Channel 4 News
7 August 2013Douglas McCabe appeared on Channel 4 News to comment on Jeff Bezos's decision to buy The Washington Post. The interview begins at 3:49 into the programme.
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Douglas McCabe appeared on Channel 4 News to comment on Jeff Bezos's decision to buy The Washington Post. The interview begins at 3:49 into the programme.
A cheaper iPhone has been discussed almost since the original launch in 2007, but we believe costs have fallen and the market developed to the point that it now makes sense for Apple to offer a $200-$300 (unsubsidised) model.
We see a positive but fairly small financial impact on Apple. The key benefit would be defensive: by extending the ecosystem and preserving iOS as developers’ first choice, Apple would secure the whole portfolio.
We believe a well-executed and distributed $200-$300 iPhone would sell double-digit millions of units – a significant challenge to Android OEMs and Google. However, the US market’s pricing structure might limit the impact there.
Toby Syfret was quoted in an article discussing the impact of BT Sport, the new sports channel offered by BT. “It’s not too exciting yet as none of their jewels have come out yet,” he said. He argued that BT must create content to run alongside the live rights to justify the large amount BT has spent expanding into sports broadcasting. “It is vital that they create something that is not just reliant on games and that will push up the cost”.
TalkTalk’s broadband net adds held up well in the June quarter despite weak seasonality and an aggressive competitive push by BT
ARPU growth was steady, which allowed rising subscriber growth to drive consumer revenue growth up to just over 2%, and growth at the group level rose to just under 2%
With the BT Sport impact appearing slight, and regulatory outcomes looking reasonably benign, the outlook is much less uncertain than before
FY 2013 produced strong growth as revenues increased by 6.5% and costs by only 6.1% as a large £188 million rise in programming spend was more than balanced by the achievement of efficiencies in operating service costs The big surprise was the announcement of a £60-70 million impact on EBIT in 2014 as Sky seeks to accelerate the uptake of connected TV across its base The big threat in 2014 is the possible loss of European Champions League rights to BT Sport from the 2015/16 season, while the main challenge is how to maximise connected TV revenues, where clear communication of the benefits and enhancements will play a vital role
Regional and local newspaper circulation decline continues to accelerate as consumer demand erodes, especially among daily titles in large towns and cities where readers are younger
Publishers are successfully mitigating circulation revenue decline through aggressive cover price rises but are unable to push up advertising yields in a market where print is considered to be grossly overvalued – especially by national advertisers
The promise of a truly digital future remains unfulfilled. The digital classifieds market has largely been won by internet specialists and the local advertising market is becoming hotly contested, not least by Facebook, as mobile traffic rises
Magazine consumption and advertising will be more affected by the explosion in mobile device ownership than they were by the desktop internet - classic magazine 'time' is being eroded
In addition to the ubiquity of free digital content, publishers are also challenged by the myriad of digital services that disrupt the extensive role magazines have long had in the discovery to transaction funnel
Opportunities exist for publishers and brands in the new ecosystem and their biggest challenges will be in harnessing the right skill sets and structuring operations for effective execution
Thomas Joseph was quoted in an article discussing Bauer Media acquisition of Absolute Radio which it has bought from the Times of India Group. He said that Bauer and Absolute would be able to make “significant” cost savings by combining their operations. He added that the deal “shows that Bauer is making a very serious play on digital radio stations”.
James Barford was asked by the FT to give his opinion on competition between Sky and BT over Sports TV. The interview begins at 02:32 into the programme.