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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.
Higher overall inflation, together with a bigger mark-up than in previous years for some, is implying significant in-contract price increases for the UK telecoms operators—an average of 7.7% for the mobile operators.
Although we may see a 5-6% short-term boost to mobile service revenue growth from these price increases, new-customer pricing remains crucial and could erode the boost from these in-contract rises entirely.
We have been surprised by Ofcom’s interventions to discourage these price increases. The industry needs all the help it can get to fund next generation 5G and full fibre networks, and these in-contract price increases are no guarantee that prices and revenues overall will start to rise.
Gill Hind was quoted in Express on "BBC licence fee solution found 50 years ago as radio licence abolished"
20 January 2022Gill said "How do you suddenly stop someone watching BBC One when it’s free to air on Freeview? You can’t do it until the whole world is online."
Claire Enders was mentioned in The Guardian on "The Guardian view on the Tories and the BBC: a backlash sees off an immediate threat"
20 January 2022Claire Enders points out that despite public debate being dominated by the tastes of younger viewers, audience fragmentation and online subscription services, there are 8 million adults in the UK who lack the means, or do not wish, to pay for any TV service beyond the licence fee.
Microsoft's dream deal: Activision bought for $68 billion
19 January 2022Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is industry transforming—accelerating the momentum toward global subscription gaming across all devices and becoming an entertainment IP powerhouse.
Activision’s ‘toxic culture’ distress was acute and couldn’t be solved—Microsoft will (and should) clean up a tarnished organisation. The troubles had hammered Activision’s share price, allowing Microsoft to pick up world-class IP at a bargain relative to year-ago prices.
Sony faces a harsh reckoning on its long-term strategy for PlayStation, while EA and Ubisoft have become desirable acquisition targets.
Douglas McCabe was quoted in Press Gazette on "Is the Athletic worth $550m? How NYT deal compares with other news media valuations"
19 January 2022Douglas said “I think the days of just building scale and generating advertising revenue in order to fund an entire newsroom are probably over,” he says. “I think people have more sophisticated views of what it is they are building now. The kind of themes that we are seeing is those businesses that focus down on utility or one very specific aspect of the market – one or two beats, one or two specific areas of journalism – are the businesses that seem to be doing better."
He added “I’m thinking about the Athletic, I’m thinking about Politico, I’m thinking about Tortoise to some degree. Loyal, dedicated user bases, membership models – certainly at the very least registered users – are just so much more valuable than just relying on traffic, just relying on an advertising model.”
BBC licence fee settlement: Disappointing but manageable
18 January 2022Freezing the price of the licence fee for two years (which will then rise in line with inflation for the following four years) will leave the BBC with a hole to fill: the broadcaster has said that by fiscal 2027 the annual deficit will be c.£285 million
Despite an increased borrowing limit of £750 million, commercial returns will be insufficient to plug the gaps
With 148 regulatory quotas and targets to meet as part of its operating licence, it is likely that the BBC will topslice content and services expenditure, rather than axing content and services wholesale
Claire Enders was quoted in Mediatel News on "Freezing BBC Licence Fee is 'direct threat' to strength of UK news"
18 January 2022Claire said "The licence fee actually does act like a subscription. It's just a universal subscription and it's for a different kind of service all together to Netflix. It is public service broadcasting."
"I think it's very unlikely that that system will have run to the end of its road with the public. The BBC is right to offer its services free of charge universally."
Claire Enders was quoted in The New York Times on "BBC Funding Frozen for 2 Years as Cabinet Minister Attacks Public Fee"
18 January 2022Claire said “This is a very good result compared to alternative results, including the elimination of the license fee."