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"Rabe is much exposed, he must come up with something,” said François Godard, at Enders Analysis, who was sympathetic to the rationale for the deals. “This was his play — nobody else’s. This is a failure and you can’t describe it otherwise. You must come up with a plan B.”
FAST services that include digital linear channels (FAST channels) appear to be experiencing solid growth in the US. In the UK, this success has been used to highlight a potential mechanism to diversify away from broadcast linear and SVOD
However, the growth potential of these services on this side of the Atlantic contends with a very different video market than the US—the free output of the PSBs remains prolific and of high quality, while prominence legislation is likely to tougher
Furthermore, overall viewing of long-form video content is declining. Any new FAST services will be fighting for a declining amount of screen time with poor content slates and little name recognition—however, growing demand for US content is an advantage
Francois said “Netflix has fallen back to earth after a period of euphoria. For them, it is very destabilizing. After enjoying an out-of-the-ordinary rating on Wall Street, it has become a normal business again. In terms of content, their big problem is that their catalog remains much weaker than those of Warner and Disney. They don't have superheroes."
Julian said “This sets Sky on the path of progressively transitioning its subscribers from satellite to [internet] delivery, eventually retiring satellite and saving the associated fixed costs." He suggested this could reduce Sky’s costs by £100m a year and make it easier to appeal to younger customers.
Douglas said “The Mail is unique: it has the most successful print newspaper, and a hugely successful online service, yet the two circles in the venn diagram are surprisingly apart. Pushing them together is a huge organisational and cultural challenge, but necessary from an economic perspective alone. If the Mail has the biggest challenge of all the publishers, it also has one of the media industry’s biggest opportunities.”
DAZN has agreed to buy Eleven Sports, adding two untapped European markets and expanding further into South East Asia in its bid for greater scale
Team Whistle, Eleven’s short-form content production and distribution network, will provide new opportunities for marketing DAZN, especially to younger audiences
Meanwhile, DAZN Bet has soft-launched in the UK—a small first step as it seeks additional monetisation methods for expensive broadcasting rights
Joseph said “For more sophisticated games, we know brands are keen to experiment, as in-game is a chance to get in front of hard-to-reach audiences in an immersive context."
He added “[Y]ou either have custom branded integrations that involve huge investment and a high creative bar for one-off experiences, or you’re sticking virtual posters on in-game ad environments. That looks tacky and there’s none of the attribution you would get with web banners. The data brands get out of gaming platforms is pretty basic: number of visitors to the experience, and from which regions. If you build a custom app then you can measure in-game activity and get the usual analytics, but then you don’t have the built-in audience, and it’s an even bigger development challenge.”
Joseph said “Meta wanted to invest in the metaverse while the core business was still churning out cash, but pressure from its competitors and the subsequent revenue decline means it is now under pressure to clamp down on these rather over-the-top experiments to develop a virtual world that no one wants to spend time in.”
Enders Analysis’ Karen Egan told City A.M. that Niel’s swoop for Vodafone was undoubtedly driven by his firm’s failed bid to buy Vodafone’s Italian unit for more than €11bn (£9.6bn) in February.
She said this, combined with shareholder frustration, was a key driver for the businessman, who also has an expansive portfolio across Europe and Africa.