Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

Watch out Warzone and Fortnite: Ubisoft is coming after free-to-play

Karol Severin

17 May 2021

Ubisoft announced last week that it is adding specific focus on free-to-play, alongside its AAA catalogue. In doing so, it is following a route that has been very successful for Activision with its Warzone strategy.

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Quick take: Epic doubles down on expression and creation with the acquisition of ArtStation

Karol Severin

10 May 2021

acquisition

m&a

Epic Games

Epic Games embarked on the journey of attracting third-party developers a while ago , but it has now made a significant step towards building up a go-to marketplace and distribution centre for designers and creators of digital art and in-game items.

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Growth drivers – what comes after streaming

Mark Mulligan

7 May 2021

Streaming

growth drivers

fitness

The pandemic-defined 2020 was an outlier year across digital entertainment, with the extra 12% of time consumers spent with entertainment boosting everything, including music. One of the effects was that streaming grew more than it would have otherwise, delaying the inevitable slowdown in streaming ...

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Why Netflix is now the canary in the peak streaming coal mine

Tim Mulligan

5 May 2021

Netflix

SVOD

d2c

After 10 years of uninterrupted growth, culminating in the entertainment bonanza of the great lockdown of 2020, Netflix is now post-growth after missing Q1 subscriber targets. Cue a 10% fall in Netflix’s share price, and angst-ridden analytical pieces about how Netflix is now losing market share, ...

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Monetising Fandom
Unlocking growth beyond games

Karol Severin

April 2021

Free Report

digital content

Games

cross-entertainment strategy

Beyond gaming to cross-entertainment partnerships webinar slides - 22-04-2021

What does it mean to 'fix streaming'?

Keith Jopling

19 Apr 2021

Streaming

Strategy

Music

When I wrote a blog for MIDIA in January 2020 I first coined the term the “ Song Economy ”. At the time I saw it as a good thing - a major growth driver for the music industry to increase the value of songs, requiring bigger marketing strategies and in turn, more consumption of those songs: “T...

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Why is D2C okay for HBO, but not Manchester United?

Tim Mulligan

19 Apr 2021

Streaming

The Super League

Video

A decade-long threat from Europe’s wealthiest football clubs to break away and form a league of its own has finally become a reality with the announcement of the formation of the Super League.AC Milan, Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City...

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The music industry’s centre of gravity is shifting

Mark Mulligan

16 Apr 2021

creator tools

music industry investment

music investment

Regular readers will know that MIDiA has been analysing the creator tool space for some time now and building the case for why the changes that are taking place will be transformational not just for the creator tools space itself but for the music business as a whole.

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MUSIC & GAMING: A NEW WAY TO PLAY

Dara Jegede

13 Apr 2021

live streaming

monetizing fandom

Music

MUSIC & GAMING: A NEW WAY TO PLAY New report explores how music companies and creators should rethink building and monetising fandom LONDON—Tuesday, April 13, 2021: MIDiA Research, in partnership with Twitch, release a report, Music & Gaming: A new way to play , examining the growing oppor...

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Assessing the streaming opportunity: You’re doing it wrong

Mark Mulligan

9 Apr 2021

TAM

SAM

SOM

Buoyed by lockdown, streaming enjoyed another strong year in 2020, up 17.1% on 2019 according to MIDiA’s recorded music market shares report . But the revenue slowdown will come in 2021, driven by the maturation of the big music markets (e.

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Why games companies need to take Apple’s Arcade expansion seriously

Karol Severin

9 Apr 2021

Apple

Apple Arcade

Games industry

Apple announced a significant expansion of Apple Arcade last week, including more than 180 new games across three new games categories: ‘Timeless Classics’, ‘App Store Greats’ and ‘New Arcade Exclusives’.

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

Cover image for Getting serious about esports

Alistair Taylor

March 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...

Microsoft’s interest in Discord confirms MIDiA’s prediction

Karol Severin

31 Mar 2021

acquisition

Microsoft

Discord

In November 2020, we wrote the below in our annual predictions report . “Upping gaming experiences via ‘infrastructural acquisitions’: As non-gaming entertainment increasingly embeds in games, companies will look to upgrade their ecosystems to cater beyond consumers’ gaming needs and instead...

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D-Day for sports has finally arrived (in Italy)

Tim Mulligan

29 Mar 2021

sports rights

live sports

DAZN

Last Friday the sporting world moved one pivotal step closer to a streaming-first future. Sports video subscription service DAZN has now secured the rights to broadcast all Serie A matches for the next three years.

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Addison Rae will not be owned: The pitfalls of the major label business model

Kriss Thakrar

25 Mar 2021

Major labels

TikTok

Independent artists

TikTok stars are rejecting major labels. It is no secret that major labels are being outpaced by independent artists in the overall market. Addison Rae has a combined following of over 100 million between TikTok and Instagram alone, and she has leveraged her position to independently put together an...

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IFPI confirms global recorded music revenue growth

Mark Mulligan

23 Mar 2021

Music

Business Strategy

Last week MIDiA reported that recorded music revenues grew by 7% in 2020. Today the IFPI confirmed that figure, reporting 7.4% growth. (Similarly, the IFPI reported 19.9% growth for streaming, MIDiA had 19.

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The billion-dollar content play: Why Amazon is intentionally overpaying for its NFL rights

Tim Mulligan

22 Mar 2021

SVOD

Sports content

sports rights

In March 2021, the sports ecosystem breathed a collective sigh of relief. The NFL, the world’s most valuable sports league, secured an 11-year broadcast deal worth a staggering $100 billion (via CNBC ).

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Recorded music revenues hit $23.1 billion in 2020, with artists direct the winners – again

Mark Mulligan

15 Mar 2021

Recorded music revenue 2020

musc revenues 2020

label market shares 2020

The global pandemic caused widespread disruption to the music business, in particular decimating the live business and impacting publisher public performance royalties. Although the recorded music business experienced a dip in the earlier months of the pandemic, the remainder of the year saw industr...

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Recorded music market 2020
Pandemic-era growth

Cover image for Recorded music market 2020

Mark Mulligan

March 2021

Streaming

Streaming Music

Recorded music

The global pandemic turned the music industry upside down. While live was decimated throughout 2020, after an initial downturn, the recorded music market returned to growth and finished the year with an acceleration that suggests a strong 2021 lies ahead.

Native Instruments and iZotope: creator tools major in the making

Mark Mulligan

11 Mar 2021

Music

Business Strategy

At the start of the year private equity firm Francisco Partners acquired a majority stake in creator tools stalwart Native Instruments. It always looked like it was going to be the start of something big and today we saw the next step on Native’s new journey, with leading audio plugin company iZot...

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