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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

YouTube has just introduced Primetime Channels in the UK, following launches in the US and Germany, becoming another video-content aggregator in a crowded market.

The US has carried YouTube's subscription revenue boom—layering on a premium video marketplace in the UK may prove harder to achieve.

Google's NFL Sunday Ticket package offers exclusive, high-end content to US consumers. Primetime Channels' UK launch just a few weeks before the Premier League auction is interesting timing, but will not change the game.

“Mark has been a very good financial steward of the company,” Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis, adds, noting some doubters had predicted WPP “would fail or fall apart” after Sorrell left.

Enders says: “Mark is a decent and wise CEO who has the confidence of the investment community and his senior managers. He’s kept it together calmly and quietly and not sought attention – unlike Sir Martin Sorrell.”

“Disney, Warners and NBC have had five years of trying to pivot to streaming services,” explains Tom Harrington, analyst at Enders Analysis. “They’re losing crazy money, but they’re supported by their legacy free-to-air networks, which are still very profitable and popular. But they’re not investing in those networks, they’re moving top programmes to streamers, fewer people are watching ads and they’re killing the cash cows.”

Harrington suggests this refinancing will be very expensive, with interest rates much higher, meaning that companies are going to start selling off subsidiaries, with Disney already touting ESPN and ABC for sale. A spate of M&A deals looms — in which the more sanguine and cash-rich operators such as Apple could clean up in a fire sale, acquiring, say, ESPN sports rights at bargain prices.

News UK and the Mail propose to set up a joint venture, pooling most of the infrastructure and capacity of their printing operations

The proposed JV is subject to competition scrutiny, with two print sites—Thurrock and Dinnington (both DMG Media)—identified for potential closure                          

Opportunities for digital collaboration should be higher up publisher agendas more generally, as the opportunities and threats of the next digital phase evolve

 

“[Pixel] was part of Google’s influence over the mobile market, but Google was never competing with the Apples or Samsungs of the world,” explained Joseph Teasdale, head of tech at Enders Analysis, “it never contributed much to Google’s top line.”

While this is unlikely to change, Teasdale asks the question: “Do the improved, AI-focused chips give Pixel phones new superpowers that are actually compelling for customers?”

“It’s true: the two brothers, Lachlan and James, have hated each other for a long time and have opposing views. They haven't spoken to each other for five years. But the dynasty is far from over,” objects Claire Enders. For the founder of Enders Analysis, the London-based media research company, and one of the best experts on the Murdoch galaxy, Lachlan Murdoch can still count on the support of a solid staff.

Even though it had to part ways with its star host, Tucker Carlson, after the Fox News scandal , the group still has robust assets, such as the "Wall Street Journal", the "Times" or the publisher HarperCollins, piloted by Australian Robert Thomson. “Lachlan doesn’t have his father’s energy and charisma. But he was the only kid who ended up getting along with him. And he rebuilt Fox News after the 'Capitol Hill' affair and the flight of advertisers,” she emphasizes.