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.
“Our only hope is that Facebook reprioritises news.” Which is not much of a hope at all. Douglas McCabe, chief executive of Enders Analysis, calls the focus on social media and search for newspaper revenues a “flawed strategy” – and it’s hard not to agree.
Dramas from the public service broadcasters based on books consistently bring in bigger audiences than those that are not, a trend driven by certain genres, especially detective mysteries and thrillers.
A greater volume of newer book IP is being developed into programming, but this preference is not necessarily reflected in audience figures.
Younger demographics are less enamoured with dramas based on books than older viewers. There are however notable exceptions, while attracting younger audiences may have more to do with the age, genre, and fame of the IP.
The value of the domestic rights of major European leagues is falling due to the declining competitive intensity between broadcasters.
The Premier League’s new rights deal extends its lead, while Serie A faces a 10% fall in revenue next season and Ligue 1 struggles to get a flat fee.
Sky and DAZN have cemented their status as Europe’s top football broadcasters. Amazon has refocused to one game per week.
Enders Analysis wrote in a note: “Despite recent reports that News UK wants to make TalkTV less reliant on Piers Morgan, its viewing is noticeably more concentrated around its star man and peak hours than GB News’.”
CVC’s proposition is that such a market also exists for rugby supporters and a broadcaster will be willing to pay a significant premium for exclusivity for a long-term period. According to Francois Godard, a media analyst at Enders Analysis, this will then create a symbiotic relationship between the broadcaster and the sport, in much the same way that Sky Sports has helped to propel the Premier League to its current stratospheric heights. “You need broadcasters to invest in the sport,” Godard said. “If you have a three-year contract then it is like having a three-year flat rental. Are you going to spend money on the apartment? No. If you have a 12-year contract then you are going to take a lot better care of it.”
For Alice Enders, head of research at Enders Analysis, these recent announcements were different to those in previous years.
She said: “The primary reasons for this round of cuts by Big Tech are strategic rather than cost-cutting. Google, for example, is reorienting its operations towards AI tools for advertisers and that requires a specific set of skills in its operations.
“And [it is] reducing or indeed eliminating non-strategic operations, such as resources occupied by the Voice Assistant or AR, which were all the rage a while ago. Amazon also cut its Voice Assistant investment, for example.”
However, Enders stressed it was not “the same driver” for job cuts in the case of every company.
More problematic was how few strings were attached to how the Premiership clubs spent their windfall. This directly influenced CVC’s subsequent moves into La Liga and Ligue 1 in Spain and France, according to Francois Godard, a media analyst at Enders Media.
“The mistake they made was not to control their spending,” Godard said. “They invested in these leagues but they did not have any commitments in contract terms on what the clubs could do with the liquidity. As a result, the clubs spend a lot on players as opposed to investing in their stadium, branding, infrastructure, digital services. As a result, the football clubs in France and Spain are committed to spending around 70 per cent of their liquidity on infrastructure.”
The quest for sustainability in the UK national news industry is gaining ground, thanks to digital growth offsetting relentless print decline. The challenge of the print-to-digital transition has not faded, however, amidst the oncoming cliff-edge for print.
Nationals choosing the path of the walled garden on digital have out-performed those in pursuit of the ad-supported mass-market audience, whose ad yield per user is being compressed by more efficient scale platforms and the end of tracking technology.
Despite the challenges facing the news industry, the beacon of light shone by professional journalism has never been more important to humanity, to combat disinformation and misinformation on the internet, which Gen AI tools will only exacerbate.
