format

Mark Mulligan

18 Sep 2019

adele Artists Edison

Formats have shaped and dictated the evolution of recorded music. The constraints that formats set have, in turn, become the creative frameworks within which music has operated. Now, in the internet era, formats are becoming a thing of the past – and yet the way in which music is made and distribu...

5 min read

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Advertising at the Dawn of AVOD: Privacy and Consumer Sentiment

Hanna Kahlert

18 Sep 2019

Marketing Strategy Audio

The market is prepping itself for a big push into ad-supported video on demand (AVOD), as illustrated by Viacom’s recent acquisition of Pluto TV, Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s launch of STIRR, and Amazon’s IMDbTV rebrand and subsequent European rollout.

4 min read

Prosus – The Prometheus Rising of the Tech Major Era

Tim Mulligan

17 Sep 2019

Amsterdam Euronext Delivery Hero Johannesburg Stock Exchange

Post-war western alternative culture was distilled in Robert Anton Wilson’s cult classic Prometheus Rising . First published in 1983, it was considered a guidebook of “how to get from here to there” and described by its author as an “owner’s manual for the human brain”.

4 min read

NFL Tackles Gen Z through Social Media Platforms

Amanda Stears

17 Sep 2019

AMA CBS e-sports

5 September marked the kick-off of the 2019 National Football League (NFL) season – its 100th season to-date. This will be particularly relevant for broadcasters and sports rights holders alike, as the CBS broadcast of Super Bowl LIII back in February recorded its TV audience at an all-time low si...

4 min read

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) - September 16th 2019

Mark Mulligan

16 Sep 2019

apple bundles apple device portfolio apple hardware

Spotify – small step, big step: Spotify has announced that it is ac quiring musician marketplace company Soundbetter. Back in July, Spotify halted its artist direct offering. Some quarters viewed that as the end of Spotify’s disruptive label-competitor strategy.

3 min read

Cover image for Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) - September 16th 2019

What the Recorded Music Industry Can Learn from the Whaling Industry of the 19th Century

Zach Fuller

15 Sep 2019

23 capital Amuse music industry

A high-risk industry with large upfront costs and no guarantee of return. No, this is not the recorded music industry, nor is it venture capital (VC) – this is the whaling industry of the 19th century.

4 min read

Arcade Plays To Apple’s Strengths and Everyone Else’s Weaknesses

Karol Severin

11 Sep 2019

4.99 Apple Arcade downloadable games

As of yesterday, Apple has revealed more detail about its upcoming Arcade. For $4.99 per month, users will have the ability to download and play 100+ exclusive games across Apple devices. While Apple is positioned as a ‘download and play’ proposition, the reality is it will compete against games...

4 min read

The Rationale Behind Apple TV+’s Debut Pricing

Tim Mulligan

11 Sep 2019

AppleTV+ Disney HBO Max

Yesterday, (September 10th 2019), Apple announced both a launch date and new pricing for its video subscription service Apple TV+. This follows on from the March Showtime event where Apple rolled out the Apple TV+ brand and the big names it has engaged to build out a premium video content offering.

3 min read

Songwriters Aren’t Getting Paid Enough and Here’s Why

Mark Mulligan

10 Sep 2019

cmos Drake Google

Music Business Worldwide recently ran a story on how Apple has proposed a standard streaming rate for songwriters, with Google and Spotify apparently resistant. Of course, Apple can afford to run Apple Music at a loss and has a strategic imperative for making it more difficult for Spotify to be prof...

6 min read

Streaming in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Opportunities for International Competitors

Amanda Stears

10 Sep 2019

Apple TV asia pacific Disney

With a combined population of 371.7 million and a combined GDP of $2.9 trillion, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia represent sizeable and fast-growing markets for streaming services. The largest players by subscriptions are Netflix, iflix and Viu, with each competing and differentiating through their...

3 min read

Netflix’s Binge-Watching Problem

Tim Mulligan

9 Sep 2019

Binge-watching Neflix Video

Netflix has announced that it is going to start releasing new episodes of The Great British Bake Off and reality series Rhythm + Flow on a weekly basis . For a company which de-facto created the phenomenon of binge-viewing, this decision brings it more into line with current market trends in streami...

4 min read

How Technology Is Radically Reshaping Politics

Mark Mulligan

6 Sep 2019

alternative facts Boris Johnson brexit

As I write this, the UK is in the midst of a potential constitutional crisis following the UK government’s proposed changes to political norms in order to push through Brexit. In some ways this is what you get when a country only has a part-written constitution and never quite got round to phasing...

7 min read

Does Disney+ Make Disney Recession-Proof?

Tim Mulligan

5 Sep 2019

Media and Marketing

The storm clouds of recession continue to spread across the world. In the US, the inversion of the treasury bond yield which occurred in March of this year has meant that financial asset allocators are now prepared to pay more for less as they bid up the price of long-term government debt issuance.

5 min read

Quick Take: Spotify Expands Premium Duo into Latin America

Zach Fuller

5 Sep 2019

latin America music market latin America streaming Music streaming

Spotify has announced that its Premium Duo plan will be expanding to another 17 countries, 14 of which are in Latin America. The plan, which is effectively a mini version of its popular family offering, has been created with the express intention of servicing couples who reside at the same home addr...

2 min read

Sports Fans Consumer Trends 2019

Hanna Kahlert

4 Sep 2019

Fans Marketing Media

This post features excerpts from MIDiA’s recently published Sports and Marketing and Brands report, Sports Fans Consumer Trends 2019 by Alistair Taylor . Sports-centric subscription video on demand (SVOD) services have largely struggled to entice subscribers, based on their current value propositi...

4 min read

Starz to Increase Brand Presence with AT&T Carriage Deal

Amanda Stears

3 Sep 2019

OTT Pay TV pay tv operators

On August 30, AT&T announced a multi-year content carriage deal with Starz, allowing AT&T to offer STARZ content to its customers. This content deal includes STARZ and STARZ ENCORE premium linear and HD channels, On-Demand, HD On-Demand and online services.

3 min read

YouTube Returns to Its Roots by Making Originals Free

Amanda Stears

30 Aug 2019

ad supported strategy AVOD cord cutters

YouTube is shifting its original programming strategy by lifting the paywall for all of its original content. Since the rebranding of YouTube Premium in 2018, viewers can opt to pay for a monthly subscription fee of $11.

2 min read

Yao Ming 2.0: NBA & House of Mouse – Who Needs Who More?

Alistair Taylor

30 Aug 2019

Media and Marketing

Disney’s Q2 quarterly results illustrate the growing importance of its direct to consumer (D2C) streaming offering. With the launch of Disney+ coming up on November 12 , Disney looks set to take on streaming incumbent Netflix both domestically and internationally by presenting a unique opportunity...

6 min read

Summer Report Highlights

Hanna Kahlert

29 Aug 2019

We thought summer was over. Then it came back. Now (maybe) it's gone again. Impossible to predict how many more heat waves there will be before Autumn descends – but we're prepared for anything, anyway.

4 min read

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