February 11, 2010

This research aims to assess the new games industry strategies of a selection of media companies in the USA and Europe to gauge their likelihood of success and their impact on the games sector. The research comprises six separate chapters, looking specifically at Disney, Warner Bros., Viacom, News Corp, NBC Universal and a selection of major European media companies. Disney, Warner Bros. and Viacom alone have spent over $3bn since 2004 on games company acquisitions and game development investments underlining the scale of their ambition to compete directly with established pure-play games publishers.

2009 proved to be another solid year for games content revenues. While the traditional retail market for games saw some decline compared to the outstanding 2008, the online games markets and the emergence of new games platforms such as social networks and the iPhone prompted great growth in these alternative sectors. Over the last five years, games have begun to reach new demographic markets and are increasingly impacting, and in many respects threatening, the time and money spent consuming more traditional media such as TV, music and fi lm. Games have now become such an accepted part of children and young adults' lives that many of the world's largest media companies have begun to embark on vigorous and sometimes renewed attempts to gain a foothold in the games market.

List of tables and charts:

Introduction

• Media companies' comparative financials

Disney

• Disney's recent games-related transactions
• Disney Interactive Studios' development investment
• Disney Interactive Studios' supply chain
• Disney Interactive Studios' revenue
• Disney Interactive Studios' 2006 development spend, split by IP origin
• Key IP owned and licensed by Disney

Warner Brothers

• List of major group companies
• Warner Bros's recent games transactions
• Key IP owned and licensed by Warner Bros.

Viacom

• Viacom's recent games transactions
• Nickelodeon games sites traffic in August 2009

News Corp

• News Corp's recent games transactions

Pages: 64

Tables & charts: 13

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