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Claire Enders points out that despite public debate being dominated by the tastes of younger viewers, audience fragmentation and online subscription services, there are 8 million adults in the UK who lack the means, or do not wish, to pay for any TV service beyond the licence fee.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is industry transforming—accelerating the momentum toward global subscription gaming across all devices and becoming an entertainment IP powerhouse.
Activision’s ‘toxic culture’ distress was acute and couldn’t be solved—Microsoft will (and should) clean up a tarnished organisation. The troubles had hammered Activision’s share price, allowing Microsoft to pick up world-class IP at a bargain relative to year-ago prices.
Sony faces a harsh reckoning on its long-term strategy for PlayStation, while EA and Ubisoft have become desirable acquisition targets.
Douglas said “I think the days of just building scale and generating advertising revenue in order to fund an entire newsroom are probably over,” he says. “I think people have more sophisticated views of what it is they are building now. The kind of themes that we are seeing is those businesses that focus down on utility or one very specific aspect of the market – one or two beats, one or two specific areas of journalism – are the businesses that seem to be doing better."
He added “I’m thinking about the Athletic, I’m thinking about Politico, I’m thinking about Tortoise to some degree. Loyal, dedicated user bases, membership models – certainly at the very least registered users – are just so much more valuable than just relying on traffic, just relying on an advertising model.”
Freezing the price of the licence fee for two years (which will then rise in line with inflation for the following four years) will leave the BBC with a hole to fill: the broadcaster has said that by fiscal 2027 the annual deficit will be c.£285 million
Despite an increased borrowing limit of £750 million, commercial returns will be insufficient to plug the gaps
With 148 regulatory quotas and targets to meet as part of its operating licence, it is likely that the BBC will topslice content and services expenditure, rather than axing content and services wholesale
Claire said "The licence fee actually does act like a subscription. It's just a universal subscription and it's for a different kind of service all together to Netflix. It is public service broadcasting."
"I think it's very unlikely that that system will have run to the end of its road with the public. The BBC is right to offer its services free of charge universally."
Claire said “This is a very good result compared to alternative results, including the elimination of the license fee."
Arrived discreetly in Europe by targeting small sports and "saying that it is content to be number two", DAZN "surprised" observers in March 2021 by taking "an important position" in Italian football with Telecom Italia , believes François Godard , analyst at Enders.
“Since then, DAZN has established itself in the main markets, in particular by seizing the opportunity of partnerships with distributors such as incumbent telecom operators, who want to invest less [DAZN is allied with Telefónica in Spain, Ed], explains the analyst. In France, it would be logical for DAZN to buy BeIN, which has returned to profit since its distribution partnership with Canal+.
