Marketplace

After stalling for the first time in this year’s first quarter, the number of U.S. households with subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) subscriptions rose by two percentage points quarter-over-quarter in Q2, according to Kantar’s Entertainment on Demand Service. Netflix’s share of households continued to decline in Q2, to 61%. Part of that is due to Amazon Prime Video, which grabbed the largest share of new U.S. SVOD subscribers (20.5%).

Source: Digital News Daily: U.S. Streaming Rebounds In Q2, Amazon Grabs Largest Share Of New Subs, Netflix Penetration Down

Many media companies are still grappling with how many resources they should devote to their metaverse research and strategy. The latest data from Morning Consult shows that there’s still low awareness of the metaverse among U.S. adults; simultaneously, U.S. adults are more interested in entertainment-related activities in the metaverse than those related to other industries.

Source: Media Companies and the Metaverse Paradox

Netflix is angling to win over a new bloc of value-conscious consumers with a new ad-supported streaming package set to debut in early 2023. “We’ll likely start in a handful of markets where advertising spend is significant,” Netflix said in its Q2 letter to shareholders. “Like most of our new initiatives, our intention is to roll it out, listen and learn, and iterate quickly to improve the offering.”

Source: Netflix Aims to Launch Cheaper, Ad-Supported Plan in Early 2023

Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook is reallocating resources from its Facebook News tab and newsletter platform Bulletin, as the company focuses more on the creator economy, senior executive Campbell Brown told employees in a memo. Ms. Brown, who leads Facebook’s global media partnerships, said the company would shift engineering and product support away from the two products as “those teams heighten their focus on building a more robust Creator economy.”

Source: WSJ News Exclusive | Facebook Shifts Resources From News to Focus on Creator Economy

Current music in the United States isn’t just losing market share. It’s actually getting statistically less popular. That’s according to a new midyear report published by US market monitor Luminate (formerly MRC Data / Nielsen Music). It shows that ‘Total Album Consumption’ of ‘Current’ recorded music in the United States in the first half of 2022 fell 1.4% in volume versus the equivalent metric from the same period of 2021.

Source: It’s official: New music is SHRINKING in popularity in the United States

In May, reports surfaced that Facebook, eyeing market instability and a fierce new challenger in TikTok, was reevaluating its practice of paying news publishers to participate in its News tab. The reversal mirrored another change in strategy from the company when, in August 2021, it announced plans to further diminish the visibility of political news in its users’ feeds.

Source: How Facebook Traffic to Publishers Has Changed

In the case of Kate Bush, Warner Records couldn’t ignore 85 million global streams (this week alone) and re-serviced “Running Up That Hill” to radio. Without a sync on a cultural juggernaut like “Stranger Things” to open doors, artists and their teams are tackling this increasingly common scenario in a variety of different ways.

Source: Viral Revivals: From Kate Bush to Tom Odell, Inside the Business of Oldies as New Hit Songs

Americans age 50 and older are powering the growth of streaming video in the U.S., accounting for the biggest increase in time spent on services such as Netflix, Hulu and YouTube, according to data from measurement firm Nielsen. People 50 and over accounted for 39% of streaming watch time as of May, up from 35% a year earlier, the data show.

Source: WSJ News Exclusive | Americans Age 50 and Up Are Powering Streaming Growth

Continued growth in streaming is delivering another upbeat year for the music business, both in the U.S. and globally, according to Luminate’s 2022 Midyear Report. But the report’s biggest surprise might be that a music configuration which has enjoyed more than a decade of growth could see its growth streak plateauing: the LP.

Source: Midyear Music Report: U.S. Streams Rise a Solid 10.6%, Per Luminate; Latin and Country Heat Up, While Vinyl Growth Cools

As streaming’s explosive pandemic-driven growth has slowed and inflation has set in, pricing has become an increasingly important driver of subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD) subscription adds and cancels, according to research from NPD Group. Between October 2021 and April 2022, NPD’s surveys show cost having risen from being the No. 4 reason for cancelling an SVOD service to being No. 2, below content.

Source: Video Insider: SVOD Cancellations, Additions Increasingly Driven By Price