Francois Godard was quoted in the Financial Times on "Deals, debt and dreams: Patrick Drahi’s misadventures in the US"
25 April 2022Francois said “The strategy was consolidation and it didn’t work. The fish he wanted to swallow were just too big.”
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Francois said “The strategy was consolidation and it didn’t work. The fish he wanted to swallow were just too big.”
Douglas said “There’s probably a recognition that The Sun’s future is highly visual." The TV station is “a route that could address a number of different questions. It’s partly about finding out if the tabloid experience has to be, in the end, more of a video than a text-based news experience.”
Douglas said “the journalistic talent that is already inside the building in News UK can be deployed in ever more ways."
Tom said the genre is a great way for traditional platforms to set themselves apart from the streamers, who are experiencing problems of their own.
“Even as audiences move away from broadcast TV, you can imagine current affairs will be one of the more resilient genres."
Julian said "The streaming market is maturing and the high expectations people had about Netflix are being reset.
"But I think it will remain the market leader, it has such a commanding position. If people are going to ditch a subscription, Netflix won't be the first one they choose."
He added that the firm had just put up its prices "which always leads to a drop in subscribers, but also means it's making more revenue per customer."
Tom said Netflix's attempts to "dismantle the culture of free that currently surrounds the brand" can "only target the low-hanging fruit, so as not to risk inflaming subscriber relations."
Netflix dramatically missed its quarterly guidance of +2.5 million subscribers in Q1, losing 200k net subs globally (although that includes 700k lost due to pulling out of Russia). Q2 is forecast to see a further net loss of 2 million (of a worldwide total of 222 million), the causes of which will also hit Netflix’s competitors.
Netflix prices continue to rise, with the Standard tier now eclipsing £10 per month. However, despite the current strain on household finances the streamer can still be confident that it can charge more without material consequence—video remains cheap compared with the past, and more time spent at home will lift Netflix's value to subscribers.
The upcoming clampdown on password sharing will aim to dismantle the 'culture of free' that currently surrounds the brand. However, we foresee that the company can only target the low-hanging fruit, so as not to risk inflaming subscriber relations by tackling all behaviour outside the accepted Terms of Use.