Uncertain times in digital streaming and search, the new man at Louis Vuitton, animated ice hockey, Super Bowl wraps and young people saying things all appear in the latest order of Trippant Takeaways – our weekly selection of eye-catching stories on communications trends across sport, tech, entertainment and culture.
Time on the age of chaos in digital streaming
Nobody knows anything, as the old Hollywood adage goes. When it comes to the digital streaming sector right now, that might just be true.
After a punishing prestige content arms race, the world’s biggest media companies still aren’t sure how to turn a profit from their subscription platforms. Netflix has cancelled well-liked shows and turned away from award-friendly movies. Disney is sounding out buyers for its programming, despite a huge exclusive Disney+ audience. Services are combining, rebranding and reassessing old models.
Who can say what’s up next?
The Economist looks for the future of search
The boom in generative AI has driven all kinds of speculation within creative industries about whose jobs it could affect and how.
But in the medium term, artificial intelligence looks set to alter the functional fabric of the internet itself: search. With ChatGPT’s rapid emergence giving Microsoft a surprise opening in the battle over who finds what and how, Google is trying to reassert its dominance.
The Atlantic on Big Tech’s new love for the NFL
The National Football League is big media’s favourite sports property, as evidenced by over $113 billion worth of conventional domestic broadcast deals over the next decade.
And more recently, big tech has begun casting a covetous eye. Between digital streaming deals for Amazon and Google’s YouTube, and Apple’s sponsorship of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the NFL is selling what Silicon Valley wants.
The Drum, Adweek and SportsPro on the key Super Bowl ads
Oh, and in case you missed it, there was a pretty significant game in the NFL this past Sunday.
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs rallied to take a stirring Super Bowl LVII victory against the Philadelphia Eagles in Arizona. Meanwhile, of course, advertising had its own winners and losers in the most-watched American TV show of the year.
There is, as ever, a lot of coverage to pick through, but a few unusual spots are worth reviewing.
SportsPro’s Sam Carp picked through the reaction to FanDuel’s ‘Kick of Destiny’ commercial with Rob Gronkowski – the climax to a month-long campaign by the sports betting brand. The Drum spoke to baseball’s New York Mets about their ‘audacious’ national ad. And while Rihanna’s Halftime Show was a pro bono gig, Ad Week notes that partners like Salomon and her own beauty brand, Fenty, got plenty of value on the night.
GQ on Louis Vuitton’s latest production
Collaborations between entertainers and fashion brands are a well-established trend but even in that context, LVMH appears to have made one of its boldest moves to date.
It has installed Pharrell Williams – music-biz mega-producer and sometime fan of massive hats – as the new creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear. It’s a permanent hire, rather than a partnership, and it will be fascinating to see whether the 49-year-old can change clothes.
Sky Sports on EA’s big Premier League move
The contest for the digital future of football kicks off a little later this year when EA Sports launches EA Sports FC, its first game since the end of a 30-year partnership with Fifa.
The global governing body is still to confirm any future video game strategy. In the meantime, with most of its big licences still intact, EA Sports is readying a major statement of intent: a six-year, £500 million extension of its Premier League sponsorship deal.
Variety on the NHL’s animated adventure
A generation on from the reign of the Mighty Ducks, the NHL and Disney are once again trying to fire the imaginations of prospective young ice hockey fans.
The 14th March game between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers will be screened on Disney+ and on cable’s Disney Channel and Disney XD in the US, but with a twist. It will be a live animation of the real event – created using video mapping technology that usually tracks player and puck movements – set in the world of the Disney series Big City Greens.
The project follows comparable NFL experiments on Nickelodeon. A conventional broadcast will be carried on Disney-owned ESPN – whose average viewer is a mere 30 years older than the XD crowd.
Fast Company translates Gen Z
When it comes to young people, are you in your confused era? Worried you seem mid? Say less. Fast Company has created this brief guide to Gen Z slang.
Before long, you’ll be eating it up with no crumbs. Maybe.
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