Global streamers have expanded their US premium sports coverage, but this will be difficult to replicate in Europe.
The main obstacle is much lower advertising revenues in European sport.
The concentration of European football rights and small pools of buyers mean that premium sports must be retailed on an opt-in basis.
The mid-sized UK altnets Zzoomm and FullFibre have agreed to merge, in what looks like an all-share merger of (nearly) equals, both of whom have been struggling to raise finance.
Why did they pick each other rather than the larger CityFibre/Netomnia/nexfibre options? Valuation may have been the key factor, but it has left them still vulnerably low scale with further consolidation necessary.
Much more consolidation is required for the sector to be sustainable in our view, and further financial distress may be required for realistic valuations to emerge.
Very strong subscription additions in all regions (+16% YoY, to 302 million) drove Netflix's quarterly revenue over $10 billion for the first time (+16% YoY). The advertising push appears to be continuing to dampen ARPU growth, ushering in more price rises
Netflix now has a defined advertising audience that does not watch commercial television—however, for this incremental audience to materially grow, longer-term users must be manoeuvred from the ad-free tiers
Netflix's original content slate has plateaued in major countries. If budgets have to absorb the growth of live content, there will be ramifications on the output of other genres, along with levels of market demand and production costs
Poverty has a negative impact on health in many ways —such as through housing, work, food, tobacco use, healthcare and sanitary costs, relationships, and social life—while social inequality has been shown to have its own, independent impact.
One in five people in the UK live in poverty, including nearly one in three children; almost two million households experience destitution. The life expectancy gap at birth between the most and least deprived areas of England is 9.7 years for men and 7.9 for women; the gaps are larger still in Scotland.
Multibank, an anti-poverty, community-based charitable initiative—which gifts otherwise wasted essentials to those most in need—has the invaluable support of retail and media to realise its impact.
Roblox’s rapid redirection towards attracting brands and advertisers with new tools, including programmatic advertising, is a savvy and ultimately necessary strategy to position the company as a global platform for games and entertainment IP
Roblox will comfortably hit 100 million DAUs in 2025, as growth rates begin to run upwards of 25%, aided by aggressive geographic expansion. New content partnerships could accelerate it faster
For TV and film marketers, led by Netflix, Roblox is becoming a default option for immersive experiences and games, while actively avoiding indirect support for Disney through Fortnite
The German football league will earn 2% more per season from its broadcasting rights for 2025-29, while European peers have faced declines at recent auctions
Sky and DAZN have maintained their relative value to fans: Sky expanded its coverage by 27 games, but lost the Saturday ‘Live-Konferenz’ feed to DAZN
The league has maintained wide free TV exposure, and leveraged strong fan demand for its second division
Sky UK and Warner Bros. Discovery have reached a deal for the pay-TV platform to carry WBD's Max, non-exclusively, when it launches in early 2026. The ad-supported version will be bundled at no extra charge for Sky and Now subscribers
The non-exclusive nature of the deal appears to have invigorated Sky into a restructuring of its packages, essentially unbundling Sky Atlantic for the first time
The CMA has approved the merger of Vodafone and H3G, paving the way for the UK’s largest mobile network operator.
Remedies are in place to ensure pricing stability in the short term, with the increase in sector capacity keeping the pricing side of the equation in check over the longer term, together with network quality upsides for users.
This is the right outcome in our view, with the alternative of a slow, painful retreat by H3G much less desirable for the industry. BT/EE will face the greatest challenges in adapting to the new market structure, with upward pressure on capex spend for all network operators.
Broadcasters have made considerable progress in becoming platform agnostic over the past three years, delivering innovative ad propositions offering greater targeting, flexibility and measurement.
They would welcome the opportunity to work with advertisers to explain the complexity involved in delivering linear and digital campaigns.
Broadcasters believe that although TV advertising is transitioning to digital, legacy share deals and reliance on pricing relative to ITV1’s station average price (SAP) continue to hold the market back. Potential amendments to CRR may allow for a smoother digital transition, benefitting the entire ecosystem.
Market revenue dipped into marginal decline in Q3, as both ARPU and sub growth weakened, both partly driven by the continued altnet onslaught
Backbook pricing effects will be of marginal help in the short term, but new customer pricing competition is still fierce, and households are still cash-strapped
In the longer term, pressure from the altnets should wane substantially as their roll-outs slow and they consolidate towards a wholesale model (or fail)