Reports: Business Strategy

Browse all of our reports, featuring our analysts' expert insights and analysis of audience segmentation, emerging trends and technologies, value chains, market shares, predictions and more – backed by our proprietary survey data and bespoke models & forecasts. Become a subscriber to get new ones every month, or just pick one to get started.

Cover image for The Death of the Monthly Active User

The Death of the Monthly Active User
Redefining User Metrics For The App Era

Zach Fuller

17 Nov 2016

Subscriptions Paid Content Freemium

The Monthly Active User (MAU) metric is the default measure of digital services but its usefulness is lessening. While it offered desktop-era services a better alternative to page views, its use for mobile apps is increasingly anachronistic. With the advent of smartphones, users are absorbing app-based services far more intimately into their lives,...

Cover image for Next Generation TV Operators

Next Generation TV Operators
Reconsolidation Is A-Coming

Tim Mulligan

31 Oct 2016

mobile apps SVOD OTT

Nearly a decade has passed since Netflix launched its subscription video service in 2007, and the intervening nine years have seen an explosion in competing offerings. The result is adisjointed premium video experience for the digital consumer, with content fragmented across multiple siloed competing services.

Cover image for Streaming Music Health Check

Streaming Music Health Check
Streaming’s Watershed Moment

Mark Mulligan

22 Oct 2016

Subscriptions Streaming Streaming Music

Q2 2016 emerged as a watershed moment for streaming music, with label streaming revenue growing strongly enough to lift overall revenues for all three major labels. Meanwhile Spotify and Apple registered record growth, soon followed by streaming announcements from Amazon, Pandora and iHeart Media.

Cover image for Candy Crush, Clash Of Clans And The Future Of Mobile Games

Candy Crush, Clash Of Clans And The Future Of Mobile Games
From Silos To Ecosystems

Karol Severin

22 Aug 2016

mobile games clash of clans freemium games

Though mobile games differ largely by genre, demographics and business models, most share the status of social connector and cultural identifier. Much like music companies, mobile gaming companies often struggle with conversion to payment as well as a regular production of hits to retain momentum in the long term.

Music Market Region Profile: Latin America
Streaming Drives A Music Market Renaissance

Leo Morel

31 Mar 2016

Streaming Streaming Music mexico

Driven by the proliferation of smartphones, streaming is beginning to gain traction across Latin America, resulting in new forms of music consumption. Whereas interest in physical formats has been steadily falling, most Latin American countries have not developed music download markets, thus creating latent digital demand.

Cover image for US PAY-TV Disruption And Consolidation

US PAY-TV Disruption And Consolidation
How Streaming Video And Cord Cutting Are Re-Shaping US Pay-TV

Tim Mulligan

29 Feb 2016

US cable tv usa

2015 was a year of unparalleled transition for US pay-TV. AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV catapulted the communications company to the front of the pack with a combined subscriber base of 26 million, reaching nearly a quarter of US households. Meanwhile regulators blocked Comcast’s year long bid for Time Warner, enabling rival Charter Communi...

Mobile Market Country Profile: France
A Maturing App Market On The Brink Of MNO Consolidation

Karol Severin

29 Feb 2016

France mobile apps mobile

France is one of the leading European app markets. Like other key markets in the region, the French app market is already maturing with annual revenue and app buyer growth set to slow to single digits by 2020. With this shift in market dynamics, average revenue per user (ARPU) will gain importance.

Cover image for P2P In The Age Of SVOD

P2P In The Age Of SVOD
Rights Fragmentation Gives Piracy A Free Pass

Mark Mulligan

5 Feb 2016

Streaming p2p Video subscriptions

Ever since the advent of Napster, media industries have been locked in a war against free. Learning from the lessons of the music business, TV companies nipped much of the P2P demand for shows by fighting free with free itself, launching services such as Hulu and BBC iPlayer.

Cover image for State Of The Streaming Nation

State Of The Streaming Nation
A Comprehensive Assessment Of The Global Streaming Music Market

Mark Mulligan

29 Jan 2016

Subscriptions Streaming Music Music Subscriptions

2015 was the year streaming music came of age, with robust growth from market leader Spotify and the rapid ascent into second place of new entrant Apple Music. Though questions remain about the commercial viability of the model right across the value chain, there is no doubt that momentum is now with streaming.

Cover image for The Third Screen Revolution

The Third Screen Revolution
The Explosion In Mobile Video

Karol Severin and Tim Mulligan

29 Jan 2016

Content strategy mobile video content format innovation

Mobile might be eating the world, but is it eating video? The rapid uptake of mobile video consumption in recent years has captured the attention of many as it raises questions about where the future of video consumption is headed. Though it might cannibalise some TV and online viewing time, mobile video is here to co-exist alongside its large-scre...

Cover image for Telco Music Strategy

Telco Music Strategy
Ironing Out The Strategic Kinks As Objectives Evolve

Mark Mulligan

25 Nov 2015

Subscriptions Streaming music bundles

In a few short years, telco music bundles have gone from a useful ancillary revenue stream to a core component of the streaming landscape. Despite long standing issues about how success can best be measured, telcos continue to invest heavily in music deals that are unlikely to ever deliver direct profit but that instead help drive metrics across th...

Cover image for Mobile Messaging Platforms

Mobile Messaging Platforms
How Facebook’s Hedge Strategy Is Changing The Face Of Messaging

Karol Severin and Mark Mulligan

30 Oct 2015

apps mobile apps mobile

In just a few short years mobile messaging apps have become home to the largest group of digital audiences on the planet, with 4.8 billion cumulative monthly active users. Following websites and social networks, messaging platforms are emerging as the third phase of how audiences congregate digitally.

Cover image for User Generated Broadcast

User Generated Broadcast
Live Streaming Video And The Mainstream Consumer

Tim Mulligan

30 Oct 2015

Online video Live video streaming User Generated Broadcast

The early adopter buzz around the launches of the live video streaming apps Meerkat and Twitter-acquired Persicope have so far failed to translate into meaningful real world adoption. But these User Generated Broadcast (UGB) apps have undoubted potential.

Cover image for Global Music Forecasts 2015-2020

Global Music Forecasts 2015-2020
Declining Legacy Formats Cancel Out Streaming Growth

Mark Mulligan

23 Oct 2015

Subscriptions music sales Music revenue

In a few short years streaming has gone from being an interesting sideshow to the most important component of the recorded music market in terms of impact, innovation and disruption, though not in revenue terms. Indeed streaming still only represents 16% of all recorded music revenue but its growth is directly impacting virtually every other aspect...

Cover image for Variable Programming

Variable Programming
How Online Video Is Shaking Off The Schedule Straightjacket

Tim Mulligan

21 Sep 2015

Netflix tv networks cord nevers

The advent of Video On Demand transformed the business models of the broadcast and pay-TV industries. Now it is set to have an equally disruptive impact on the nature of video content itself as the old analogue limits of linear TV programming no longer apply.

Cover image for Streaming Music Discovery

Streaming Music Discovery
When The Journey Becomes The Destination

Mark Mulligan

31 Jul 2015

Streaming free Discovery

When YouTube first starting rising to prominence streaming music was still in its infancy. Thus even though royalty payments were far from setting the world alight, there was a clear case for YouTube views driving discovery which then led to sales. Fast forward to 2015 and digital sales are rapidly losing ground to streaming which in turn throws in...

Cover image for Facebook Video

Facebook Video
Not The Real Deal Yet But Could Still Unseat YouTube

Mark Mulligan

23 Jul 2015

YouTube Online video Facebook

Facebook is emerging as a serious challenger to YouTube and is building clear momentum that is giving the incumbent cause for concern in a way that few other short form challengers have yet managed to do. The total number of videos viewed by Facebook users was 4 billion a day in April 2015, up from 3 billion only three months earlier.

Cover image for Global Video Forecast 2015-2020

Global Video Forecast 2015-2020
Subscriptions Come Of Age

Tim Mulligan

23 Jul 2015

smartphones broadcast cord nevers

2015 to 2020 will be a transformational period for the video sector. Accessing TV content online will become mainstream as video penetration reaches 50% by 2019. Despite solid adoption of subscription and video sharing services, it will be the migration of mass-market TV online that will drive the explosive growth.

Mobile Market Country Profile: Germany
A Maturing App Superpower

Karol Severin

2 Jul 2015

telco telcos iOS

The mobile market in Germany is in the middle of a consumer behavior shift. Smartphone penetration and app usage have entered the mainstream and digital content consumption on mobile is on the rise, but app payment remains niche. Consumers switching from traditional phone calls and texting to internet voice communication and messaging contribute to...

Cover image for Ownership to Access, And Back

Ownership to Access, And Back
Physical Ownership Acquires A New Value In The Digital Era

Tim Mulligan

2 Jul 2015

US UK Sweden

It seems counter intuitive to suggest the physical ownership of content has an addressable market in the digital era. Despite the ubiquity of digital delivery mechanisms for premium content, the desire for physical possession has not gone away. A market opportunity exists to provide complementary physical products both as reassurance for older gene...

© 2025 MIDiA Research Ltd. All Rights Reserved.