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.
Gareth predicted today the Weta Digital sale will result in Wellington-based operations - particularly research and development - to be "ultimately hollowed out and moved to North America."
VMO2’s half-year results were something of a mixed bag with some decent revenue momentum but a big hit to EBITDA as COVID cost-savings unwound and company full year guidance suggests a further deterioration in Q4.
Volt, VMO2’s convergence product, is well-conceived and executed. With a following wind it should avoid the pitfall of revenue dilution whilst potentially offering some upsides.
The company remains in strategic limbo awaiting an outcome on its wholesale discussions with Sky. This will determine not just fibre expansion plans but also branding and co-marketing of its central products.
Sky has started to reap benefits from its substantial reduction in sports rights costs in Italy and Germany, helping to grow group EBITDA by 76% in Q3, despite a slight drop in revenue
With this change in strategy, the business model in Italy is undergoing an upheaval. Meanwhile, the UK continues to perform well, with further promise on the horizon thanks to the bold launch of Sky Glass
This streaming TV is a future-proofing leap forwards in Sky’s ever-more-central aggregation strategy, starting the business down the long path to retiring satellite, though this is probably still over a decade away
BT had a resilient Q2, beating consensus expectations with revenue growth improving and EBITDA only just declining despite a very tough comparable, and it reiterated its guidance for the full year.
Solid operation trends, strong cost control and inflation-linked price increases leave the company (and ourselves) extremely confident in prospects for next year.
Full fibre roll-out is also going well, with reduced costs and Sky/TalkTalk signing up to a pricing offer which will lead to accelerated adoption from next quarter, and an increasing unlikelihood of them signing up with others.
Facebook has been caught unawares by the significant impacts of privacy changes to its advertising revenue, posting an uncharacteristic quarterly decline as its costs are set to spiral
Facebook’s ageing user demographics are a long-standing and growing issue, as competitor platforms erode Facebook’s attraction to the young. Recent negative PR only compounds a brewing problem of relevance as social media shifts towards being content, rather than network-driven
By pinning its name to the metaverse, Facebook hopes to redefine its narrative and claim the benefits of managing the platform of the future, but significant challenges in the entertainment, enterprise, and tech spheres stand in its way
Douglas said “We’re all bombarded with information, and a weekly digest just seems to make an awful lot of sense."
“This is a very resilient sector,” he added, drawing a comparison with other genres that “are all but disappearing”, such as celebrity gossip and men’s interest.
Douglas said “The Sun is a challenged business and the company doesn’t yet have its arms around what to do with it strategically. The brand’s confidence has been hit for sure, but it remains relevant and there are always opportunities: what might it merge with or acquire? The Sun can be a huge network play."
He added “News UK is building an overall scale platform; ‘We aren’t just newspapers, we are a conglomerate’. You need to innovate to fly and you can’t criticise them for experimenting and looking at different models. News Corporation has always had a swagger, an extraordinary confidence, but in recent times I’m not sure News UK has quite had it. This is about getting that swagger back.”
The transition from linear to digital and on-demand usage has the potential to unravel national television ecosystems. Global tech monopolists may eventually control the interface and content discovery paths, pushing European providers down the supply chain.
Maintaining cultural sovereignty over the industry’s architecture is a prerequisite of a thriving, pluralistic ‘electronic public square’, as well as a high performing and locally-relevant creative economy.
Only consolidated commercial broadcasters have sufficient scale to steer national markets towards digital models where European content providers retain prominence and their ability to set the popular cultural agenda.
Douglas said they will need to do further restructuring involving axing titles and layoffs. Iwan Le Moine of emge, a British paper-industry consultancy, expects a big increase in 2022 of the number of papers that shut compared with a typical year. That will lower demand and nudge the market back towards equilibrium.But newspapers will have more hard conversations about paper, full stop.