Content Reports from MIDiA Research

Leveraging anime
A nuanced scene not a genre

Ben Woods

April 2025

Engaging younger audiences remains the entertainment industry’s biggest challenge. However, Japanese anime is achieving this by growing penetration with each new generation of consumers. Key to this success is its ability to dovetail with the fragmented nature of modern entertainment consumption to reach consumers in their scenes.

The audio creator opportunity
Audio creator behaviours and monetisation potential

Cover image for The audio creator opportunity

Rutger Rosenborg

March 2025

Creators

Subscriptions

Spotify

Historically, YouTubers and TikTok influencers have received the lion’s share of mainstream attention as a creator class – but audio creators are increasingly active on the same digital platforms and operating within the same formats. As a result, the audio creator has become a jack of all trades, moving between copyediting, audio editing, and video editing.

Streaming TV’s fight on social’s stage
Tactics for a short-form video future

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Ben Woods

February 2025

Streaming

live

YouTube

Streaming TV and social platforms have long competed for audience attention but from separate lanes. Now, these roads are merging in the social platforms’ favour as the likes of YouTube and TikTok evolve into kaleidoscopes of entertainment content, from vlogs and music videos to live sport and TV series.

Social 2025
Navigating platforms for fan power

Hanna Kahlert

February 2025

Creators

Spotify

Social

The biggest apps are in the process of disruption. TikTok’s uncertain future and Meta’s apps relaxing content restrictions and fact checking will constitute greater challenges for creators, advertisers, and audiences looking to use and benefit from these platforms.

Audio’s entertainment value
Examining audio listeners’ cross-entertainment lives

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Rutger Rosenborg

February 2025

music industry

Music streaming

Content

Typically, the marketing team for a games company or TV show would not be thinking of audiobooks and podcast listeners as a key consumer segment to address. Yet, podcast and audiobook listeners are digitally sophisticated and spend more time and money than the consumer average on most forms of entertainment – including games, music, and video.

The global podcast opportunity
Unlocking format growth

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Annie Langston

November 2022

Sweden

Spotify

While mainstream media tends to focus on podcast growth in Western territories, understanding digital-audio consumption on a global scale will be key to future growth. Each territory has unique listener demographics and genre preferences that present various opportunities for podcast platforms, illustrating that podcast habits vary globally.

Social video
TikTok sets the pace

Richard Broadhurst

May 2022

YouTube

digital natives

Facebook

Social video is optimising lean-through engagement for digital natives, with simple editing features, filters, and music. Value for younger digital natives (those aged 16-19-years-old) lies in co-creation, sharing and liking. User-generated content (UGC) creation has contributed to the success of short-form video, as users seek to have an impact within social media ecosystems through creating and sharing unique experiences.

Sports Fans Consumer Trends 2019

Alistair Taylor

August 2019

subscribers

Netflix

Audience engagement

Sports-centric subscription video on demand (SVOD) services have largely struggled to entice subscribers, based on their current value propositions which consist mainly of niche rights. Pay-TV has the lion’s share of premium domestic sports rights, providing it with an advantageous set of assets partially justifying premium-priced contracts for its subscriber base.

2019-2021
Emerging New Metrics for Sports Streaming Success

Alistair Taylor

June 2019

Streaming

Apple

Amazon

The clock is ticking down to 2021 when the major domestic sports rights in the US and the UK will start coming up for renewal. Thus far, pureplay sports streaming video on demand (SVOD) services such as DAZN and Eleven Sports have experienced mixed fortunes.

Tech Majors Market Shares Q1 2018
Advertising and Subscriptions Power Growth

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Alistair Taylor, Karol Severin, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

June 2018

Subscriptions

Streaming

Apple

In Q1 2018 advertising revenue and services revenue drove strong growth for the tech majors – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, with Alphabet and Apple retaining their respective leads in each of those revenue segments but losing market share. Subscriptions were also a big part of the Q1 narrative; Amazon and Apple highlighted significant subscription growth underpinning their growing service businesses.

Tencent Tech Investment
Pursuing Aggressive Growth in the West

Alistair Taylor

May 2018

Streaming

Spotify

revenue

Tencent, currently the fifth most valuable public company in the world, saw income from ‘other gains’ increase in Q4 2017 by 800% on Q4 2016 figures, going $149.6 million to $1.2 billion. These other gains comprised one-off gains from IPOs, tax rebates and investment subsidies.

Tencent Has Outgrown China
Now Comes The Next Phase of Growth

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Alistair Taylor

April 2018

Streaming

Spotify

Amazon

Following the release of its fourth quarter earnings, Tencent is the first Chinese company to achieve a market capitalisation of over $500 billion, displacing Facebook as fifth most valuable global company. This growth has been highlighted by the 54% year-on-year (YoY) increase in revenue from $22.

Profiling The Paid Content Consumer
Music Still Leads In A Niche But Growing Sector

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Mark Mulligan

January 2015

Subscriptions

Paid Content

apps

Paid content used to be one of the web’s backwaters. Change, however, is afoot, thanks to innovations such as app stores, tablets and media streamers. Music, video, games and books all compete for attention and wallet share on consumers’ connected devices.

Reports: Content