Last week the undisputed Streaming Wars victor Netflix got Wall Street in a Full Nelson when it announced a $5 billion rights deal with World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) Raw. The deal has given Netflix the fireman’s carry it needs to launch an ad-funded smackdown of live, top-of-the-bill WWE shows and specials. Professional wrestling terms aside, … Read More
Forty years ago today Steve Jobs unveiled the very first Mackintosh computer, he took to the stage carrying a beige box, stuck a floppy disk into it and as the theme from Chariots of Fire played the word ‘Mackintosh’ appeared on the computer’s screen. It was the most inspirational product launch the world had ever … Read More
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ continues to excite global audiences on and off the pitch, despite the Down-Under time differences. The tournament in Australia and New Zealand has been a moment for Women’s football. There are only a few more sleeps until the World Cup final between Spain and England at the Stadium Australia … Read More
The new Wimbledon service will be separate to the BBC’s coverage for the 3 July-16 July tournament and IBM’s AI team claim the technology has been trained in the “unique language of tennis” with the help of the All England Club. IBM said the first set of AI commentary will be available after the first day … Read More
In the latest Black Mirror Netflix Original, Joan is Awful, we are shown an AI nightmare where people’s lives are turned into content, with or without their permission. “It’s designed to keep the viewer in a state of mesmerized horror,” says the mythical Streamberry CEO, “it’s great for engagement.” This burnished technology vision of Black … Read More
After five years R&D development Mediacells has been awarded the trademark for Audience Engineering (AE), a business insights system to inform performance decisions for rights owners and sponsors. To mark the occasion the Mediacells team wanted to use AE to produce a unique, creative identity. We decided to embark on a new creative path for … Read More
Mediacells advises football club clients to think outside of the ground in the context of their fanbase. If a club looks at their fortunes in terms of takings at the stadium, purchases in store, online and physical, plus TV deals – the sponsorship revenue will reflect the club’s mindset. Take Wrexham AFC as an example … Read More
Events in the first three months of 2023 shattered a lot of agency crystal balls about what lies ahead for big tech and sports. The mothernode intersecting the various media agency about-turns and flip-flops can be attributed to the rapid roll-out of fresh generative AI tools, like Microsoft-backed ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. It was the … Read More
Soccer, football, footy, togga, kickball – the Game of Two Halves has many entries in the sporting lexicon, with Anglo-Saxon keyboard warriors often berating rooky fans from across the pond about the naming of parts. In the context of examining the game’s emerging popularity in the U.S. I’ll be referring to soccer from here on … Read More
The predictions, courtesy of Nielsen’s Gracenote database, are based on over one million simulations that produce estimates of the chance each team reaches a particular stage of the competition. The science behind the above FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Cup modelling is awesome in its crunching and stitching of complex data sets but it doesn’t … Read More
A HUMAN would be forgiven for associating words like scary, absurd, ridiculous, monster, filthy, unfair or freak with negative sentiment. Many shots were reported to have been fired and shade thrown last night after Cristiano Ronaldo ‘stormed’ down the tunnel before the end of Manchester United’s victory over Tottenham. Digital fathoms of doomscrolling opportunities ensue … Read More
Women’s football fan engagement became a mass market story after England’s win against Germany last Sunday. The record-breaking 87,000 fans that packed out Wembley stadium for the final and the 17.4 million viewers who watched the final on the BBC are the two key stats that the world and her granny now know. A lesser-known … Read More
Buying in an audience can work. The New York Times recently acquired longform sports journalism outfit The Athletic for half a billion dollars to notch up its registered users to 10 million. Spotify are on a mission to grow the music brand worldwide and the Swedish music streaming giant claims, “there are few partners (like … Read More
Media groups are set to spend more than $140bn on added content in 2022 despite overwhelming, eye-watering losses across the top eight US media groups, according to investment banks, analysts and number-crunchers at the Financial Times. The numbers surely downgrade the sports streaming giant DAZN’s recent announcement of $1.3bn losses from ‘eye-watering’ to more of … Read More
Buzzfeed recently published a quiz on Valentine’s Day where you can find out what kind of a Wordle player you are and what this says about you. I tested myself with some office pals and we distributed ourselves across the four Wordle player types, but a bit like a tabloid horoscope, each archetype was basically … Read More
Many of Mediacells friends and competitors have been predicting developments in the new-tech arenas but all this has been overshadowed by a very human story today and perhaps sets the narrative tone for 2022. Even the nostalgic, rags to riches success story of Bobby Kotic’s Activision, a brand saved from the 1980s arcade game scrapheap … Read More