Reports: Entertainment and Fandom

In the US, 25-34-year-olds are the music industry’s most valuable segment. Yet their relationship with streaming is tenuous. Streaming is not meeting these consumers’ need for a more social, less algorithm-driven experience. What is more, they appear most likely to give their subscriptions up.

The economic recession, and related layoffs at major podcasting divisions, have some questioning the future of the format. However, podcasts are following a similar trajectory as music did in its transition to streaming and have reached critical mass — 26% consumer penetration — faster than music streaming subscriptions did.

This report presents a snapshot of ad-supported video users, including age breakdowns, time spent on video (subscription video on demand (SVOD), ad-supported video on demand (AVOD), and pay-per-view), responsiveness to ads, devices used, and TV genre preferences.

2023 has been jump-started by rapid progression in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). From the launch of ChatGPT to AI-powered DJs, this technology is revolutionising common practices, impacting consumers, creators, and industry leaders alike.

With gamers being mainstream, video streaming services and their content offerings can benefit by increasing focus on the preferences of gamers. Crucially, this enables subscription video on demand (SVOD) services to drive engagement, broaden reach and improve retention.

Audiences are consuming in different ways, on different platforms, and at different times – from lean-back passive viewing, to lean-forward on-demand, lean-in social engagement, and lean-through creation. Web 3.0, largely driven by AI, will not change this.

This report presents a Q4 2022 snapshot of gamers’ reception to various types of digital advertisements. It covers: Display / banner advertisements Video advertisements Video advertisements in mobile games Audio advertisements Advertisements that are relevant to the consumer Advertisements in services that consumers already pay for Gamer segments included are: By gamer platform (Mobile, PC, Console) By games genre fans (FPS, RPG, Action / Adventure, Platformer, Open world, Sandbox, Puzzle, Simulator, Strategy, MOBA, Survival, and sports games) By games service subscriber (Apple Arcade, EA Play / Pro, NintendoSwitch Online, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Plus,Ubisoft+) The data in this report is from MIDiA Research’s Q4 2022 consumer survey.

Radio set the stage for music streaming and podcasts, only to watch them take portions of its audience. However, there is a clear opportunity for radio companies to assert themselves in the podcast market, drawing on decades of programming expertise to retain audiences and find new ones.

Social media has steadily integrated music, and music creation tools have steadily become more social. These trends are converging, accelerated by shifts in consumer behaviour and artificial intelligence (AI). The result could be a new set of music creation and re-creation tools, integrated within social platforms and geared towards casual consumers.

The slowing of subscription growth in developed markets means that streaming services have to look both towards post-subscription and post-advertising models. A focus on retention will maintain downward pressure on subscription price elasticity, compounded by the need to ration advertising loads to minimise churn.

This report deep dives into the themes identified in MIDiA’s 2023 predictions report. These themes will drive innovation in the digital entertainment landscape in 2023 across music, video, games, audio, cultural trends, and the creator economy. Expect 2023 to be a of period significant disruption and innovation forced upon the digital entertainment industry, as nearly two decades of uninterrupted growth makes way for consumer-led disruption that is driven by a reduction in discretionary spending, attention, and willingness to make do with tired old formats.

Though parts of the games industry still stigmatise in-game purchases, the business model is a fundamental part of a successful and sustainable growth formula for games companies. The current macroeconomic climate will only catalyse their importance. Diving into the nuances of in-game spenders’ behaviours and attitudes unlockssignificant growth and conversion optimisation opportunities for games companiesthat are already in pursuit of this business model.

Group watching television with family and friends is being consigned to a bygone era. Algorithms are forcing entertainment consumers into silos through an endless stream of personally recommended content and the fallout is a relentless battle for audience engagement across a myriad of devices.

Games, sports, music, video, audio, and social content all compete not only for consumers’ attention (and money), but also their fandom. However, the oversaturation of content is devaluing entertainment itself, by overly commodifying it. Entertainment businesses and content providers will need to rethink how to generate better value for audiences, especially if they want to make true fans of those audiences – especially in an environment of recession (both in the global economy and consumer attention).

Podcasts are breaking out of traditional audio and entering the video space, as nearly a quarter of consumers now watch podcast videos monthly. Visual elements for podcasts are becoming a crucial tool to reach new audiences and engage current listeners.

The debate over a new streaming royalties regime is capturing attention, but economics will not fix the underlying paradigm shifts that are the true cause for streaming’s problems: there is not enough money to go around for the ballooning amount of music on streaming services, and passive consumption is the new norm.

This slide deck presents consumer demand for video subscription services, transactional video consumption, and advertising responsiveness. The data is pulled from MIDiA’s Q3 2022 consumer survey, fielded in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, South Korea, and Brazil.

This report presents the key figures, trends, and drivers of MIDiA’s video streaming subscription forecast model. The revenue figures presented in this report are in billions of US dollars unless otherwise stated. An Excel file posted alongside this report provides complete region and country-level data, as well as a detailed methodology statement.

MIDiA analysts dive into our 2023 predictions, and why we believe it will be the ' pivot point '. Watch the webinareither on YouTube or LinkedIn ....

Despite the hyper-saturated music landscape, music discovery is generally not a problem for most consumers. Gen Z and millennials have similar music discovery habits, but gen Z struggle slightly more with discovery and are more influenced by TikTok, while millennials are perhaps the last generation to see radio as a main source of music discovery.