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Toby Syfret was quoted in an article on the war for content in broadcasting. Last week, public service broadcaster Channel 4 bought the rights to screen The Great British Bake Off, the UK’s most popular TV show, for a reported £75m over three years. The deal reflects how competitive the market for watchable programming has become. Toby reckons that Channel 4 should make a modest profit on its rumoured outlay if more than 5m viewers regularly watch the show.
BT Sport has seen a very clear positive impact from its first year airing the Champions League, with viewing up 60% year-on-year to June. Remarkably, its reach is now not too far off Sky Sports, though it still has some way to go in terms of consistent viewership.
Pay-TV audiences for the 2015/16 tournament were in line with previous years – an impressive feat – but free-to-air disappointed. However, BT should not be too concerned – it has established itself as a worthy pay-TV partner.
While BT’s execution has thus beaten reasonable expectations, BT Sport still carries a heavy net financial cost for BT, with debatable benefits. Yet, whatever the benefits may be, more viewers watching more often must surely help.
More than one third of the UK population is over 50 and this cohort is projected to keep growing. They account for substantial wealth, assets and expenditure, and reveal active multimedia engagement, providing real opportunities for brands Given their outsize impact, we believe the marketing industry underappreciates the diversity of habits among the over 50s. While 50-65s’ habits and consumer behaviour increasingly resemble that of younger cohorts, their spending power is far greater; expectations from products and services are higher and yet the placement, format and tone of marketing feels misaligned Online is a huge enabler that can help drive, shape and inform how over 50s spend their substantial wealth. But that can only be done effectively with a clearer understanding of behaviour and level of responsiveness to messages across media, from print to TV to online
Apple’s hardware progress at this year’s Special Event was more impressive than the software announcements at WWDC in June, though not at the level seen during the bumper launch of the iPhone 6
Improvements in camera technology and custom chips are preparing the iPhone for more drastic design changes and new location-based service categories in the future
Next year, faster development of both software and hardware is required to defend iPhone margins or user base growth, let alone both
UK mobile service revenue growth dipped down in Q2 to -1.7%, with this being driven by some one-off factors, such as MTR and roaming cuts, and some longer terms trends, such as the continued rise in SIM-only
Profitability nonetheless improved at all of the operators, suggesting strong ongoing cost control, and that some of the revenue weakness is caused by factors that do not impact (or even positively impact) the bottom line
Competitive performances were mixed, with EE’s revenue growth improvement contrasting with dips at the other three operators, driven by EE’s strong commercial momentum and it taking the SIM-only and roaming hit earlier than the other operators
Tom Harrington was quoted in an article on the BBC, ITV and other traditional broadcasters who will struggle to attract A-list stars if Netflix and the major streaming giants continue to outspend them on shows. Tom said that the streaming giants are still in their relative infancy and so are splashing out vast sums in a bid to outcompete traditional broadcasters. He added that, as younger viewers turned in increasing numbers to streaming services, terrestrial channels may start to target an older audience with their programming, catering to the ageing demographic of those who prefer traditional scheduled TV.
Further, he said that “what’s happening right now is that it is early days for streaming services and they are rushing to fill their arsenal with programming, you will see a lot of the major talent, the proper movie stars, on the streaming channels, as they are rushing to snap people up. If it’s a head-to-head money-wise [for the biggest names] then the traditional broadcasters will lose.” He added, however, that the current levels of spending from Netflix and Amazon on original series were unsustainable in the long term and that the BBC and ITV could still trade on the “cachet” and prestige of appearing in a flagship prime-time series on terrestrial TV. Tom explained that there is “a lot of life left” in traditional TV schedules, but added: “Watching linear TV is going down, mostly among younger age groups, where streaming is going up... So TV shows may be targeted at an even older demographic.”
The UK retail market for digital movies has shown steady growth, but has not offset the decline in physical sales. While iTunes remains the UK market leader, Sky is clearly driving the growth with its Buy & Keep offering, backed up with the reassurance of physical product.
However, a move away from the collector mentality alongside the growth of a subscription mentality will affect long term prospects. This is not helped by the consumer proposition for digital retail, which remains disjointed, lacks inter-device operability and a clear consumer benefit.
Without co-ordinated efforts and investment from the studios, content owners and retailers to resolve these issues, we believe the opportunity for digital video retail in the UK is limited. Even with that, the EST market may never be as profitable as the DVD home video market.
Whether the US has reached “Peak TV” —the apogeic volume of original scripted series—is debatable, but the mass of content being produced is unparalleled
As television continues its transition from a disposable medium to a permanent one, and an increasing number of outlets are creating original, scripted programming to keep up or differentiate, does this American explosion have ramifications for the UK consumer or broadcaster?
Simply put, the UK’s more concentrated television landscape limits exposure. And, counter-intuitively, an unsustainable focus on scripted drama could play into the hands of the traditional broadcasters, whose future strength may lie in the diversity of their offering
UK residential communications market revenue growth was broadly unchanged at 5% in Q2, despite volume growth continuing to slow across all products, with pricing and fibre adoption helping to boost ARPU
The combination of weakening market growth and an accelerating Virgin Media (on the back of its Project Lightning network extension) is putting pressure on the other operators, all of which were weak in subscriber terms
These factors bode for a competitive Q3 with the major operators offering very aggressive promotions in the battle for subscribers at the start of the football season. Underlying pricing though looks firm with price rises already implemented, scheduled or expected in Q4