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Claire Enders was quoted in an article regarding the potential successors of Lord Patten, Chairman of the BBC Trust, who announced on Tuesday his departure with immediate effect. The government has to name a head of the Trust a year earlier than expected; the possible candidates are Sir Howard Stringer, Colette Bowe and Marjorie Scardino. Claire said “there are many good female candidates…there is no need for it to be a retired, male Conservative politician.”
Q3 2014 saw adjusted revenues up by 7% across the first nine months of fiscal 2014, helping to offset the large cost increases due to the new Premier League contract and investment in accelerating take-up and usage of connected services
In line with strengthening the online offer, retail subscription revenues were well up in the quarter, which saw further strong growth in NOW TV and Sky Go Extra subscriptions, while bad weather and losses due to the final integration of O2 customers temporarily subdued broadband growth
Continuing expansion of the total paid for multi-product subscription base and launch of new transactional and adjacent revenue streams appear the key drivers of future revenue and profit growth, while the next and looming Premier League auction remains the joker in the pack
Northern & Shell has concluded the sale of the Channel 5 Group for the price of £450 million, a little over midway between the £103 million spent on acquiring Channel 5 from RTL in 2010 and the quoted target price of £700 million at the beginning of the year
Channel 5’s fourth place in the strong and buoyant UK advertising market, its PSB privileges and current audience and operating performance make it a rare and attractive opportunity for US groups like Viacom seeking to expand their international footprint
Among the challenges facing Viacom are the integration of the free-to-air Channel 5 Group reaching a broad audience with its own largely pay-TV channels aimed at the younger age groups. In the process, we expect Viacom to deepen its ties with Sky, including advertising sales, where further consolidation appears likely
At its f8 developer conference, under the slogan “Build, Grow, Monetise”, Facebook rolled out a slew of new policies and initiatives designed to boost its appeal amongst users, app developers and advertisers
In its drive to encourage developers to build more apps that support the social network, Facebook is attempting to position itself as a “cross-platform platform” with 1 billion+ users that sits on top of iOS, Android and other mobile operating systems
Key announcements included App Links, an open source solution enabling linking across apps, which may drive additional usage, and Facebook Audience Network, an app ad network rolling out this year, which should drive additional margin and could challenge Google AdSense
Facebook has successfully transitioned its business to mobile, with the number of mobile users now exceeding those on PC, and mobile newsfeed ads accounting for nearly all revenue growth and over half of total revenue, now on a $10 billion annual run-rate
North America and Europe continue to account for the vast majority of revenue and revenue growth, despite flat audience penetration in both regions, as increasing mobile consumption and advertiser take-up have driven sharp increases in ARPU, particularly in the US
Despite tougher comparables and declining desktop revenue going forward, the rapid ramp up in mobile ad revenue, plus initiatives such as video ads, ads on Instagram and planned mobile ad network, should deliver strong growth through 2014 and into 2015
The boom in mobile device sales accelerated in 2013, with more than four times as many smartphones and tablets as PCs shipped in the UK: smartphones accounted for three quarters of mobile phone sales, and shipments of tablets surpassed PC sales, which fell sharply
By 2020, we forecast that smartphone penetration will rise from two thirds of the population to over 80%, and the number of tablet users will exceed 60%, outstripping the PC internet audience, which we expect to shrink. We now predict that the majority of internet usage will go to mobile devices this year and three quarters by 2020
Mobile is well on its way to becoming the predominant access platform in the UK, as in the US, and most, if not all, future growth in commercial internet revenues will be driven by mobile devices
Toby Syfret was quoted in an article regarding Ofcom announcement of plans to review the 'wholesale must-offer' obligation placed on BskyB in relation to its Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels. He commented " We now have a very different landscape, where BT can take on Sky...a more general solution is required if Ofcom decides to retain a remedy at all."
Netflix is making steady progress with the global expansion of its streaming business, which now makes up 20% of total revenues, but is still far short of its long term vision of 70-80% share
Building a large presence in Europe is vital to long term success. The signs are that Netflix is steadily growing its UK and Ireland base, and performing even more strongly in the Nordics and possibly also in the Netherlands
We are reaching the most critical point of Netflix’s European journey, as it contemplates entry into the key markets of France and Germany. Germany looks the more obvious first choice, with rumours of a September launch, but ideally Netflix will want an autumn launch in France too, if it can handle the extra strain on budgets
Sky and TalkTalk are rolling out fibre in a small part of York, using a model that they could potentially extend to cover 10-15% of UK households
The economics of greenfield fibre build are still terrible in general, with even building in cherry-picked areas very hard to justify under current conditions, although the economics will improve over time as demand for speed increases
Moreover, once it is built it is built, and BT loses the wholesale revenue forever. Taking the hint and offering more reasonable wholesale fibre pricing may not be a bad option if Sky and TalkTalk persist