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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.

 

Rigorous Fearless Independent

“It’s a tough market for viewing and monetisation which means everyone wants to derisk, so programming shifts towards those things and people already known to be popular,” explains Tom Harrington, analyst at Enders Analysis. “This makes things very difficult for smaller production companies but also makes the output very safe and derivative – think Jamie Oliver doing an air fryer show on Channel 4.” For the viewer, says Harrington, this means more of the same only more so. “Non-objective celeb docs is part of a wider embrace of branded content on TV,” he explains. “Brand-funded entertainment is hardly new but getting advertisers to invest in programming in a more holistic way is now seen by some as a bit of a panacea for TV. A celeb producing and probably partly deficit funding a series featuring themselves is no different from a brand investing in a drama that mythologies its origins or a cooking show funded by M&S about M&S.

SpaceX and its Starlink satellite network have made headlines dangling a vision of free emergency service coverage direct to all mobile devices, undoubtedly connected to its ongoing battles for FCC approval.

Starlink is the clear leader in the D2D space and almost certainly will be the first to launch its service. AST Space Mobile, backed by various mobile operators (including Vodafone) is lagging significantly behind, having not yet launched any commercial satellites.

The UK is however a relatively unfavourable geography for D2D, due to its high latitude and relative density, and we don't expect any launch of commercial service in the UK by Starlink or AST Space Mobile before 2026.

Gareth Sutcliffe, from Enders Analysis, told Sky News the game "ultimately reflects a decision Disney took some years ago to get out of the games business, now the highest growth entertainment sector globally, and to rely exclusively on third parties such as Ubisoft to deliver titles with Disney's most valuable and treasured IP. "In this case you end up with a highly-anticipated open world game, but no tie-in with the wider franchise, no series or film release, or remotely equivalent marketing push. "It reinforces the view that Disney is out of position on games, and sees them as an afterthought, which doesn't build confidence for the pending Fortnite partnership with Epic."

Service revenue growth dropped off by 5ppts this quarter to -1% as lower in-contract price rises hit.

The outlook for 2025 is marginally brighter than it was last quarter as new price-increase regulations raise the average in-contract price increase for customers.

The CMA is set to deliver its preliminary findings on the Vodafone/Three merger in September. If it is not approved, we expect both parties to significantly change their strategies to be viable in the UK market.

In the past, broadcast TV and YouTube content has been poles apart—both in substance and the need states they served. This is changing, with the overlap in offerings growing 

We estimate that c.61% of viewing of YouTube Trending content is of videos that could be considered TV-like. Similar programming makes up c.35% of broadcast TV viewing 

YouTube’s videos are also becoming longer, raising audience tolerance and expectations, and allowing the service to compete in a broader range of genres. However, this will be challenged by monetisation limitations

Joseph Teasdale, head of tech at research firm Enders Analysis, told BI that technical issues will prove challenging for a full-scale robotaxi rollout. Teasdale added: "The problem for Uber is that fully replacing drivers with robots is really, really difficult. Progress on full autonomy has lagged all but the most pessimistic projections of seven or eight years ago."
Alice Enders, the director of research at Enders Analysis, said: “The mega-trend in consumer music spend is not recorded streaming services but the experience of live music, which super-fan clusters especially will pay a lot for. “Oasis have been completely off both the recorded music and live music scenes, and reforming will drive ticket sales as well as streaming of their songs.”
However, the head of television at Enders Analysis, Tom Harrington, thinks the current row is unlikely to damage Strictly’s global appeal. “I don’t think anyone in Belgium or wherever is reading the press here and thinking: ‘I’m less likely to watch the Belgian version.’ It’s very well insulated. Other than maybe the problems that they’ve allegedly had in the UK could be happening somewhere else.” Harrington said that selling formats is estimated to make up about 20% of BBC Studios’ revenues but that the big formats are “very, very high margin … and incredibly lucrative”, which helps to explain Strictly’s importance to the BBC at a time when it is facing cuts because fewer people are paying the licence fee and, the BBC argues, 14 years of funding cuts by Conservative-led governments have reduced its budget by 30% in real terms.