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Francois said “AT&T thought it needed to do something about Netflix, but never really thought it through. The one big synergy was to give HBO Max away to AT&T subscribers , but they could have done that without owning the company.”
As private sector employers faced an unprecedented degree of uncertainty, the volume of vacancies fell 60% from 2019 to 2020, driven by the arts & entertainment, food & hospitality and retail sectors, leading expenditure on recruitment advertising to fall by 32%.
In 2021, vacancies for temporary placements are surging as society proceeds to unlock, with the near-term labour market tight, boosting expenditure on recruitment. Our concern is the masked unemployment in B2C sectors that will emerge should furlough end on 30 September.
Judging by global revenue trends in FY2020, professionally-oriented networking platform LinkedIn gained from demand for hiring served by paid-for listings, also filling demand for events. Indeed, which serves the high-volume but lower-value end of labour markets, with a less fruitful budget and cost-per-click model, suffered mild revenue decline.
The press industry lost £1 billion off the topline from the calamitous decline in print revenues due to pandemic-related mobility restrictions, partly offset by gains on digital subscriptions, much harder to precisely size in revenue terms.
Trapped at home for the most part, online traffic to BBC News and news publisher services boomed. Popular news sites marginally grew digital advertising while the quality nationals attracted 800,000 new paying subscribers to reach nearly three million in 2020.
The outlook for 2021, in the transition to the ‘new normal’, is mixed. Consumer work patterns and news, information and entertainment habits are unlikely to ‘bounce back’ to pre-pandemic levels, placing free commuter titles at particular risk. Signs of confidence through online innovation are welcome.
After a strong post-pandemic rebound, Sky has the opportunity to leverage its strong reputation with consumers to meet the challenge posed by new competitors and the studios’ direct-to-consumer transition, establishing Sky Q as the ultimate gatekeeper of video subscription homes.
Sports rights costs in Germany and Italy have been cut significantly, while Sky’s spend on UK Premier League rights will decrease in real terms. Savings will ease the financing of the shift to original content, which, associated with owner Comcast’s NBCU output, anchors the aggregation strategy.
Fibre deployment in the UK and Italy presents a subscriber and revenue growth opportunity, and underpins the gradual shift away from satellite to online content distribution.
Jamie said it is “at the lower end of already dire expectations and in contrast to the days following the GDPR roll out when publishers and ad tech vendors were boasting of pretty high consent rates."
He added “The market is always adapting, finding new ways to prove results. This can drive more value to the premium end of the market.”
Virgin Media’s subscriber boom continued into 2021, despite a marked price rise in Q1, benefiting from lockdown and continued demand for higher speed broadband.
ARPU remained weak in Q1, suppressing revenue growth, but this will recover (somewhat) in Q2 as the price rise takes effect, countering the current disconnect between volume and revenue growth.
The merger with O2 is set to complete in June, with much operational pre-merger preparation already done, but the key strategic questions appear yet to be decided.
Joseph said “Clubhouse is still invite-only, so they are not judging success by how many people are using it. They are much more focused on getting compelling-content creators and then hoping that the users will follow at some point in the future.”
Tom said viewers’ passion counts. “Succession on Sky doesn’t rate very highly — around 200,000 viewers — but they are passionate enough to renew their subscriptions to see the next season, which makes it valuable enough for Sky to pay to fly [its star] Brian Cox over for the programme launch."
He added “As TV shows get more expensive, with more broadcasters collaborating and with more at stake, you probably will find data being used like this. Shows like Amazon’s Lord of the Rings cost the same as a big-budget picture, so you would think they could get audience feedback before putting it out. As things get more expensive, people want more certainty.”
Abi said “The opportunity to drive up new subscribers in the under-35s bracket is small. Older adults also tend to be later adopters of new technologies. Given how long streaming has been around now, it’s not surprising that the streamers are starting to pick up traction in this age group.”