Introducing Hub Intel
Data, not drama. Where media insiders come for industry truths and trends.
It All Started On An Elevator
One morning in August 2010 I arrived at my research job in downtown Boston. The company was in a converted warehouse that had stood on South Street for over 100 years. My coworker Diego and I boarded the ancient elevator for a creaky trip to the 5th floor.
Diego was a tech enthusiast who always had the latest gadgets and apps, and an unbridled enthusiasm for them all. As the elevator lurched into motion, he reached into his back pocket for his iPhone. “Have you seen this!?” he said and opened Netflix’s new streaming app.
Always a huge movie fan, I'd been using Netflix’s DVD service for years. But as I watched him scroll through pages and pages of movie key art, a wholly different user experience from the wall of text on my cable provider’s VOD search function, my jaw dropped. He clicked on Fargo and the movie started playing, immediately and without buffering, right there in the elevator. By the time the doors opened, I had already downloaded the app. At that moment I knew that the entertainment industry was about to change in a big way. And I knew that media companies, having avoided technological disruption for decades, would need research more than ever. The seed for my company, Hub, was planted that day.
Who Needs Another Research Company?
Before I started Hub, I needed to answer a fundamental question. There were lots of good media research companies already, did the industry really need another one? I decided there were 3 essential things my company needed to be able to complete:
Stories, not just data: The TV industry has no shortage of data. In shorter supply are the stories that interpret what the data means, and what people making decisions should do with it. I wanted Hub to focus on stories, not just data.
Experts: To create stories you need people that understand the industry as well as the clients they’re working for. I knew I needed to hire people who had spent their careers immersed in that field. I wanted Hub to become an entertainment industry specialist, even if that meant turning down work in other categories (a tough call to make when starting a company with zero revenue, but one I don’t regret).
Fun: People choose the entertainment industry because TV and movies are fun. Research requires dispassionate observation, but I wanted Hub to embrace the passion people feel for entertainment and make sure we built a team that felt the same way.
Ten years later, Hub is thriving. As I predicted back in 2010, the industry looks completely different in almost every way as you can see illustrated in this chart below.
But the essential elements of Hub remain the same, and with these principles in mind, we’re launching this newsletter.
Who Needs Another Newsletter?
We’re here to provide data, not drama. Our goal is to cut through the noise and understand the trends in the industry, and what they mean to your business. We want this newsletter to be a destination for media insiders to gather and discuss the data and weigh in on the trends – both in the comment section of this newsletter and during quarterly webinars with the Hub team. To do just that, we’re employing the same 3 essential things that I built my company on:
Stories, not just data: Understanding the why of a data story is the only way to anticipate where audiences and spending will go in the future.
Experts: From content and distribution to marketing and product development, to monetization and advertising, you’ll hear from experts in every facet of the entertainment business. You’ll see new analysis of data from Hub studies, and we’ll invite contributors from other companies to share their research and insights as well. (Please email us at hubintel@substack.com if you’re interested in contributing!)
Fun: If we do it right, this newsletter will be fun, easy to digest, and easy to understand. We want you to interact with the topics and become part of the conversation. We’ll seek your input on which topics to cover, and we hope that every edition will teach you something new.
Why Become A Hub Intel Subscriber?
Here’s what you’ll get when you join the Hub Intel community:
Free Subscribers
Free posts, charts, infographics, and expert interviews.
Access to comments and chat threads.
Paid Subscribers - Monthly ($5) Annually ($50…a 17% discount!)
Free posts, charts, infographics, and expert interviews.
Access to comments and chat threads.
Exclusive monthly Hub white papers: Once a month deep dive on key topics.
Admission to Hub quarterly webinars: A quarterly interactive presentation and Q&A on a key topic.
Founding Members - Annually ($100)
Free posts, charts, infographics, and expert interviews.
Access to comments and chat threads.
Exclusive monthly Hub white papers: Once a month deep dive on key topics.
Access to the past archive of Hub white papers.
Admission to Hub quarterly webinars: A quarterly interactive presentation and Q&A on a key topic.
Ask Us Anything: Exclusive access to submit questions to be answered during interactive quarterly webinars.
Let The Journey Begin
I am grateful and humbled to be celebrating 10 years of Hub, and our mission is to be an even better and more useful partner for the next 10. Thanks for joining us on the next leg of this journey. We're so glad to have you as part of the Hub Intel community.
With gratitude and excitement,
Jon G
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About Hub
Hub Entertainment Research, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023, tracks how technology is changing the way people find, choose, and consume entertainment content: from TV and movies to gaming, music, podcasts, and social video. Hub’s studies have covered the most important trends in providers, devices, and technologies since 2013. We work with the largest TV networks, pay TV operators, streaming providers, technology companies, and studios to assess the present and forecast the future.
Learn More: Visit our website.
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Get In Touch: Email us at hubintel@substack.com