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“Eutelsat absolutely cannot step in if Starlink were to leave Ukraine in the near future,” Enders analyst Hamish Low said by email. “Eutelsat might be able to provide some immediate help for the most critical communications, but can’t substitute for the whole range of ways that Starlink connectivity is being used.”
“Netflix has very little original home and garden programming and very little successful programming that it classifies as relaxing,” said Tom Harrington, the head of television at the research firm Enders Analysis. “But there’s a lot of ‘feelgood’ programming, mostly romantic, coming-of-age, Hallmark-esque movies, and it makes sense for Netflix to try to extend that mood into other genres.”
Enders Analysis CEO Douglas McCabe said it best: “...journalism provides material brand leverage, not its opposite. The whole system should be turned on its head, and quantify the benefits of context for pricing power and consumer propensity.”
Despite the success and popularity of Amazon’s Echo, the rationale for this device in Amazon’s ecosystem has been unclear—until now.
The introduction of Alexa+ to Echo devices—enhanced with generative AI which improves its voice user-interface—aims to change this.
Alexa+ is designed to increase Prime lock-in, and enables Amazon to differentiate its devices and operating systems.
The ‘big 4’ ISPs’ combined revenue remained in decline in Q4 2024 at -0.4%, partly due to a BT accounting quirk but mainly due to altnets gaining share
ARPU growth of 2% is roughly compensating for subscriber declines of 2%, but this ARPU growth is likely to weaken in 2025 as various boosts drop out
A recovery will come as the altnets slow in H2 2025 (if not before) due to their restrained expansion, which cannot come soon enough for the big ISPs
France’s Ligue 1 launched a D2C platform in the UK last year after failing to sell the rights – “a sign of weakness”, according to media commentator Claire Enders of Enders Analysis.
“Fairy godmothers don’t always show up. The tech companies have not shown up and it’s for a very good reason. The models are very difficult and painful and it takes years to build them up,” said Enders.
Claire Enders, the co-founder of Enders Analysis, a leading British research firm, was even more apocalyptic in her assessment of the piracy epidemic.
“We’ve had covid and a cost of living crisis in almost every market and that has led to incredible spikes in piracy,” she said. “It’s the number one problem in sport. It’s worth about 50 per cent of most markets and in India it’s more like 90 per cent.”
Enders believes that one of the reasons the Premier League’s media rights continue to grow in value is that the league, in partnership with its broadcast partners, police and Britain’s leading internet service providers, has been much tougher on piracy than its counterparts elsewhere.
She was particularly scathing about French football’s decision to ditch its long-term broadcast partner Canal+ in 2020 and described Italy’s efforts to fight piracy as “slack”.
With the formation of Vodafone3, we envisage continued intense competition at the low end of the mobile market, a ramping up of pressure at the top end over time, and some opportunities in the short term.
New information on spectrum trading confirms the view that BT/EE will be most capacity constrained, but with various strategic options available to it.
Expected EBITDA growth of 9% p.a. at Vodafone3 would allow Vodafone Group to almost double its excess FCF. Budgeting for buying CK Hutchison’s stake, however, may curtail Vodafone’s spending over the coming years.
VMO2 had another mixed quarter to end a difficult 2024, with revenue growth improving but EBITDA growth falling, and other metrics mixed at best.
The company hopes to put this behind it with guidance for both revenue and EBITDA growth in 2025, a tough ask given current momentum.
Ultimately achieving or exceeding this may depend on altnet pressure receding, which we expect it to do, but perhaps more towards the end of the year than the beginning.