DAZN has agreed to buy Eleven Sports, adding two untapped European markets and expanding further into South East Asia in its bid for greater scale
Team Whistle, Eleven’s short-form content production and distribution network, will provide new opportunities for marketing DAZN, especially to younger audiences
Meanwhile, DAZN Bet has soft-launched in the UK—a small first step as it seeks additional monetisation methods for expensive broadcasting rights
The pandemic years boosted many businesses selling services on subscription in the UK: work-from-home gave people more time and money to widen the services they enjoyed in the home, such as gaming, entertainment and music, also boosting engagement with trusted news
The cost-of-living crisis dented the number of subscribers to OTT SVOD and news services in Q2 2022. Broadband and mobile are must-have; bundles of services (e.g. Sky’s pay-TV and broadband or mobile) are more resilient; yearly and multi-year contracts prevent churn relative to monthly contracts; and services that cater to passions (e.g. football) are always need-to-have
Subscription (or supporter) media and news services reaped the demand for trusted news through the pandemic, but now face a tough challenge to their toplines from the economic downturn—and also to transition to a sustainable business model for media audiences, while advertisers are also feeling the heat
Russia’s weaponisation of gas exports to the EU and resulting Continent-wide energy supply crisis also impacts the UK via rising prices on the wholesale market for this commodity
The UK’s imported gas supplies are mainly from the wellhead in Norway and look to be secure from interruption, despite higher demand from EU Member States
The UK is implementing a vast two-year subsidy programme worth c.£150 billion to cushion households and blunt the advance of recession
Netflix lost net subscribers for the second quarter in a row (-970k) but the results were marked as "less bad", being better than what was forecast. More mature streaming regions—UCAN (-1.3 million) and EMEA (-770k)—were propped up by APAC (+1.1 million)
Netflix's advertising tier is rapidly taking shape with Microsoft announced as a global tech partner, but its impact on the UK video ad market—at least in the short term—will be small
In the US, the most mature Netflix market, churn appears to be growing as the subscriber base struggles to grow. However, price rises are more than offsetting this growing churn, a window into the future of other territories
With the publication of the Media Bill (expected to include details of the sale of Channel 4) seemingly delayed to at least after the recess (September), privatisation appears to now be on ice.
2021 was another demonstration of Channel 4’s resilience—showing record-breaking revenues, high content spend and encouraging rates of digital transition—setting a credible platform upon which the broadcaster's PSB credentials can be placed.
Some queries remain: Channel 4’s main viewing drivers are ageing, with fewer new shows being commissioned to replace them. Online engagement isn’t a substitute for declining linear viewing, while digital advertising growth may get harder with more players, such as ITV and the streamers, entering the space in earnest.
With 54 million daily active users, half of whom are under the age of 13, online games hub Roblox is much more popular than Fortnite, and still growing rapidly even on top of a sizeable pandemic boost
Roblox is a window into metaverse-like value exchange. The platform pays out about $150 million to developers each quarter through its thriving real-world economy without calling on blockchain―the company must avoid the distraction of NFTs as it attracts more brands
Roblox's success suggests that platforms will remain at the heart of virtual worlds; Roblox itself is a (relatively laissez-faire) gatekeeper, though subject to app store rules in an ongoing financial and policy headache
Reportedly, BT Sport is about to seal a deal to extend its coverage of the revamped Champions League until 2027. Amazon is going to step in with a weekly game, and the BBC will get the rights to the highlights.
In France, Canal+ has outbid Amazon to claim the full rights package thanks to a bid that has grown the total value of the rights by 28%.
With Canal+’s football content secured, the upcoming Ligue 1 auction may struggle to find bidders, a fate threatening other short-sighted leagues.
The cost-of-living crisis facing the UK economy notched up a gear in April, with a shock 9% CPI reading due to the home energy price cap increase; the May reading of 9.1% implies ongoing real income declines. The World Bank warns of the largest commodity shock in 50 years as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—with prices to remain elevated for 2-3 years
After the pandemic widened social inequality between B2B workers able to accumulate savings through work from home (WFH) and B2C workers who had to continue commuting, the home energy and petrol price crisis is again disproportionately impacting low-income households that cannot WFH
While the UK could find itself in a mild technical recession in Q2 and Q3 2022, base effects from the lockdowns in the first half of 2021 are certain to produce a higher annual level of GDP for 2022, with the OECD forecasting 3.6% growth, although it also predicts GDP will stagnate in 2023, with significant risks to the downside from further energy supply disruptions
This report is free to access.
The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland has been a thorn in the side of relations between the UK and the European Union (EU) since the ink was barely dry. It seeks to uphold the Belfast Good Friday Agreement concluded in 1998, which established power-sharing between unionists and nationalists, but this has collapsed since February 2022, because the unionists, supported by the UK Government, oppose Northern Ireland being carved out from the UK Internal Market
By doing so, the Protocol removes any requirement for customs formalities for goods crossing the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Protocol led to a customs border in the Irish Sea for 'exports' from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, and also requires Parliament to legislate the EU Single Market for goods in Northern Ireland and to carve out the territory from otherwise applicable UK legislation
UK divergence from the rules of the EU Single Market will threaten Northern Ireland’s position in UK supply chains and also potentially undermine the EU Single Market, which is of concern to the EU, especially for matters of human health, such as “genetically modified organisms” (GMOs). This report concludes that a revised agreement should be attached to the EU/UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which then applies to all of the UK