Casino News Media Blog
Crypto News
Blog
Cryptocurrency News
Exploring the Latest Statistics for Cryptocurrency Investors
Some of the most recent statistics that provide valuable insights for cryptocurrency investors
Cryptocurrency markets have seen remarkable growth and transformation in the past decade, with millions of investors worldwide participating in this dynamic and often volatile space. As the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to evolve, it’s essential for investors to stay informed about the latest statistics, trends, and developments in the market. In this article, we will explore some of the most recent statistics that provide valuable insights for cryptocurrency investors.
Market Capitalization
Market capitalization is a fundamental metric in the cryptocurrency space. It represents the total value of all cryptocurrencies combined. As of the most recent data, the cryptocurrency market cap exceeds $2 trillion. This number gives investors a sense of the overall size and significance of the market.
Bitcoin Dominance
Bitcoin, often referred to as digital gold, is the most dominant cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. It has consistently maintained a dominance percentage of around 40-50% in recent years. This metric helps investors understand Bitcoin’s relative importance within the broader cryptocurrency market.
Altcoin Popularity
While Bitcoin remains the largest cryptocurrency, altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies) have gained popularity. Ethereum, Binance Coin, and Cardano are some of the leading altcoins. Ethereum, in particular, is known for its smart contract capabilities, and the total value locked in decentralized applications (DeFi) has surged.
Exchange Statistics
The number of cryptocurrency exchanges has grown significantly. At present, there are over 300 exchanges globally. The competition between exchanges has led to improved services, lower fees, and increased trading volumes.
Trading Volume
Daily trading volume is a critical statistic for investors. It provides insights into the liquidity and activity in the market. Recent data shows that the daily trading volume for all cryptocurrencies is well over $100 billion, indicating substantial market participation.
Wallet Growth
The number of cryptocurrency wallets continues to grow steadily. This reflects the increasing interest and adoption of digital assets by individual investors. As of the latest figures, there are over 80 million blockchain wallet users.
Institutional Involvement
Institutional participation in the cryptocurrency market has surged in recent years. Major financial institutions, hedge funds, and publicly traded companies have started investing in cryptocurrencies. This trend has contributed to the market’s overall legitimacy and growth.
Regulatory Developments
Cryptocurrency regulations are evolving worldwide. Governments and regulatory bodies are increasingly addressing the need for regulatory frameworks to govern digital assets. Investors are closely watching how these regulations may impact the market.
NFT Explosion
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become a significant trend in the cryptocurrency space. NFTs represent unique digital assets and are often used for digital art, collectibles, and in-game items. The NFT market has experienced substantial growth, with high-profile sales of digital artwork making headlines.
DeFi and Yield Farming
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and yield farming have gained traction among investors. These platforms offer various financial services, including lending, borrowing, and liquidity provision. Total value locked in DeFi protocols has surpassed $100 billion.
Sports Business News
TECH TRENDS CONTINUE TO SHAKE SPORTS FANDOM. MAY THE BEST IDEAS WIN
In 2022, a number of new technologies offered glimpses of their promise for sports—and their drawbacks.
An explosion of streaming services has brought more action to our fingertips, while simultaneously making it harder (and possibly more expensive) to find any one game. Meta showed off its vision of online worlds bringing us closer together, but performance issues led the company to put part of its Horizon Worlds team in a “quality lockdown” this fall.
FTX imploded, if you hadn’t heard, largely extinguishing excitement about blockchain’s potential. And that was only days after Twitter began writhing through an Elon Musk-led overhaul.
Over the last year, the Internet writ large seemed poised to offer fans things like better access to their favorite teams, fun new ways to connect with peers, and even literal riches. But the deliverables rarely matched the hype. Instead came another reminder that “new” doesn’t necessarily mean “better” and that, with a few poor decisions, the sports fan experience has the potential to actually get worse.
During 2023, we’ll see how the following tech developments impact sports, for good or for bad.
Streaming
This year, Amazon, Apple, and Google-owned YouTube have set themselves up to apply their unique philosophies to live sports. (Netflix remains on the sidelines. For now.)
Amazon went first, with its operational focus helping it successfully set a new standard for streaming sports with Thursday Night Football. Apple, meanwhile, has always put an emphasis on top-to-bottom design, which often requires a high degree of creative input if not outright control. In a league-level partnership with Major League Soccer, they’ll get the chance to show how they think modern sports fandom should operate.
Then there’s Google, which will lean on its decades-long history of organizing information and making it accessible as it builds a product to help fans watch the right out-of-market NFL games at the right time. YouTube made one of the biggest sports media splashes of 2022 by securing seven years worth of NFL Sunday Ticket. Now it will need to meet fans’ expectation of an improved experience—and sell a lot of subscriptions.
So far, tech companies have mainly only changed where sports are broadcast, not what it is like to watch them. After shaking up music and TV, streamers need to give fans a reason to be excited about games making the jump to digital. AltCasts might be that reason, though right now the best one—the ManningCast—resides on ESPN2.
Social
It’s not just Twitter that’s in flux; some pundits are declaring Instagram to be “Over.” TikTok continues to face regulatory scrutiny. Numerous other platforms have recently suffered layoffs in the face of discouraging advertising projections.
Athletes and properties have turned into 365-day brands thanks to social media, and that won’t stop even if the platforms change. Instead, look for teams and leagues to build even more direct relationships with their fans—the NBA and NFL are already taking cues from social companies with new features in their own apps.
Sports is primarily a community product. Teams sell an identity and an invitation to a group. As more of life takes place on the Internet, it’s crucial fans have a digital place they’re proud to call home.
Augmented Reality
While the Metaverse hogged more of the hype spotlight last year, AR has quickly found a home in sports. Broadcasters ranging from ESPN to Nickelodeon are incorporating virtual elements into their shows. Numerous properties are also experimenting with how phone-based tools could improve or enliven the in-person experience.
More radical change will come when (and if) a critical mass of people decide it’s time to buy (and wear) advanced headsets. Live sports content could drive adoption, but rights holders might also be wary of being burned on the idea for a second time in 10 years.
In the meantime, VR games like NFL Pro Era and Golf+ are already demonstrating interesting use cases. We’ll see if any leagues are able to leverage advanced simulators to develop a new generation of fans.
Artificial Intelligence
AI (called as much because we’re evidently on a nickname basis with our computers after all these years) will only intensify the speed of all those above changes. Automated cameras will soon be paired with AI-commentating to elevate the production values of more sporting events, including youth-level games. Online, AI promises even more personalized feeds and viewing recommendations, like a customized RedZone channel. Computational wizardry might also hold the keys to creating more advanced AR graphics and life-like digital spaces.
But then come the buts, such as the potential for brand-damaging fake videos and the possibility of minimizing the human element that has made sports sports.
There’s a lot of change on the horizon, and by now we’ve learned it won’t all be positive. It can’t be. In each of these categories, some tech will prove itself; other stuff will prove itself … to be a headache. Here’s hoping 2023 is not another rebuilding year.
May the best ideas win.
(John WallStreet)
HOW PROFITABLE IS ESPN? DISNEY BREAKS OUT FIGURES FOR FIRST TIME
Just how profitable is ESPN to The Walt Disney Co.? For the first time, per The Hollywood Reporter, there’s a clear answer, and it shows just how lucrative the sports business is for the company.
Beginning next quarter, Disney will change how it reports its quarterly financials. The move comes after CEO Bob Iger’s reorganization earlier this year to “to restore creativity to the center of our business.”
The new structure will consist of parks and experiences, entertainment and sports (which is almost entirely ESPN, with Star-branded sports channels in India comprising a small portion). Whereas before ESPN was lumped in with all of Disney’s linear TV and streaming assets in the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division, and before that was folded into its other TV assets, including ABC and the Disney cable channels, it will now occupy its own division, led by Jimmy Pitaro.
According to an SEC filing Wednesday that outlines the new financial reporting structure, ESPN delivered $16 billion in revenue in fiscal 2022 (the company’s fiscal year ended October of 2022), and had profits of $2.9 billion.
For comparison, the new “entertainment” division, which includes Disney’s other TV networks and streaming services, as well as its film and TV studios, had revenues of $39.6 billion in fiscal 2022 … but profits of only $2.1 billion, thanks to Disney’s yet-to-be-profitable streaming business.
That lucrative profit margin for ESPN underscores why the company seems intent to keep it for the time being, and why it was so eager to cut a deal with Charter Communications and end its blackout last month.
Indeed, a deeper read of the finances show that most of ESPN’s revenues came from pay TV carriage fees ($10.1 billion), compared with advertising revenue of $4.4 billion. As cord-cutting has worsened, ESPN has bore the brunt of it for Disney, thanks to its lucrative carriage deals.
It’s worth noting that before Disney began spending billions on streaming, the filing shows that its traditional entertainment business was very profitable, and the “peak losses” at Disney+ pushed them down last year.
Now Disney is looking for partners to become minority shareholders in ESPN, with sports chief Jimmy Pitaro saying earlier this year the company wants “partners that we think can make the flagship product more compelling” as it plans a streaming offering. Hearst, an early investor in ESPN, continues to own a 20 percent stake in the channel.
Sports News Media
YouTube’s NFL Bet May Be About Becoming Sports Content Filter
YouTube’s successful technical launch of NFL Sunday Ticket has turned industry observers’ attention to the business rationale behind the company’s $14 billion bet on American football.
DirecTV held the exclusive broadcast rights to the league’s out-of-market package from 1994 through the 2022 season. While the service helped to drive subscriptions, and credibility to the satellite-delivered “cable TV” service in its early years, the company is widely believed to have lost tens of millions of dollars on the quarter century plus long relationship.
DirecTV was paying $1.5 billion annually to the league over the last eight years of the relationship. Reports have stated that just 10% of company subscribers bought the football specific service.
It is challenging to make a direct business case for YouTube paying $2 billion a year to acquire the product given this context. And that is before one realizes YouTube is not requiring NFL fans to be YouTube TV subscribers to purchase their Sunday Ticket offering (as was the case with DirecTV). The streaming service can be bought on an a la carte basis.
However, Google may not be looking at it that way. The company may see investing in the tier-one produced content as a means of “driving more eyeballs and driving up CPMs to its traditional YouTube platform,” Matt Rosenberg (managing director & head of media finance, Monroe Capital) said. “Google can afford the large price tag it takes to do this.”
It is also suspected that the Google subsidiary is using the NFL package to anchor the sports content discovery platform it is building. Stratechery’s Ben Thompson theorized the company may be planning to monetize the rights by turning YouTube into a ‘filter’ for sports content, similar to what its search engine does for internet content.
Of course, Google acquired YouTube in 2006. Both companies are now part of the holding company Alphabet.
YouTube and the Google Press Team did not respond to a request for comment on the speculation.
The internet made it easy for people to create content. But the rapid proliferation of it quickly made discovery a challenge.
Google became the internet’s dominant search engine by making it easy for people to find the content they were after. Millions of people now use it daily to navigate the internet.
The company monetizes the traffic it generates by serving as a referral engine to product, service, and content providers, primarily through search engine ads. And it generates a fortune (see: $42.6 billion in Q2 ‘23).
Sports fans are now facing their own content discovery challenges.
The emergence of countless new properties, the rise of streaming services (think: YouTube TV, ESPN+, AppleTV, and Amazon Prime) and the fracturing of rights packages have made it increasingly challenging to find the game one wants to watch.
At the same time, sports content costs are rising (annual rights fees cost billions of dollars) and unlike entertainment programming, the content is usually only shown once.
Google found being the filter for content, rather than the primary creator of it, to be a lucrative strategy for its internet search business. Logic suggests YouTube may be trying to replicate the model around digital sports programming.
The main difference this time around is that YouTube made a substantial investment in content to bring users to its platform. Presumably, the hope is NFL Sunday Ticket draws fans into the centralized content marketplace and that they’ll continue using the platform to find the games they’re looking for.
The company will then likely pursue a commission each time it refers a fan to a third-party platform (e.g., ESPN+).
Amazon, Apple, and Roku charge similar fees for referrals to other platforms. Affiliate has become a profitable revenue stream for those companies, generating billions of dollars in combined revenues.
“YouTube isn't taking this exclusively to YouTube TV because it wants to build YouTube Primetime Channels–[this is] its answer to Apple and Amazon's channel stores,” John Kosner (president, Kosner Media) said.
Google’s ‘late’ entrance into the marketplace should not be an issue given that it has overcome similar competitive dynamics before. It was not the first search engine when it launched, but was able to make up the time lost by delivering a better experience.
Combining NFL content with YouTube/Google search capabilities would seemingly have the company in position to become sports’ preferred discovery solution. If it can achieve those ambitions, generating a return on the Sunday Ticket investment shouldn’t be an issue.
“YouTube TV is far more than just one of the Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distribution (vMVPD). It is becoming one of the largest TV distributors period,” Kosner said.
(JohnWallStreet)
‘Couldn’t organise a conference for 500’: event expert on Games chaos
The Victorian government’s team in charge of delivering the 2026 Commonwealth Games was so inexperienced it would have struggled to host a 500-person conference, an inquiry has been told.
Event Pty Ltd director Simon Thewlis said one of the primary causes of the Games’ failure was that it was being organised by “generalist public servants” rather than specialists. He also panned the reliance of state government “super departments” on outsourcing work to consultancy firms.
Events industry heavyweight Simon Thewlis has slammed the organisational structure of the Victoria’s ill-fated Commonwealth Games, saying it was “always going to end in tears”. Eamon Gallagher
Mr Thewlis said he believed the Games would always “end in tears” given its business case was based on the 2018 Gold Coast Games but was intended to be held in five regional hubs across Victoria.
“At the end of the day, a bunch of people with little to no real operational major event experience tried to organise one of the largest events our country has ever seen,” he told an inquiry on Monday.
“This is a story of astonishing arrogance and hubris that has seen Victoria going from having once been a leading event state to one responsible for the biggest debacle in the history of events in Australia.
“They thought they knew better than the event industry. They failed
Mr Thewlis said he believed the Games would always “end in tears” given its business case was based on the 2018 Gold Coast Games but was intended to be held in five regional hubs across Victoria.
“At the end of the day, a bunch of people with little to no real operational major event experience tried to organise one of the largest events our country has ever seen,” he told an inquiry on Monday.
“This is a story of astonishing arrogance and hubris that has seen Victoria going from having once been a leading event state to one responsible for the biggest debacle in the history of events in Australia.
“They thought they knew better than the event industry. They failed completely. I would go as far as saying had the project been a conference for 500 people, they still would have been in trouble.”
Mr Thewlis, who has worked in the Victorian event industry for 40 years and co-founded the lockdown-era Save Victorian Events campaign, said leading public servants in the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions “decided they were the best people in Australia to run the Games”.
‘Unencumbered by knowledge or experience’
“To my knowledge, they all had little to no real operational major event experience and some an unwillingness to ever listen or learn. This confirmed to me that the Games would end in tears,” he said.
“Events don’t happen by magic. They involve a whole range of really quite specific skill sets. They didn’t do that, it was just generalist public servants.
“I have no doubt that they all thought they were doing a good job. They were so unencumbered by knowledge or experience that they would not have known otherwise.”
Red flags in the business case included that Melbourne spent $2.9 billion to host the Games in 2006, but the 2026 event, with a “vastly more complex regional model”, was budgeted to cost $2.6 billion.
Also, the Gold Coast in 2018 spent $40 million on ceremonies, but only $41.9 million was budgeted for 2026 ceremonies at the MCG and Geelong’s Kardinia Park.
Mr Thewlis said the axing of the Games would put NSW in a better light than Victoria, particularly after the Sydney edition of the South By Southwest festival, the first time the festival was held outside Texas in 36 years.
Volleyball Australia chief executive Andrew Dee told the inquiry earlier on Monday Victoria would be a “place to avoid for some time” for major events.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games Australia boss Craig Phillips said he and fellow organisers met in April with Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, who was then the minister tasked with delivering the event, to discuss cost pressures and proposed savings.
“We got the impression that she was very confident the budget would be available,” he said.
Ms Allan has denied misleading parliament by saying “tremendous progress” was being made to host the Games months after receiving advice that the cost would blow out by billions of dollars.
Mr Phillips said the government was yet to pay the $380 million agreed compensation for cancelling the Games, because the federation was concerned it may have to pay UK tax on the payout.
(AFR)
Seven boss content with ‘last-mover advantage’ on streaming - October 24, 2023
Kerry Stokes-controlled Seven West Media is pitching its all-in approach to free-to-air television as an asset to advertisers, with CEO James Warburton saying that the network is not captive to the distractions of newer broadcast formats, like streaming.
According to Warburton, Seven’s main competitors, Ten and Nine (the owner of this masthead), are “probably a little bit distracted with the other bits they’ve got”.
“They don’t talk a lot about just television. Whereas us, it’s what we eat, sleep and breathe.”
Warburton spoke to this masthead before Seven’s annual Upfront event last week, where the network pitched its slate of programming to media executives in a bid to secure a chunk of tighter advertising dollars.
Backed by the network’s staple performers, Home and Away and The Voice, Warburton points to Seven’s claim as the “number one free-to-air network”, based on this year’s TV ratings survey period.
It’s an important metric, given Warburton’s real challenge is to remind advertisers that television remains an unmatched place to reach audiences at scale.
Ten/Paramount will pitch to advertisers this week, showcasing its free-to-air product, alongside content on affiliated streaming service, Paramount+. Meanwhile, Nine, which made its pitch in September, has assets in streaming (Stan), radio and newspapers, including this masthead.
Warburton reckons these other assets should be seen as a distraction from the main event, and that’s television.
But his upbeat tenor belies the pressure the television industry continues to face from global and digital competitors. Meanwhile, the advertising pool is continuing to shrink, with total revenue across the year ending June 30 dropping 7.9 per cent.
In a $3.6 billion market, Seven remains a powerhouse, but its long-term viability looks increasingly wobbly. While Seven does own Perth-based masthead The West Australian, it’s lack of diverse assets, particularly in the premium streaming space, means it will continue to be reliant on revenue from freely accessible news, sport and entertainment.
However, across the past 12 months, market sentiment on global streaming SVOD (streaming video on demand) services has soured, and Warburton believes Seven can focus on what it does best by not being weighed down by the “pain” involved with such products.
“I’m not a believer in last-mover advantage, I’m too aggressive for that,” he says, but in this case, “it exists”.
Seven did mull the streaming opportunity, working with NBCUniversal at one time to partner on a local launch of the latter’s streaming service, Peacock. NBCUniversal eventually decided that licensing made more sense.
Now, global giants like Disney are rethinking their commercial models, freeing up some of their content to be licensed across other platforms and allowing the US heavyweights to turn their intellectual properties into dollars, even as their streaming platforms start to stutter.
Paramount on Tuesday announced it was adding an advertising tier to its Paramount+ service in Australia, in a bid to attract new audiences at a lower price point and diversify revenue opportunities on the platform. The tier will be introduced in Australia in 2024.
“I think everyone puts on a brave face, but ultimately, it always comes back to economics, and it’s funny to read some global people saying it was all about subs at any cost, and now it’s about profitable subs. Like, really?” Warburton said.
“You wouldn’t want to be trying to renew content pipelines in this market, you can see clear as day they’ll all be here eventually,” Warburton adds, a potential reference Foxtel’s lucrative HBO-based content deal with Warner Bros.
Discovery is another company looking to launch its own service, Max, in 2025.
Seven is hoping new content, including a new format drawing from the popular Made in Chelsea brand, Made in Bondi, co-commissioned with British network Channel 4, will help bring new audiences to its free digital service, 7Plus, alongside a number of new titles fronted by the ‘Bondi Vet’, Dr Chris Brown, recently recruited from Network 10.
Brown will do the heavy lifting for Seven in 2024, hosting a new The Block-like format, Dream Home, and a new dating show, Stranded on Honeymoon Island, while also joining Sonia Kruger as co-host of Dancing with the Stars.
Also coming to Seven’s digital channels at the end of 2024 are new broadcast deals with the AFL and Cricket Australia. Currently, the network’s respective deals with the sporting bodies only allow it to broadcast matches on linear channels.
Next on the horizon for Warburton is doubling up on winter codes with an attempt to snatch the NRL’s State of Origin. The three annual games are a regular ratings hit across both linear and digital channels for current rights holder Nine, though negotiations are not likely to take place until 2025.
“Our commitment is with the AFL - but absolutely [Seven is interested]. We have a very good relationship with [Racing NSW CEO and chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission] Peter V’Landys through racing, and a very good relationship with [NRL chief] Andrew Abdo as well, so that’s something we’ll target,” he said.
Nine declined to comment.
Forget football: investors line up as PFL reveals local launch - October 2023
The fast-growing Professional Fighters League wants to take on giants like UFC and sees Australia as a key part of that strategy. Local fighters – and money – will help.
(The Australian)
MMA star’s $10 million boxing payday continues shakeup - October 22, 2023
Mixed martial arts star Francis Ngannou is in the final week of training for his first professional boxing match, which will reportedly pay him $10 million — 16 times more than his most recent MMA bout.
Ngannou was a heavyweight champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, MMA's top circuit. When his contract expired earlier this year, he signed with the upstart Professional Fighters League, which — unlike the UFC — allowed him to compete in boxing, where purses can be much larger. If other UFC stars follow his path, it would continue shaking up the sport.
On Oct. 28, Ngannou will fight world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia. Although payouts haven’t been officially revealed, Fury has said Ngannou is set to make at least eight figures.
The tilt is another meeting between a top boxer and MMA fighter that’s drawing lots of media attention and big paydays. Conor McGregor set the stage for these kind of matchups in 2017, when the UFC star boxed and lost to Floyd Mayweather. McGregor earned $85 million, according to Forbes.
Despite experiencing a boom in popularity, MMA’s top fighters still can’t match the payouts of boxers. One big reason is that boxing is a much older sport with a lucrative business model in place. And while MMA fighters are under contract with a promotion or league, boxers act as their own business entities. That gives them more power when negotiating fights and advertising deals.
"Most fighters are barely able to make a living,” Ngannou said. They’re "living paycheck to paycheck.”
Ngannou, who oddsmakers see as a big underdog against Fury, was able to take part in a boxing match because of a unique contract with the PFL, which was founded by venture capitalist Donn Davis.
"I didn’t know a contract could be this great,” Ngannou said. "It’s been a while since I have had a promotion that fully supports your goals and dreams.”
The deal also gave Ngannou a minority stake in the league. That adds to a growing portfolio that includes ownership of a professional soccer team in his native Cameroon. He’s also interested in purchasing a piece of a Major League Soccer team.
UFC fighters have applauded the deal, with UFC hall-of-famer Daniel Cormier saying it "set a new standard.”
Ngannou’s contract with the PFL could be replicated again, according to Davis.
"If people can deliver what Francis can deliver then we will give them a Francis contract,” Davis said during an August interview.
Ngannou has pushed for better pay for his peers. As part of his deal with the PFL, his opponents will receive a guaranteed payout of $2 million.
MMA athletes have already pushed back against their employers. The UFC is currently in the midst of an antitrust lawsuit filed in 2020 by former fighters that alleges unfair business practices and seeks up to $1.6 billion in damages. Ultimately, Ngannou would like to see fighters unionize, but doubts it will happen.
"Until there is a law or government officials (get involved), there is not a way that a union can happen,” Ngannou said. "Fighters have minimal power.”
MVP confirms stipulation for Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz rematch - October 24, 2023
Jake Paul returns to the ring on December 15.
Two months after his brother fought Dillon Danis in Manchester, Jake Paul is set to make his return to the ring.
This will take place on December 15, a location and opponent are yet to be announced, but fans should not expect to see former UFC star Nate Diaz in the opposite corner.
Paul and Diaz first fought in August in what was a memorable event with the "The Problem Child" being declared the winner via unanimous decision.
In the aftermath it was revealed that there was a rematch clause in the contract with both men wanting to run it back inside an MMA cage.
Now Paul's promotional company, Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), have confirmed on social media that Paul will face Diaz for a second time and it will take place inside a cage under the Professional Fighters League (PFL) banner.
"For the record: Jake Paul will not be boxing Nate Diaz again. Nate Diaz and Jake Paul have received an offer from @PFLMMA to rematch in MMA in the SmartCage. Jake Paul has accepted the offer," MVP posted on X.
Paul signed a deal with the PFL in January which will see him compete in the organisation's pay-per-view "Super Fight" division which contains a number of stars including former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and undisputed women's featherweight champion Amanda Serrano.
(DAZN)
‘Go big or give up’: The hunt for TV’s next big hit
As more than 11,000 television program buyers and sellers head home from Mipcom — the annual market where TV content is bought and sold — striking American actors will mark the 100th day of industrial action which has essentially put a plug in Hollywood’s content pipe.
The strikes — in addition to the actors, Hollywood’s writers ratified a new, three-year contract earlier this month after their own 148-day stoppage — shifted the focus at Mipcom, held annually in Cannes, France, to international content, including Australian content, as program buyers searched for the “next big thing”.
In conversations up and down the Boulevard de la Croisette, café chatter ranged from the commercial impact of artificial intelligence (AI) — both positive and negative — to the muted presence of US majors like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, the rapid rise of FAST (free, ad-supported TV) channels and the shifting significance of glass-jawed streaming platforms.
As for the strike itself? All eyes were on Paramount Global president Bob Bakish for clues during his packed keynote. “I’ve said publicly that the strike is accretive to our cash in 2023; that is true, and it’s true for the industry writ large,” Bakish said. “We’re playing the hand we were dealt. We didn’t want to be in a strike. We would very much like this strike to be over, so everyone can get back to work.”
Of Mipcom’s more than 11,000 delegates, some 3500 were program buyers. That detail is significant, as it marks a roughly 10 per cent increase year-on-year, the clearest indicator of both the buoyancy of the market and the broadcast industry’s shift away from the make-the-show-and-own-the-pipeline streaming business model that has seen streamers shell out billions in content investment only to wake up with the same old problems as the networks they aspired to replace: how to hang onto revenue and eyeballs?
“Given the buzz from the stands, what [has been] said on stage and the sheer volume of content deals done, it is clear that third-party sales and distribution are back,” Mipcom director Lucy Smith said.
In plain terms, Mipcom shrinks the global television business to the size of the Royal Easter Show. More than 320 production companies and television studios — the majors, the minors and the fringe players — cram into the world’s biggest show bag pavilion, Cannes’ Palais des Festivals, and the world’s TV channels (and streaming platforms) come to shop.
But the four-day market also sees producers and broadcasters grapple with existential questions, such as how to bridge the gap between widening demographics: the older linear TV audience and the younger-skewing digital TV audience.
The answer? Shows like The Masked Singer and Ninja Warrior, which are popular “co-viewing” titles, where grandparents, parents and children will watch together, the summit heard. It’s go big or give up, ITV commissioning editor Satmohan Panesar said. “We can’t go for the middling,” he said. “It’s got to be big, or it can’t go forward.”
Besides the tens of thousands of meetings — inside the Palais, at full pelt, it’s like speed-dating on steroids — there are more conventional activities, such as screenings, conferences and keynote talks. There are even several awards nights. (Australia picked up two: Blackfella Films’ The Australian Wars won the Content Innovation Award, and Southern Pictures’ The Swap won the Diversify TV Award.)
For traditional broadcasters, the market is a balance between content acquisition and keeping a seat at the table when local content strikes a chord with the market. The Australian formats Married at First Sight (distributed by Red Arrow) and The Summit (Banijay Rights), for example, both had creative talent at the market, meeting with international broadcasters. (Both are Endemol Shine Australia productions for Nine, owner of this masthead.) Other popular formats are The Traitors (All3media) and Love Island (ITV Studios).
But the bulk of Mipcom’s transactional business is driven by new content. Three of the buzziest this year: Beta Film and ZDF Studios’ co-production Concordia, about a crimeless near-future AI-controlled town which must deal with its first murder, a Zorro reboot from Secuoya Studios for Amazon, about the 19th century Californian vigilante, and a reboot of Enid Blyton’s iconic children’s series The Famous Five, from BBC Studios.
Among the new Australian content generating noise: Paper Dolls, a fictional spin of the story of the real reality TV pop group Bardot from Helium and Entertainment One, and the crime drama Scrublands, starring Jay Ryan and Luke Arnold, from Easy Tiger and Abacus Media. (Scrublands will air in Australia on Stan.)
The reboot of Neighbours, was also in the spotlight, with the show’s producer Jason Herbison and two of its stars, actors Annie Jones and Tim Kano, in attendance to promote the series to potential new investors. And Leonine Studios was selling the Australian “tropical noir crime drama” Troppo, which has just finished filming its second series in Queensland.
Other stars in attendance included Andrea Riseborough, promoting the Channel 4 romantic drama Alice & Jack, and Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria, delivering a producer keynote. (Longoria’s producing credits include the drama Mystery Hotel and the upcoming Spanish-language remake of Call My Agent.)
And American actor/producer Josh Duhamel came to promote one of the market’s more unusual packages: a reality TV reboot of the 2019 scripted comedy film Buddy Games, from Bunim/Murray Productions and CBS Studios, in which groups of friends compete in physical and mental challenges. (Duhamel directed and starred in the original film, and will executive produce the reboot.)
(SMH)