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.
François Godard at Enders Analysis said the tournament had proved a “hard sell” to both traditional broadcasters and streamers, and that the DAZN deal was the “best Fifa could get” after pressure from participating clubs to lock something in. “The Club World Cup has a grand name, but it looks more like a promotional event,” said Godard.
The Berlusconi family-backed MediaForEurope’s (MFE) public offer may not be taken up by many ProSiebenSat.1 (P7) shareholders, but will allow it to raise its stake to above 30%.
Without a core shareholder, ProSieben has flipped-flopped through unsuccessful strategies to meet the digital transition challenge.
MFE believes that European commercial television must build cross-border scale to compete with global streamers.
France is thus taking inspiration from other European countries such as the United Kingdom, which already allows instant blocking, which has earned it recognition as an example in the fight against piracy. But its reputation isn't just based on the legal measures it has adopted, points out François Godard, an analyst at Enders Analysis. "Broadcaster Sky and the Premier League are investing a lot of money in the fight against piracy, which makes all the difference."
AI agents capable of complex, self-directed tasks are becoming a reality, with capabilities set to improve dramatically through this year, and diffuse widely.
Consumer agent uptake will be hard to time, but fast when it occurs. Enterprise adoption will happen slower but with greater inevitability, as agents offer strong productivity gains across many business functions.
TMT firms should be able to capitalise on much of these potential cost savings, but are exposed to a number of specific risks around agents acting as new digital middlemen, disintermediating traditional web ecosystems within advertising and ecommerce.
Globally, subscriber growth remains the driver of topline streaming improvements—86% of Netflix’s 2024 global revenue growth came from subscriber additions, with 85% for WBD and 54% for Disney
However, in mature markets growth is underpinned by ARPU. Subs growth is becoming volatile with more customers churning in and out of services around key releases
Relevantly, the race to scale up SVOD ad-tiers will continue to have an ARPU-dilutive effect: CPMs are lower than expected and the growing price divide between premium and ad tiers will persuade more existing users to spin down
Podcast reach and share continue to grow, albeit slowly, aided by need-state differentiation and increasingly online, on-demand media habits.
The ad market remains small with the long tail of podcasts difficult to monetise, but an industry move into video—on both YouTube and Spotify—offers substantial reach and monetisation opportunities.
Publishers and broadcasters see podcasts as an essential brand extension enabling greater reach, whilst successful podcast networks have tapped into more relaxed, commercial formats.
Karen said “Over the past decade, the cost side of the equation has really just been ramping up, with Ofcom becoming super pro-consumer and the decision to rip out Huawei infrastructure costing billions. Meanwhile, revenues have been tumbling — in real terms, around 30 per cent.”
Karen Egan, head of telecoms at Enders Analysis, said the target would likely be “reliant on consolidation of a number of smaller altnets”.
Egan said its goal to reach 8mn homes by 2029 was a “big ask given the current funding environment . . . Expanding through consolidation is easier from a funding perspective but nonetheless it’s an uncertain path as there hasn’t yet been much appetite for smaller altnets to accept deals,” she added.
Cumulative losses among the altnets were £1.3 billion in 2023, according to an analysis of the companies’ most recently published accounts by Enders, the telecommunications consultancy, which does not expect an improvement in last year’s figures.