Karen said: “While the results of this auction is a very positive upside surprise for the operators — almost all of whom have something of a cash crisis going on — the exchequer will be disappointed that the proceeds are around half those that they might have expected.”
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Karen said: "The cash-strapped operators have little appetite for driving up their spectrum bills particularly given the significant costs to them of the Huawei ban and ongoing revenue declines in the sector in spite of booming volume growth."
The wave of deal-making in the European towers sector is driven by cash-strapped telcos seeking a form of sale and leaseback financing.
While the operators are incentivised to provide a medium-term growth trajectory for these towers companies, sustainability of that growth is more questionable, especially as 5G will not require additional base stations.
Cellnex continues to insinuate itself into the UK market with its most recent deal signaling the ultimate unwinding of the MBNL JV. Further UK towers consolidation seems a long way off but could facilitate, or indeed be facilitated by, consolidation at the MNO level.
Ofcom’s second 5G auction concluded with proceeds half those of historic levels for a number of reasons.
The outcome is positive for all operators with no major surprises. The results imply a much more level playing field for the UK mobile operators than in the past.
A relief for the operators but proceeds for the exchequer will be disappointing, and ALF renegotiation may reduce their revenue steam further.
Douglas McCabe was quoted in The Telegraph on "Facebook’s peace deal with Rupert Murdoch spooks the media world"
17 March 2021Douglas says News Corp’s deals were “tactical victories” and it had done “an impressive job of keeping this issue front of people’s minds. But the strategic question remains in place. How to improve the incentives for independent, quality news origination in the digital age, assuming we all agree that that plays a critical role in a healthy democracy.”
He added “We hope the UK’s digital markets unit will deal with such strategic questions – designing for new definitions, norms, practices and market outcomes – regarding origination, curation and content distribution, rather than carving out a series of time-stamped deals.”
Jamie MacEwan was quoted in The Guardian on "China tells Alibaba to sell off media assets in tech crackdown"
16 March 2021Jamie said “What is interesting here is that the Chinese Communist party has done a good job of cultivating huge tech giants, national champions. But there has always been a split under the surface between those who want to encourage the great tech leap forward and a growing unease among those worried about these huge companies and the big public figures at the head of them, like Ma, outgrowing the patronage of the [Chinese communist] party.”
Francois said "It's rubbish. Young people can sustain a full night binge watching series."
"If the content is of interest young people can be much more dedicated. So, I don't think it is a good characterisation of young viewers."
ITV FY 2020 results: Waiting for lockdown to end
15 March 2021ITV continues to battle the stop-start nature of Britain’s reaction to COVID-19, with Q3 and Q4’s cautious advertising recovery stunted by the current lockdown. However, from April onwards things are expected to be looking up.
Studios has been hit similarly hard, with worldwide stoppages on content production, but ITV notes that over 90% of productions are back in production.
UK subscriber numbers for BritBox were announced for the first time—it hit 500k in January—the number being neither alarming nor particularly impressive.
Francois said "Some buyers seem after a trophy asset, maybe lured by the hope of political influence,” but the views of the competition regulators were “the big question mark."
“Industrial rationale calls for consolidation. Will regulators reset their worldview to accept that the relevant market now includes online platforms competing with national TV channels for viewers and advertising spend?”