Business Strategy

Growth from transparency
Reframing the value of music through creator rights

Cover image for Growth from transparency
Mark Mulligan, Keith Jopling, Srishti Das and Kriss Thakrar
The music industry has been through an unprecedented period of change over the past five years.Innovations in live streaming, games, user-generated content (UGC), digital art, and trading of rights represent welcome new opportunities for music creators - opportunities that will require creators to adapt in order to take full advantage.
Read more …

Facebook is about to disrupt itself out of existence…again

Cover image for Facebook is about to disrupt itself out of existence…again
Mark Mulligan
Facebook’s rebranding to Meta can be interpreted in many ways. It can be seen as: following Google / Alphabet’s lead in communicating a new chapter in its business; putting distance between the company and its most well-known app, ahead of it beginning to decline; shifting the story away from whistleblower and ethics narratives; signalling a major strategic reboot.
min read
Read more …

Beyond broadcast
How digital natives will reboot sports content monetisation

Cover image for Beyond broadcast
Srishti Das
Global broadcast deals are being renegotiated in the context of expiring rights, evolving digitally native, younger audience engagement and increased competition for attention. With only 6% of 16-19-year-olds watching live sport across OTT platforms and linear TV, Gen Z is slowly finding new ways to engage with sports through social media highlights and fantasy sports.
Read more …

EA’s exclusive FIFA license is under threat as games go cross-entertainment

Cover image for EA’s exclusive FIFA license is under threat as games go cross-entertainment
Karol Severin
Last week it was reported that FIFA and EA are at an impasse regarding the renewal negotiations of an exclusive license deal. EA stated that it is considering renaming its flagship football title, while FIFA responded with a press release stating that “the future of gaming and esports for football stakeholders must involve more than one party controlling and exploiting all the rights’’ This is less about who is right and who is wrong, and more about the synergy of this once symbiotic partnership having run its course.
min read
Read more …

Quick take: What the Apple event’s creator focus means for lean-in entertainment

Cover image for Quick take: What the Apple event’s creator focus means for lean-in entertainment
Hanna Kahlert
The October 18th Apple event –for all its usual showmanship – did not have anything hugely innovative to unveil. New colours of the Apple HomePod, a new tier of AirPods, and the return of MagSafe charging, distinctive input ports, and actual keys instead of a touchpad on the upgraded MacBook Pros were the main highlights (aside from the new M1 chip, which was unveiled at the last event and has since merely been upgraded and put into more devices).
min read
Read more …

Smart home
Smart devices are winning the battle for the future of TV

Cover image for Smart home
Tim Mulligan
The unbundling of TV consumption is catalysing the smart home, with media streamers and smart TVs driving adoption and engagement. The smart home entertainment ecosystem will expand due to smart devices (smart TVs and smart speakers), as they are building on traditional consumption habits and engagement of key segments to act as smart home ecosystem ambassadors.
Read more …

What YouTube TV’s stand-off with NBCU reveals about phase 2 of D2C disruption

Cover image for What YouTube TV’s stand-off with NBCU reveals about phase 2 of D2C disruption
Tim Mulligan
YouTube TV’s stand-off with NBCU is approaching decision-making time, as tomorrow, September 30th, is the cut-off point for the streaming platform to meet the distribution terms of NBCU. If no agreement is reached, then YouTube TV subscribers will lose access to a wide range of NBCU channels, from regional sports networks to NBC, SyFy, USA, and Bravo, among others.
min read
Read more …