James Barford was quoted in The Telegraph on "French billionaire launches charm offensive after BT swoop"
14 June 2021James said “With the pension fund, the legal documents, the contracts and due diligence you are talking a long period of time.”
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James Barford was quoted in The Telegraph on "Patrick Drahi - the cost-cutting billionaire who has swooped on BT"
14 June 2021James said “It's possible they looked at the UK and at other altnet investments, and came to the conclusion that BT was the one that was going to win.”
In a new chapter of a three year saga, the Ligue 1 awarded eight weekly games to Amazon for the 2021-24 seasons at a rock bottom price of €250 million per year, while Canal+ is left paying €330 million for only two fixtures per week.
Amazon makes a qualitative leap to become the lead broadcaster of a top domestic sport for the first time, probably reflecting more opportunism than a strategic shift.
Canal+ is asking courts to cancel the auction. Based on precedents, we expect the shift to undermine the total market for sport subscriptions.
Tom Harrington was quoted in The Telegraph on "Streaming giants brace for a shakedown as life returns to normal"
14 June 2021Tom said “Opening back up won’t affect the big streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Disney Plus anywhere near as much as smaller services that command lower engagement levels."
“Churn for Netflix will likely be returning to pre-Covid levels but it will still be lower than everyone else, except Amazon, which of course is pretty insulated from any of this due to free shipping. It will be somewhat harder for the likes of Starzplay, Britbox, Discovery+ and HayU to get new subscribers, but they are all still benefiting now from subscribers that wouldn’t have come on board in 2020 but for Covid."
Jamie McGowan Stuart was quoted in The Guardian on "How GB News is bringing US-style opinionated TV news to the UK"
14 June 2021Jamie said “Is there a gap in the market? Yes, a small one. No one has played with impartiality guidelines in TV news before. But in pure commercial terms it’s very tricky. If it hits its very ambitious targets, it will only just make a profit.”
Francois said “Football television rights depend directly on competition from broadcasters. However, we are far from the effervescence of a few years ago when there were new players, such as the arrival of beIN, competition from SFR or more recently Mediapro in France. Certainly, some have high hopes for platforms like Amazon or DAZN. But for now, Amazon has had a cautious strategy with no crazy spending and DAZN, while being aggressive in Italy, has remained on reasonable prices."
He added "However, they cannot necessarily pay more, at least in the short term, given the fact that the market is relatively mature and that they are subject to competition from SVoD. Football can be happy if prices stagnate!"
Francois Godard was quoted in Les Echos on "Amazon becomes the main broadcaster of French football"
14 June 2021Francois said "Amazon had never acquired such large batches in other European countries."
GB News: Small scale in a mass medium
11 June 2021A channel dedicated to personality-led opinion breaks from TV’s strong range of rolling news, bulletins and standalone debate programmes. Conceptually GB News is more like talk radio: audiences can dip in at any time of day to hear takes on stories.
A linear launch—especially one based on a new interpretation of Ofcom’s due impartiality rules—has generated headlines, but the stark commercial reality of sustaining TV news by itself remains.
Its own linear audience and paying member forecasts are optimistic for a service with limited prominence and a streamlined budget, though profitability may not be its only measure of success.
James Barford was quoted in The Telegraph on "Openreach under threat after French swoop on BT"
11 June 2021James said “An independently-owned Openreach is very focused on its own financials… It might slow things down.BT as a whole, has a massive interest in UK plc. It has a massive interest in the UK doing well. It sees full-fibre as part of that."
He added, “An Openreach owned by non-UK investors - that only has an interest in itself.”