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.
Joseph Teasdale, tech industries expert at consultancy Enders Analysis, told i: “Nobody ever worked out a successful business model for free online journalism when Facebook changed its algorithm. It’s the end of an era for the web 2.0 generation.
“Everyone was looking for a wunderkid messiah. A digital Napoleon. People wanted to believe in a new Zuckerberg, somebody who just got the new world unlike the legacy media fuddy-duddies.”
“That is part of it but I still think we would still be in the same place today anyway,” says Joseph Teasdale, of analysts Enders. “The fact is BuzzFeed has been scrambling for a business model: the social web it was built for has gone away. It is the end of the road for a certain model of online journalism. For years companies like Vice and BuzzFeed were valued like tech companies; everyone was looking for something like the next Facebook, but they weren’t it.”
Prime Video is a vital, freestanding component of Amazon’s sticky and fast-growing Prime subscription bundle—but it is also the key cog in the company’s overall video marketplace strategy
With the Prime subscriber base and Fire TV operating system driving scale, Prime Video and the ad-supported Freevee guarantee traffic, foster competition and maintain quality—ensuring leverage to deal with suppliers
However, the entertainment platform market is fiercely competitive and video is different from socks: content can’t be commoditised, meaning that Amazon must allow third-party brand building
Karen Egan, telecoms expert at Enders Analysis, said the combination of Three and Vodafone could transform the fortunes of struggling operators, with Three UK on a ‘downward spiral’ as the country’s smallest player behind BT-owned EE, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone.
Analysts at Enders suggest that the CMA is not demonstrating the ‘pro-business approach’ needed for the deal to go through. Vodafone shares fell 1.7 per cent, or 1.64p, to 94.52p.
Karen Egan, head of mobile at Enders Analysis, said: “The combination has the potential to transform the fortunes of two struggling operators, with deal upside predicated on cost synergies rather than on rising prices, which we do not foresee."
An announcement about the mooted merger of Vodafone’s UK operations with Three appears imminent, paving the way for an ultimate CK Hutchison exit.
The combination has the potential to transform the fortunes of two struggling operators, with deal upside predicated on cost synergies rather than on rising prices (which we do not foresee).
It is all to play for in regulatory clearance terms, with Ofcom expected to take a neutral stance and a seemingly open mind from DSIT, but the CMA is not yet demonstrating the more pro-business approach that was hoped for with the new regime.
“It looks like we’re at the end of the road for a generation of digital media companies,” says Joseph Teasdale at Enders Analysis.
He added “Companies like Buzzfeed and Vice were once thought to be the future of news. As long as they were growing readership and generating buzz, investors were willing to throw money at them, but the reality is they never figured out a sustainable business model.”
“The best options right now seem to be finding an audience who are willing to pay, or attracting such a valuable demographic that advertisers will spend big to reach them, but it's a struggle even then.”
The UK games sector was in favour of Microsoft's bid for US firm Activision being approved, according to the man who led the company behind Tomb Raider. Sir Ian Livingstone, also co-founder of Games Workshop, said it would be "odd" if the UK was the only place to object. The blocking of the deal by the UK regulator provoked a furious response from Microsoft, with its president saying the move was "bad for Britain".
Gareth Sutcliffe, senior games analyst at Enders Analysis, said the deal "has been in trouble for a while".
