Digital Media during the pandemic

Spotify value increased by 5 billion dollars following the announcement that it had acquired all of Joe Rogan's podcast content exclusively for 100 million dollars. All the content will be stripped from Google and Apple by the end of the year. Spotify also announced a video streaming platform coming soon to support content from Joe Rogan. The deal with Spotify will allow Joe Rogan to have complete creative freedom of the work he puts out, which was an existing challenge with YouTube due to its demonetization policy. This will be a big win for both. Joe Rogan has an average value per episode of about 50,000.00 USD (with the highest being about 300,000.00 when Elon Musk was the guest) his expected value per episode might be above the 50,000.00 USD mark. Looks like content creation is a big winner during this pandemic. This announcement may have far reaching implications to the entertainment market, more than meets the eye. Neglecting how Google and Apple will respond to the 5 billion shift in the market place. Content creators are about to become big winners as this deal will have trickle down effects. Podcasters, animators and illustrators might make up a new future of entertainment with lucrative deals for exclusive access of their content being sort out after by platforms. As it stands during this pandemic and for some time after, live action filming will be dead. Already some shows have called an end to their current running seasons as they have been unable to continue filming and production, others have had to wrap quickly and even animate some episodes or parts of episodes to present their fans with a sense of closure. The shift to animation is an interest to focus on. The longer the pandemic rages on the more the entertainment industry will shift to animated content. This will allow for some jobs to remain intact within the industry while also creating fairer opportunities for new entrants, as well as new jobs such as story writers, voice actors and animators to mention a few. As we are now seeing content becoming limited since there are no new shows. Streaming platforms will battle for licenses of existing shows. The only available new content will be animated. With some studios already established as power houses in this space such as Pixar and DC they might find it their opportunity to take up large portions of the market. Platforms that had deals with some of these studios will also benefit. With greater value coming from those studios that have their own streaming services allowing themselves to grow on two fronts during this pandemic. DC already has its streaming service and Pixar is part of the Disney+. Streaming platforms that don't have their own studios and require to pay for the exclusivity to show this content will have to make early in roads into capturing the right studios that have content that is what the consumer wants and content that the consumer will want in future. Netflix had previously announced a partnership with several of Japan's largest anime studios as it would be losing a lot of its animated content to Disney+. The move for the Japanese based anime was a very smart move by Netflix that will reward them well during the pandemic. Long running manga tittles can be converted into anime that would be able to push out new episodes on a weekly basis. Content from studios like Studio Pierrot, Toei Animation, Wit Studio which have produced anime series that are some of the longest running, are prime targets for such deals with other streaming platforms. While there are studios that produce what are considered classic or iconic anime that have shorter running times but boast strong cult followings and are easily rewatchable, are also in line for inking similar deals. The idea that these studios could just as easily deliver their own platform for their IP is worthwhile, but it is a slow approach that would also limit them to only those who are aware of their content. Their reach would be short and hence the value limited. Plus, the cost of building their own platform would be a concern. Even if we considered that these studios got together to create a unified streaming platform the reach would not be as extensive as allowing a third party that is established to run with it. we might end up looking at a Japan fighting for the temporary slot of the new Hollywood as the pandemic drags along and exhausts live action content creation. The term content is king will rule and in the age of social media we might witness the birth of creative home-made live action content. Content creators of these platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok to mention the poplar few will have to get creative and start creating short films or sketches to entertain their followers while also finding value for themselves. And as this drives on and on a repeat (though not in scale, at least not yet) of the move by Spotify will occur. Content creators will become like pro athletes with market values and streaming services will pay that fee to have that creator and their audience on their platform. As with the transfer of athletes from sports club to sports club sometimes its not a straight forward win. Looking at mixer how mixer inked an incredible deal with Ninja to have him stream exclusively on the Microsoft owned platform from Twitch (Amazon owned). This move came sometime before the Joe Rogan one, however has not translated into a significant increase in new members of Mixer. Sometimes the platform keeps on strong even while losing key content creators. Reasons for this could vary from the diversity of content or the friendliness of the platform. After all, how many people actually cancelled their Netflix subscriptions when they heard Disney content was only going to be available on Disney+? The content creators who have paid-partnerships with brands to promote products will also see a challenge as some of these brands close up due to the corona virus. Despite the huge following that these creators have they will need to find new and creative ways of generating income from their views especially if their platform of choice doesn't offer this kind of value creation. A battle between streaming services will not only be dictated by the content creators they have on their rooster or how much more new quality content they can deliver during the pandemic but also how they structure themselves in a growing niche driven market. In the past YouTube was essentially the market place for video content and live streaming. They didn't lose their edge, what happened was the market that YouTube established itself as began to morph into niche smaller markets that had unique desires that were not being fully met on YouTube. One of the things that led to the creation of the niche markets from YouTubes own doing was the demonetization of a video due to a breach in YouTube policy. this system was created with good intentions and serves to prevent people from profiting from what would be offensive, racist, targeting a specific community, containing hate speech and more. However, this also means that some content despite not falling into this category could be accidentally demonetized by means of reporting or an error in the algorithms responsible. The market was also growing very large while trying to meet the expectations of multiple diverse groups from gamers, podcasters, music lovers and more. The result of this was a gap in the fulfilment of the desires of these groups and so other platforms come up and chose to focus on a niche that they could fully provide for in terms of consumer desire and also value for the content creator. While watching an interview with the team that created the game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, they echoed how they are not data driven but data informed. This concept got me thinking while looking at the changes in the entertainment space. And led to a revelation that could be key into finding out who might be the future king of the streaming services. Streaming services that work to influence and be part of trends as opposed to reacting to trends. Should E-sports be added to the rooster of the Olympic games some platforms maybe locked out of streaming live matches on e-sports due to existing contracts between different e-sports teams and/or players with streaming services. While one might see the Olympics as new venture and so broadcasting should be made available to all streaming services to make bids on especially those which command large subscription base, an advantage can also be said for those with existing deals having a stronger negotiating position and are more likely to be the winners of the broadcasting even if they share it with other services. The pandemic and the changes it has brought to the entertainment industry will surely be a mark that won't soon be erased and one likely to kick start new forms of content and diversification on to how it is consumed.