Claire Enders was quoted in The Economist on "Rupert Murdoch prepares to hand over his media empire"
8 March 2021Claire said “He has the money. He has huge amounts of political power. He has it all."
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Capital-rich DMGT has offered a £70m cash consideration, c.10x EBITDA, for New Scientist.
DMGT has tightened its portfolio in recent years, and recent acquisitions firmly push the core business back towards consumer media.
Why New Scientist?
Tom said “Charging people for the licence fee is a lot easier if they think that they’re getting value, and they can only think they’re getting value if they’re watching the programmes. But will it attract the hardest-to-reach viewers? Probably not, because they’re watching a declining amount of linear TV.”
O2: Trending nicely, outlook challenging
2 March 2021All of O2’s operational metrics ticked up this quarter with service revenue growth, continued strong net adds and OIBDA growth particular highlights in spite of the end of O2’s Carphone Warehouse relationship.
Next quarter will be hit by the prolonged lockdown and, in spite of an improving picture thereafter, there remain several challenges particularly lower in-contract price rises than peers and some pressure on MVNO revenues post Sky MVNO renegotiation.
The merger with Virgin Media appears on track for a mid-year approval. O2 management will need to work hard to sustain their sharp operational focus at a time when merger integration and strategic question marks risk diverting much of their attention.
Virgin Media: Subscribers strong, ARPU tough to turn
2 March 2021Virgin Media’s subscriber growth continues to be very strong, and it looks like next quarter’s price rise will (at worst) only stall, not stop, the renaissance.
ARPU was hit in Q4 by the postponed price rise, and it will likely remain in decline in 2021, with regulatory pricing pressure and lockdown effects still weighing, despite firm new customer pricing.
Nonetheless, accelerating subscriber growth is expected to drive group revenue growth positive again (helped by B2B growth), and Virgin Media’s main strategic problem—its fibre trilemma—looks like it will be dealt with after the merger with O2, expected to close mid-year.
Francois said “We often talk about war in streaming, especially between Netflix and Disney, as if only one was going to remain. They are rivals but we can see that the two manage to grow. It's like TF1 and M6. And there is also room for other groups."
Joseph Evans was quoted in The Guardian on " Out of office: what the homeworking revolution means for our cities"
1 March 2021Joseph said “[Tech companies] weren’t as far ahead as you might think with remote working before. They had that image, but expectations at these companies, particularly in head office, were the same as in other sectors – to be present in the office. The pandemic changed that, and unquestionably companies such as Facebook have embraced the change.”
He added “All the tech companies have gone on a back and forth journey regarding remote working. They are settling on the idea that it has worked better than hoped, but that fully distributed teams on a permanent basis isn’t an optimum situation."
Serie A rights auction: Sky ready for radical revamp
25 February 2021Italy's Serie A could award its 2021-24 broadcasting rights tomorrow to either Sky or DAZN (backed by TIM) for a fee significantly down on the previous cycle.
Either outcome looks good for Sky: increasing coverage at a lower fee, or pivoting to aggregation as DAZN will need to access Sky’s subscriber base.
DAZN and its ally TIM are also shifting strategy, but with weak rationale. The Italian auction reinforces our expectation of a drop in Premier League fees in the imminent British tender.
Learning from the Independent: Sustainability beyond subscription
25 February 2021In a challenging media marketplace, quality online news services generated hundreds of thousands of new buyers in 2020, perhaps inching ahead of print in terms of UK household propensity-to-pay.
But reader-first models are not only about subscriptions. The UK’s first national print title to go online-only, The Independent, has achieved operating profits since reconfiguring its cost base in 2016.
The Independent defies many investor assumptions about news. Solutions for smaller businesses may diverge more from industry giants than is commonly expressed, and without distribution change, editorial, product and commercial transformation is slower.