Reports: FIFA

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Tipping point
The coming consolidation of live service games

Karol Severin and Perry Gresham

17 Jul 2023

ariana grande Call of Duty FIFA

The games industry has become addicted to the promise of lower risk and better ROI from live service games. As a result, there has been a flurry of live service titles released over the last 10 years. This is the key reason why the games industry’s core business model has shifted from unit-sales based to engagement based.

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Live sport 2.0
Capturing younger audiences with the creator economy

Ben Woods

1 Jun 2023

YouTube Apple TV Twitch

The funding model for live sports has created fissures between older viewers who can afford to pay a premium for live access and younger audiences who either cannot, or do not want to. While older generations are accustomed to paying for access to content, younger generations grew up in a world with accessible content galore.

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Tipping point
How in-game spending will eat the games world

Karol Severin

1 Feb 2023

steam Ubisoft FIFA

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 a...

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Esports viewers update
A valuable segment with a (solvable) growth problem

Richard Broadhurst

5 May 2022

Vevo Facebook Twitter

Esports currently struggle to attract consumers beyond esports enthusiasts and players of esport-centric titles. Despite growth problems, the esports viewer segment remains valuable. These consumers have large amounts of time and money spent across entertainment, as well as high ad tolerance.

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Getting serious about esports
Identifying off-season digital engagement opportunities for sports

Alistair Taylor

31 Mar 2021

Yahoo esports Fox

COVID-19 has expedited the need for rights holders and teams to generate digital engagement beyond the pure play live broadcast. Games and esports became big attention economy winners during the early stages of the pandemic and first lockdown. Rights holders desperate to maintain connectivity with fans looked to esports to drive engagement and main...

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Sports audiences
The Gen Z opportunity

Alistair Taylor

8 Feb 2021

Apple Apple Spotify

Digital natives are more likely to consume non-live sports than older, traditional sports fans, which presents rights holders and broadcasters with untapped potential for monetisation by harnessing and actioning this insight. While the most valuable sports audience currently remains among pay-TV subscribers, planning for meaningful non-broadcast re...

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Cultural Trends in 2021
Navigating a New Normal

Hanna Kahlert

10 Dec 2020

Apple Apple Spotify

Behaviours under coronavirus-driven lockdowns accelerated underlying digital consumption trends. Remote working and ongoing restrictions mean streaming behaviour is up across formats and demographics at the same time that some traditional entertainment formats effectively ceased.

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Recovery Economics
Post-Lockdown Sports

Alistair Taylor

28 Aug 2020

Disney Comcast Sky

As live sports resume following the coronavirus crisis lockdowns, the long-term impact of sports’ mass hiatus will be substantial. An activity gap created a void state for consumers, freeing up previously allocated attention and causing them to reconsider retaining subscriptions with diluted service offerings.

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Profiling Esports Viewers
The Synergy of Spend, Ad Receptiveness and Engagement

Karol Severin

11 Aug 2020

Consumer behaviour Spotify Spotify

As live events have halted, attracting non-endemic brands to esports via digital content has moved to the forefront for esports companies. But attracting the largest brands often requires close-to-mainstream demographic reach and a similar socioeconomic make-up.

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Sports Consumption
Measuring COVID-19’s Impact

Alistair Taylor

10 Jul 2020

Apple Discovery Amazon

With the pandemic-enforced postponement of live sports creating an entertainment void for sports fans, understanding COVID-19’s impact on overall sports consumption and where audiences are substituting their finite attention is paramount for sports distributors and rights holders.

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Recovery Economics
Music, Games, Live Streams and the Future of Concerts

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Keith Jopling

11 May 2020

live music live Artists

In April 2020 Travis Scott’s Fortnite event pulled in 27 million players. While this was happening, the global artist community was scrambling to plug the income and engagement gap caused by COVID-19’s cessation of live music, by turning to live streaming.

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COVID-19 and the Vulnerability of Pure Play Sports Streaming Services

Alistair Taylor

23 Apr 2020

Subscriptions US UK

The postponement of annual competitions and major quadrennial events has highlighted just how heavily pay-TV and sport-centric streaming services’ value propositions rely on live sports. Filling schedules with re-runs, docuseries, interviews and archived footage are stopgaps unlikely to increase engagement.

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Sports Consumer Trends
The Sun Sets on Pay-TV Dominance

Alistair Taylor

6 Feb 2020

Amazon Facebook BBC

With subscription video on demand (SVOD) services surpassing pay-TV penetration en route to becoming a mainstream medium, sporting consumption habits have inherently changed. Rights holders, broadcasters, streaming services and betting and gaming companies will all feel the impact of fast-changing consumption habits and new regional nuances.

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Battle Royale
The Monetisation Sweet Spot

Karol Severin

23 Jan 2020

Facebook Twitter Gaming

Niche is the new mainstream. Battle Royale players are one of these niches – far from mainstream in terms of consumer penetration, but impactful and valuable. Across music, video, news, magazines and games, they engage and spend more than average gamers.

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US and UK Sports Fans
Reaching Digital Natives

Alistair Taylor

6 Dec 2019

YouTube Amazon revenue

Sports as a product is feeling the squeeze of the peak attention economy. Sports fans in the traditional sense are ageing, and appealing to a younger digitally-native audience is a fundamental issue that rights holders can no longer ignore. Sports rights holders have realised the importance of their virtual (gaming) counterparts, acknowledging that...

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US Gamers
Targeting Games Franchises to Compete in the Attention Economy

Karol Severin

27 Sep 2019

YouTube Netflix Facebook

Games used to be isolated from other media activities. This has all changed with the rise of the attention economy, and the shift of gaming devices from purely consoles, to smartphones now supporting other media formats. This dynamic opens a floodgate of opportunities for media and entertainment companies, tech majors, telcos and brands alike to cr...

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E-sports
An Alternative Future for Televised Sports?

Alistair Taylor, Karol Severin, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

1 Apr 2019

YouTube Amazon Google

E-sports continue to gain attention, with more brands seeking to enter the space populated as it is by a succession of new leagues, competitions and teams. But for all the hype, e-sports has not yet managed to deliver the scale of audience that the market activity warrants.

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The Sports Video Landscape
Sports Streaming Services in a Digital First Ecosystem

Alistair Taylor

27 Jul 2018

Consumer behaviour Amazon Amazon

The 13.2% dip on the 2019–2022 English Premier League (EPL) rights deals compared to the 2015-2018 deal highlighted the decline in value for sports broadcast rights. In light of this downturn and a fall in the consumption of sports content on traditional linear TV, moves are being made into the subscription video on demand (SVOD) space, with Disn...

Grand Theft Auto Fan Profile
The Mainstream Hardcore Gamers

Karol Severin

16 May 2017

YouTube Deezer Apple Music

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is among the most popular console game title franchises in the market. Despite the controversy, the brand has managed to establish a solid fan foothold across genders and ages. GTA fans are digitally sophisticated and engaged users (albeit under-indexing in messaging app usage) with a strong affinity for online video and for ...

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The Emergence Of The Always On Gamer
Profiling Console Owners

Karol Severin

30 Mar 2017

Apple Google Apple TV

The game console owner segment is evolving fast. Still relatively young for now, console game fans are both aging and heading towards truly mainstream demographic distribution. Simultaneously, console subscription models are gaining traction, migrating premium physical software budgets into digital spend.

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