Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

Why Musk’s Twitter takeover will not be the last attempt at a social platform acquisition

Hanna Kahlert

21 Apr 2022

Elon Musk is not one to shy away from making waves with strategic curveballs – and his latest moves to acquire Twitter are no exception. Less than a month after attaining the second largest shareholding position in the company at 9.

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Podcasts’ music opportunity both serves audio creators and inspires listeners

Annie Langston

21 Apr 2022

Podcasts

exclusive content

Audio

As the audio market becomes more saturated, solving creator pain points becomes essential for both platforms and networks. Music licensing is becoming a crucial component of podcast creation but the often-complicated process is limiting both creator and rights holder opportunities.

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Forget peak Netflix, this is the attention recession

Mark Mulligan

20 Apr 2022

peak attention economy

Peak Attention

Attention economy

Forget peak Netflix, this is the attention recession Netflix’s Q1 2022 results caused a stir, with subscriber numbers down by 0.2 million from one quarter earlier. Some are calling this ‘peak Netflix’, but this is not a Netflix-specific issue.

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Sony continues investing in Epic Games

Karol Severin

19 Apr 2022

Sony

Epic Games

Fortnite

Sony continues investing in Epic Games Although Microsoft stole the headlines with its acquisition of Activision early this year, Sony is certainly not just standing on the side-lines. Last week, it announced a significant $1 billion investment into Epic Games.

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Facebook versus TikTok – a tale of two diverging social apps

Richard Broadhurst

14 Apr 2022

Social video

Social media

Podcast subscriptions are a key territory for the audio market

Annie Langston

12 Apr 2022

Podcasts

Subscriptions

audio fans

Podcast subscriptions offer both a direct revenue stream for audio creators and provide fans with an amplified audio experience. Despite the percentage that the subscription services take from the earrings, this is a steady income source for creators, and the model is being adopted by the large audi...

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Warner Bros. Discovery is real – now comes the hard part

Tim Mulligan

12 Apr 2022

Warner Bros. Discovery

Streaming

Warner Media

On Friday, Discovery, Inc . and AT&T Inc . announced that they have concluded their transaction to combine the WarnerMedia business with Discovery. This combination finally completes a process that began last May and creates a new major standalone global media and entertainment company, Warner B...

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SiriusXM’s podcast partnership sets new precedent for the audio market

Annie Langston

7 Apr 2022

SiriusXM

Audio

Podcasts

At the kick-off of the audio battle, some of the largest tech platforms – most notably Spotify and Amazon – entered the ring by purchasing various podcast networks. These pre-emptive moves aimed to excel their position in this developing market, and in Spotify’s case, have helped them become t...

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Is the catalogue acquisition market betting tomorrow's success on yesterday's metrics?

Tatiana Cirisano

5 Apr 2022

music industry

music industry investment

music catalogue

The music industry spent $5.3 billion on music catalogue acquisitions in 2021, according to MIDiA's most recent market report , not counting another $6.7 billion that was invested into music companies or music catalogue acquisition funds.

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How the future of sports coverage will increasingly resemble gamified sports betting

Tim Mulligan

5 Apr 2022

NENT Group

Viaplay

DAZN

Swedish video provider NENT Group has announced that its UK launch in H2 2022 will be adding live sports to its Nordic-drama focused content line to its flagship subscription video on demand (SVOD) service; Viaplay .

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Music catalogue acquisition
Picking apart the $5 billion competition for icons

Cover image for Music catalogue acquisition

Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

March 2022

investment

Music streaming

music catalogue

A variety of economic factors and stock market volatility during the coronavirus pandemic helped establish music as an attractive asset class for institutional investors. With labels, publishers, institutional investors, and newly launched funds now competing for the same diminishing pool of evergreen catalogue, competition and prices are high.

YouTube could create a video and audio relationship to compete with music streaming platforms

Annie Langston

31 Mar 2022

YouTube

Audio

Podcasts

Audio content is most often created without visuals, with creators relying on their voice to engage listeners. However, as podcasting continues to develop, more platforms are looking for differentiated ways of appealing to audio creators and enriching their content.

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The Oscars finally returns to relevance

Tim Mulligan

29 Mar 2022

Oscars

CODA

Apple

On Sunday night, the 94thAcademy Awards (commonly known as the Oscars after its iconic award statuette) made a streaming service piece of content officially the most acclaimed film in the world. Apple TV+’s CODA, a coming of age comedy drama is an English-language remake of the 2014 French-Belgian...

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AVOD
A market primed for success

Tim Mulligan

March 2022

Business Strategy

The leading ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) services in the US have doubled their weekly active users (WAUs) in the past 24 months. While still niche, AVOD is now moving ever closer to mainstream adoption. This is most strikingly seen in the pivot of its userbase, from younger, lower-income demographics to older and wealthier consumers.

Did independents really do three times worse than the majors in 2021?

Mark Mulligan

22 Mar 2022

Music

Business Strategy

Today, the IFPI released its estimates for the global recorded music market, with reported revenues of $25.9 billion. Last year, the IFPI estimated global revenues to be $21.6 billion (note that the IFPI retrospectively changes its historical figures every year, but you can see its actual 2020 figur...

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Why Netflix is reminding its users that it is not a utility

Tim Mulligan

22 Mar 2022

Netflix

password sharing

Video

The weekend was rife with Netflix users (as opposed to subscribing members) upset with the password sharing prompt currently being tested in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. The feature prompts users to add subscriber accounts for up to two people, that they do not live with, at a lower price.

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Recorded music market shares 2021 – Red letter year

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2022

Record music market

global music revenues

label trade revenues 2021

We suggested back in 2020, that 2021 was going to be a strong year for the recorded music market. As it turns out, 2021 was the fastest growing year in living memory, with growth across most formats, contrasting strongly with 2020 when streaming was the only growth segment.

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Games companies’ video opportunity
From marketing to monetisation

Cover image for Games companies’ video opportunity

Karol Severin

March 2022

Free Report

Streaming

Gaming

Games

MIDiAs head games analyst, Karol Severin, discusses a key games video opportunity for games companies and games video creators alike, alongside two panellists - CEO of Wormhole Labs and a Twitch content creator. Find the full webinar here Let us know your thoughts on this groundbreaking opportunity via email: info@midiaresearch.

Why Instagram will introduce NFTs to the gig economy in a big way

Hanna Kahlert

16 Mar 2022

Facebook

Why MGM is so important to Amazon Prime Video

Tim Mulligan

15 Mar 2022

Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM)

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime Video

In the absence of any last minute objection from EU regulators today, Amazon’s $8.45 billion acquisition of film studio MGM will be approved this month, pending the outstanding US Federal Trade Commission’s ruling on whether the deal violates anti-trust law that will be decided later this month.

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