Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

DraftKings is making its own strategic bet on the rise of the US sports betting market

19 Nov 2020

US-based sports betting company DraftKings’ stock value has grown 11% following a strong third-quarter performance in which its revenues increased 98% year on year (YoY) to reach $132.8 million, up from $67 million in Q3 2019.

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WWE Q3 Earnings – An innovative digital strategy helps WWE overcome COVID-19 disruption

Alistair Taylor

12 Nov 2020

WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment

covid

WWE’s Q3 2020 results provide a fascinating insight into how a live event-focused entertainment business has successfully navigated a global pandemic. In its financials for the quarter , WWE saw a 19% revenue increase year-on-year (YoY), with Q3 2020 revenue at $221.

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Why Take-Two Interactive does not need to adopt games subscriptions yet

Karol Severin

10 Nov 2020

take two interactive

t2

games subscriptions

Take-Two Interactive (T2) reported quarterly results, with revenue dipping slightly, but profitability improving. On the call, T2 reiterated scepticism over the future of the games subscription models.

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Why the sports broadcast model is now under threat

Alistair Taylor

6 Nov 2020

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sinclair

sports broadcast

The Sinclair Broadcast Group reported its Q3 2020 results earlier this week, which highlighted the detrimental impact sporting investments had on its balance sheet. A 37% year-on-year (YoY) increase in consolidated revenue (to $1.

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The video streaming shift from sports to news

Tim Mulligan

5 Nov 2020

News

Video

Streaming

Yesterday the Sinclair Broadcast Group reported its Q3 2020 results . A 37% increase in consolidated revenues was undone by a $4.2 billion impairment on the local sports segment due to the COVID-19 disruption wrought on its regional sports network.

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Live streaming centre stage for 2021

Keith Jopling

2 Nov 2020

live streaming

live music

Live music industry

The longer the pandemic continues, the harder it gets for the live music business (and other cultural sectors built around live performance) to sustain hope of a ‘return to normal’. I hate saying it, but there it is.

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State of the YouTube Music Economy 3.0
End of the Beginning

Cover image for State of the YouTube Music Economy 3.0

Mark Mulligan

October 2020

Spotify

YouTube

This is the third bi-annual report of its kind, providing the most comprehensive view available of the YouTube music economy. It presents data for revenues, royalty payments, streams, subscribers, user behaviour and user demographics. We explore success factors, cultural trends, monetisation frameworks and contextualise music’s performance against other content genres.

PS5 and Travis Scott partnership illustrate PlayStation’s/Sony’s cross-entertainment future

Karol Severin

29 Oct 2020

ps5

PlayStation5

Travis scott

Over the last year we have written a number of times that Sony’s future is cross-entertainment , while Xbox’s future is cross platform . This stems from their respective strengths and weaknesses. Sony would find it, at best, incredibly challenging to compete with Microsoft on cloud, cross-platform, or the depth of its pockets.

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Foxtel, diversifying for reach, launches freemium Kayo service

Alistair Taylor

28 Oct 2020

foxtel

News Corporation

Kayo

Australian pay-TV organisation Foxtel is launching a free version of its sport-centric streaming service Kayo in 2021. This follows a difficult year for the streaming service that saw its subscriber numbers recover to over 600,000 after suffering a significant decline following the initial COVID-19 outbreak.

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Turning fandom into revenue: Why UGC is the next big revenue maker for the content industries

Keith Jopling

28 Oct 2020

Music

Games

Covid-19

In our recent report The Rising Power of UGC , in association with Audible Magic we identified that the music industry could unlock as much as $6 billion in revenues from UGC by 2022. Such an outcome would see UGC contributing around 10% of music industry revenues, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

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Why DAZN is adapting to German consumer nuances with linear and digital bets

Alistair Taylor

22 Oct 2020

AZN

sport-centric

SVOD

DAZN’s recently-established position as the ‘Netflix of sport’ has been a hard fought one, requiring extensive rights investment in order to carve out a compelling proposition. In the markets where it has the best rights it has experienced the strongest adoption, with the converse equally true.

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The Premier League going pay-per-view means a sucker-punch for sports fans

Alistair Taylor

15 Oct 2020

English Premier League

EPL

pay per view

English Premier League (EPL) clubs have agreed an ‘interim solution’ to allow fans to continue watching their teams live. EPL fixtures not selected for broadcast in October will be available to fans on a pay-per-view (PPV) basis.

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Developers versus distributors: The App and Play Stores see challenge on the horizon

Hanna Kahlert

7 Oct 2020

Apple

Google

app store

Six months ago, Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store were the unquestioned gateways between app developers and consumer devices. Today, the unshakeable foundations of the fortress walls are, well, shaken.

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German Bundesliga faces 20% decline in value for its international rights

Alistair Taylor

1 Oct 2020

Bundesliga

premier league

EPL

German business publisher Sponsors has announced the German Football League (DFL) is facing a 20% decline in the total value of its overseas’ broadcast rights for the 2020/21 campaign. This is down from the €250 million ($292 million USD) that Bundesliga International (the league’s international sales operation) generated last year.

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DAZN 2019 Financials and Subscriber Deep Dive
Domestic Rights Key to Unlocking Audiences

Cover image for DAZN 2019 Financials and Subscriber Deep Dive

Alistair Taylor

September 2020

Sky

Financial Times

NFL

DAZN’s 2018 financials highlighted the difficulty in encouraging consumer adoption of a digital live sports proposition with a limited portfolio of sports rights. 2019 marked a year of consolidation and growth. DAZN learnt quickly that without premium domestic content it is difficult to penetrate competitive markets effectively.

Microsoft’s Zenimax acquisition is about the future of Games Pass more than console sales

Karol Severin

30 Sep 2020

Games

games consoles

Zenimax

With the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, Microsoft is gaining an important content asset for its portfolio – Bethesda’s games. And while the timing of the announcement certainly won’t make Sony too happy as it is about to launch PS5, the key benefits of this acquisition are tied to the future of Xbox Game Pass, rather than to who will sell more consoles this holiday season.

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Oracle and Walmart re-emerge to take on the future of a US TikTok

Hanna Kahlert

22 Sep 2020

Mobile content

Online video

TikTok

Since the announced US ban of ByteDance and WeChat in August, the future of the widely popular short-form social video app TikTok has been murky and vaguely chaotic. Two weeks ago, Microsoft and Walmart looked to be the partnership to take up the torch.

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Music Subscriber Market Shares 4.0
Subscriptions Decouple from Revenue

Cover image for Music Subscriber Market Shares 4.0

Mark Mulligan

September 2020

Subscriptions

Streaming

Music Subscriptions

This report presents key figures from MIDiA’s global music subscriber market shares model. The full dataset is published alongside this report with quarterly data from Q4 2015 to Q1 2020 and annual label trade revenue from full year 2015 to full year 2019 for 27 streaming services across 34 different markets.

Verizon Media announces platform to ‘evolve’ live streaming experience

Alistair Taylor

16 Sep 2020

Verizon

Verzion Media

Verizon Fios

Verizon Media announced a series of new Media Platform improvements in a press release today (16th September), intended to ‘evolve the live streaming experience’. These features are all aimed at increasing fan engagement following COVID-19’s detrimental impact on the overall viewing spectacle of live sports.

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Mulan – a tale of international compromise leaving no one satisfied

Tim Mulligan

14 Sep 2020

Online video

Mulan

Disney

A year unlike any other continues to throw curveballs at media companies with strong digital and international footprints. The live-action remake of the popular 90’s Disney animation Mulan has been 10 years in the making.

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Business Strategy