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Premier League: winner's curse

24 October 2017
Access report

The Premier league (PL) will be hoping for another huge increase in rights payments in the upcoming auction for the three seasons starting 2019/20

Aggressive competition between BT Sport and Sky has led to hyperinflation of most premium sports rights. Sport now accounts for two thirds of multichannel content spend, but only 8% of its viewing

BT’s current financial position makes it difficult to justify expansion or further hyperinflation of its PL rights portfolio, but it cannot withdraw completely

Recent reports

Growth ebbs away: UK broadband, telephony and pay TV trends Q4 2022

20 March 2023

Market revenue growth slowed to under 1% in Q4, driven by consumers economising in tough times through re-contracting and dropping add-ons.

Early 2023 is likely to be worse, with growth likely to turn negative again in Q1, again driven by ARPU with volumes more robust.

April price increases will give at least a temporary boost, but need to be managed very sensitively to avoid reputational damage and churn.

Access report

VMO2 and CityFibre merger talks: A tough sell

20 March 2023

VMO2 and CityFibre are reportedly holding merger talks, which would bring together by far the two largest fibre builders competing with Openreach.

On a conventional altnet acquisition assessment, CityFibre is an attractive target given its scale, but a very expensive one at a full price given the degree of overlap.

The acquisition might still be attractive given the opportunity to take out a wholesale competitor but, for this same reason, regulatory clearance would be very tough.

Access report

ITV FY 2022 results: ITVX underway and growing

7 March 2023

ITV’s external revenues increased 8% in 2022, driven by a big boost from Studios (+19%, £2.01 billion) with COVID overhang now appearing to be a thing of the past. Total advertising revenue (TAR) was down just 1% on last year’s record highs

ITVX had a successful launch, leveraging big audiences for the World Cup to drive awareness and use of the service. We will have to wait and see what effect ITV’s aggressive new content windowing strategy will have on linear viewing

Guidance is that Q1 2023 TAR will be down 11%, with April down between 10% and 15%. TV advertising should recover later in the year, but we are forecasting that the total market will be marginally down

Access report