Claire Enders appeared on Here Comes Pod podcast
7 June 2023
Founder Claire Enders spoke to the Here Comes Pod podcast about the nature of the British media industry and Enders Analysis' place within it.
Homepage
Enders Analysis provides a subscription research service covering the media, entertainment, mobile and fixed telecommunications industries in Europe, with a special focus on new technologies and media.
Our research is independent and evidence-based, covering all sides of the market: consumers, leading companies, industry trends, forecasts and public policy & regulation. A complete list of our research can be found here.
Claire Holubowskyj of Enders Analysis calls Amazon’s response “highly defensive” and says its rivals’ performances have shown that the basis of the company’s success – offering fast shipping and peace of mind – may be fragile.
“Their entire retail business is built on Prime [being] the best way to get something to you. And what Temu and Shein have proved is that, actually, people will buy the cheapest things from a site that they don’t necessarily, initially at least, trust very much. They don’t mind if it takes two weeks to arrive. But they’re still going to buy it because of that price. That will be the threatening aspect because of where it could go.
“Amazon’s model for so long has been ‘if you want something we are the first place to come and the best place to come’. And that’s being put under a bit of pressure by people wanting to go elsewhere for the really cheap goods.”
Tom Harrington, the head of television at Enders Analysis, however, is sceptical about this argument. “No one is truly underserved by the UK market. Streaming means that almost everything that has ever been made is already available somewhere.”
He says the catalogues of some free, ad-supported services have to compete with public service broadcasters such as ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC, who make content specifically for UK viewers. The UK broadcaster content is “original, more sought after and more relevant for the UK audience”, he adds.
François Godard, the senior media expert at Enders Analysis, said Arcom had “literally hundreds” of people checking how many minutes each politician was accorded. However, he said, the regulator was “less well equipped to come to a macro view on whether the whole ideological coverage, and the pluralism of a channel, is balanced.”
“Investors don’t like uncertainty, and even if the far right doesn’t win the majority, it will be a weak coalition government,” French media analyst Francois Godard tells Variety.
In the near future, probably very little. Echoing how it has approached most areas of policymaking (quite possibly so the Conservatives can implode by themselves without risking putting their necks on the line), the Labour Pary, led by Keir Starmer, has said very little about its plans. As Claire Enders of Enders Analysis notes, “we currently don’t know” who might be taking over as secretary of state for culture, media and sport, with current shadow minister Thangam Debbonaire not certain to win her seat in the city of Bristol thanks to a surge in support for the local left-wing Green Party candidate.
“Ideas of privatization are from the right-wing playbook, so you can see them cropping up in France, in the Netherlands and everywhere where there’s an extreme right-wing politician,” says Enders.
Karen Egan was quoted in Light Reading on "Vodafone-Three merger concerns aren't resolved by deal with VMO2"
4 July 2024"While BT's current 32% of spectrum won't change and is reasonable in a three-player market, they might argue that they are short of lower-band spectrum (important for coverage) and 5G spectrum (important for capacity)," said Karen Egan, the head of telecoms for Enders Analysis, in a LinkedIn post today.
Spectrum and towers: Market-changing telco deal
3 July 2024Vodafone/H3G/VMO2 have announced a spectrum-trading and towers-sharing deal, allaying potential spectrum concerns around the proposed Vodafone/H3G merger, although BT may argue that it is short of some critical spectrum bands.
The towers sharing agreement incorporates H3G spectrum into the VMO2/Vodafone Beacon agreement and appears to expand the agreement onto some of H3G's current sites.
We estimate a c.70% increase in VMO2 capacity from this deal and 5% for the industry as a whole (in addition to the 25% from the Vodafone/Three merger). BT/EE made a strong argument for spectrum reallocation in its merger objection, and some validity to that argument may or may not remain post-trade
Amazon is challenging online bargain competitors head on by launching its own direct-from-China sales channel, in a strategic reversal that aims to expand its audiences and competitiveness by segmenting product sales
Direct-from-China removes the competitive advantages of Amazon fulfilment and Prime to create a two-tiered Amazon for ultra-low-cost goods, making core fulfilment more efficient and providing advertising opportunities
The new product aims to grow Amazon's reach and relevance to non-Prime audiences, adding value across the Amazon ecosystem: offering efficiency for sellers and lower prices for consumers
Retail media, a ‘new’ form of advertising, is growing the overall advertising market with a highly personalisable and attributable offering, as other targeting mechanisms are threatened by the deprecation of third-party cookies.
Omnichannel retailers are ramping up third-party ad sales to boost margins, alongside less visible but significant growth opportunities for sales of first-party customer data for ad targeting elsewhere.
Long led by Amazon in the UK, the retail media is now shifting the broader advertising ecosystem: competition and innovation are rising as retailers seize growth opportunities, with incumbents threatened by disintermediation.
Dugmore’s prognosis is one with which Abi Watson, senior media analyst at Enders Analysis, agrees. “Resonating with young people is not about having this patronising view that Gen Z and young millennials want their news to be overly simple and dumbed down in order for it to appeal to them,” she tells City A.M.
“Far more important is that it is in the format and tone that works well on the platforms it’s posted.”
“It’s obviously not just young people that get a lot of their news from videos social media, but they are always the first adaptors of new technology,” says Enders’s Watson. “Outlets’ reach is gained from platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which helps build awareness of the brand, and that can help inculcate a more committed following and native browsing.”