Product Strategy | MIDiA Research

Gaming Is now equally distributed between males and females – the supply side needs to catch up

Karol Severin

4 Feb 2020

Gaming has been travelling towards a more gender-equal distribution in 2019. While mobile gaming has traditionally been well-represented among females, PC and console gaming have historically skewed male.

min read

YouTube Music Curators
Media Assets or Next-Gen Labels?

Zach Fuller

December 2019

Spotify

Music publishing

YouTube

The rise of the YouTube channel curator was one of the defining stories in music throughout the 2010s, and yet in the era of global success stories such as Kondzilla and T-Series, their place in the music ecosystem is still being defined. YouTube points both towards the potential future of the label and essentially a new kind of visual media proper...

Streaming Pricing
Solid Outlook but Slowing Demand

Mark Mulligan

December 2019

Willingness to pay

Apple

Netflix

Across a wide selection of Western countries, the streaming music and video subscription markets are reaching a high degree of maturity. As saturation for core products nears, further growth will depend upon factors such as pricing innovation and multiple subscriptions per household.

TV Network Rankings
Brand Equity and the Weaponisation of Originals

Amanda Stears

November 2019

US

UK

YouTube

The big streaming networks Netflix and Amazon have become the powerhouses of video brand equity by simultaneously weaponising TV shows as acquisition tools and assimilating the brands of traditional networks through association with their shows. The disconnect between original TV networks and global audiences is becoming wider as local networks and...

Smart Speakers and Headphone Market Shares
Expanding Streaming’s Addressable Base

Cover image for Smart Speakers and Headphone Market Shares

Mark Mulligan

October 2019

Apple

Beats

Spotify

The rise of digital pushed music out of the home stereo and into the earbud. Over recent years this has created a booming market for headphones, but speakers are fighting back – driven in large part by tech majors using smart speakers as a Trojan horse for expanding into the home.

The Voice Market and Behaviour Trends Overview

Karol Severin

March 2019

Facebook

Twitter

iPhone

Despite being far from the mainstream at 9% penetration, voice control activity has established itself firmly in certain pockets of the digital entertainment landscape, be it among music subscribers in terms of entertainment or among Snapchat users within social media.

5G: Use Cases, Hurdles and Opportunity

Mark Mulligan

December 2018

Amazon

telco

mobile carriers

5G promises to be the next big step change both in telco business models and the digital content economy. The arrival of 5G will supercharge the business models of many companies across infrastructure and services but the outlook is less promising for others who are at risk of having their core revenue streams disrupted.

SVOD Overtakes Pay-TV

Alistair Taylor

October 2018

Spotify

Amazon

Netflix

This MIDiA update showcases the monumental shift in the video landscape with signups for subscription video on demand (SVOD) services overtaking pay-TV subscriptions for the very first time in Q1 2018. SVOD has disrupted traditional linear pay-TV to the point where it is no longer the most common household subscription across the core English-speak...

Speaker Market Shares
Amazon Ahead in a Crowded Market

Mark Mulligan

October 2018

Subscriptions

Streaming

Music Subscriptions

Digital music pushed music out of the home speaker and into the earphone. Over recent years this has created a booming market for headphones but speakers are fighting back, driven in large part by tech majors using smart speakers as a Trojan horse for expanding into the home.

UK Gamer Profile
Digital Entertainment Natives

Karol Severin

June 2018

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

Mobile and PC gamer penetration declined slightly in the UK between Q4 2016 and Q4 2017. Meanwhile, console ownership did not grow either, attesting that the market is constrained by the impending peak in the attention economy. It is becoming harder to compete for attention and engagement, precisely at the wrong time.

Voice Control Devices
Early Audience Behaviours and Adoption

Zach Fuller

March 2018

Consumer behaviour

Apple

Spotify

Connected voice-control devices epitomised by the Amazon Echo have transformed from being mere curiosities of consumer electronic R&D divisions, into becoming positioned as the next hardware paradigm. With impressive growth since its November 2014 release via Amazon Prime’s US customer base, the Echo and subsequent competing voice control dev...

The Sports Rights Bubble
Reaching The Tipping Point

Cover image for The Sports Rights Bubble

Tim Mulligan

January 2018

UK

Australia

Amazon

The broadcasting of live sport has been a key part of TV’s appeal and underpins the pay-TV ecosystem. However, a combination of entrenched cord-cutting and an ageing audience means that revenues are now moving out of synch with inflating domestic sports rights costs.

Apple Q4 (Calendar Q3) 2017
Quarterly Revenue Growth Underpins 2017 Revenue Revival

November 2017

Apple

ipad

Apple continued its sales momentum this quarter with the launch of hardware products such as iPhone 8 and 8 Plus models in September. Both smartphones have incorporated new features, such as augmented reality (AR) technology and wireless charging, to meet the demands of its pre-existing consumer base as well as to attract new users.

Quick Take: Will PlayStation’s growing VR games catalogue move the needle for its VR hardware?

Karol Severin

1 Nov 2017

Games

PlayStation

Playstation VR

We have written on the potential of VR in the past , specifically about our concern that gaming VR headsets will not take off en masse, until there is content mix compelling enough to justify device price points.

min read

Media Company Strategy
How Legacy Format Audiences Can Fund Digital Transition

Zach Fuller

September 2017

publishing

physical books

mass media

Media’s well documented struggles of balancing the decline of ad revenue with building digital subscriber bases has resulted in surprising strategic actions by some of its largest entities. As the tech majors take more digital ad revenue form across the digital sphere, publishing, music and online video companies are quietly super-serving legacy ...

Amazon Music
The Dark Horse Comes Out Of The Shadows

Mark Mulligan

September 2017

Streaming

Streaming Music

Music Subscriptions

Back in the days when online music meant online CD sales, Amazon was the king. Then, along came Apple with iTunes music store and Amazon saw the throne snatched from its hands. No sooner had Apple started to enjoy its reign that Spotify came along to usurp the throne.

Voice Control
Market Strategy for the Next Major Hardware Paradigm

Zach Fuller

May 2017

Apple

Marketing

Amazon

Acting as a Trojan horse in consumer electronics, voice control slipped under the radar compared to more bombastic new technologies such as Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence, to quietly become a potential paradigm shift in the computer interface.

Next Generation Networks
What A Post-Pay-TV Video Network Looks Like

Cover image for Next Generation Networks

Tim Mulligan

March 2017

Apple

YouTube

Amazon

In the cord-cutting era TV networks are having to think about what life beyond the traditional pay-TV ecosystem might look like. With SVOD services snapping up audiences in their millions, operators are busy focusing on higher ARPU users and demanding more rights from networks but with tightening budgets.

Paid Versus Free
Monetisation In The Post-Sales World

Zach Fuller

February 2017

Apple

Spotify

As the app economy matures into an amorphous content landscape, a picture emerges of how free and pure subscription models impact the bottom-line of the creative industries across music, online video, publishing and gaming. In one corner, freemium has been accused of devaluing content as a product, yet it is also credited with driving higher revenu...

Live Entertainment
Measuring Music's Place

Mark Mulligan

February 2017

Streaming Music

Spotify

live music

The live music industry has always had a slightly incongruous relationship with its recorded music industry cousin. Often having to tolerate the record labels’ business being called ‘the music industry’ and equally often, finding itself at the focus of consumer discontent over ticketing practices.