Recent deals for Ligue 1, the Fifa Club World Cup and Foxtel signal DAZN is focused on global expansion, but this has postponed group breakeven.

Rights have been renewed at lower costs due to tepid competition and wider uncertainty in the broadcasting landscape, which support its improving margins.

Global scale may be a competitive advantage, but DAZN must still prove that global synergies improve local economics and generate a positive margin.

Disney's phase of consolidation began with profit growth for its streaming business, pushed up by price rises with subscriber numbers reasonably flat. Emboldened by less churn than expected, Disney+ will be more expensive sooner rather than later

Disney+'s UK reach—a proxy for subscriptions—remains firm but under pressure with engagement materially suffering as the flow of new programming has slowed. Library content is D+'s strength, but viewing of it is correlated with new releases

The creation of sports channel bundle Venu ran the risk of accelerating the decline of Disney's linear business. The service's delay and failure to launch may have given time for the company to reappraise its approach to linear

Broadcaster reach and viewing fell in 2024, but the decline slowed as BVOD growth increasingly makes up for linear decline and the BBC’s viewing grew year-on-year. 

SVOD penetration and engagement returned to (slight) growth in 2024 and video-sharing platforms are increasing their share of TV set viewing.

Broadcasters still offer a wider array of programming than SVODs, but they are expanding their offering, as is YouTube.

Vodafone has signalled a tougher outlook in Germany primarily due to a worsening competitive backdrop for mobile.

Although Vodafone has reiterated its guidance for the full year, this now relies heavily on developing countries, with currency risk emerging for FY26.

Investors are likely to be sceptical of the company’s “ambition” to grow in Germany next year, with this seemingly predicated on an improving competitive environment. Nonetheless, the company can point to some early fruits of its turnaround endeavours there, and next year’s trends should be better than the current ones regardless.

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.

Use of publisher content to train AI models is hotly contested. Unacknowledged scraping, licensing deals, and lawsuits all characterise the publisher-AI company relationship.

However, model training is not the whole story. More and more products rely on up-to-date access to content, and some are direct competitors to publisher offerings.

Publishers can’t depend on copyright to deliver them the value of their IP. They need to track which products are catching on with users for licensing deals to make sense for them, and to ensure their own products keep up with the competition.

From the depths of 2023, advertising expenditure on legacy media rose moderately in 2024, on the back of an uptick in real private consumer expenditure thanks to lower inflation and reduced costs of credit—the outlook for legacy media is about the same for 2025.

Online stands apart from legacy media due to the growth of ecommerce—driven by both goods (over 26% of retail sales) and services such as travel, as well as intense competition among platforms (Amazon, Shein, Temu)—with double-digit growth in 2024 set to continue in 2025.

Television remains the most effective medium for brand advertisers—despite the decline in viewing—with broadcasters’ digital innovation and SVOD ad tiers providing greater targeting alongside the mass broadcast reach.

Vodafone’s Q2 performance was in line with the company’s guidance on almost every metric and was always going to be a tough one given the hit from TV losses in Germany and the annualisation of price increases there

The share price reaction (-6%) is likely a reflection of fears around Vodafone’s ability to improve underlying operational performance in Germany. Whilst this remains a valid concern, there is nothing in these results to amplify our worries on the issue

Escalating competitive pressure in German mobile is, however, a threat to the company’s growth outlook, and Vodafone’s promise to be “disciplined” in its approach to it may turn out to be too conservative a strategy

Disney believes it has turned a corner, laying out positive forecasts for the next two years, featuring annual, double-digit EPS growth. Streaming is now reliably profitable, although its low and generally inert ARPU will inevitably have to be stoked by more price rises

In the UK, Disney+ continues to trail Netflix in a number of core metrics—reach, engagement and habituality—but Rivals signals the potential of a positive trajectory

Similarly, although Disney's relatively patchy theatrical release schedule has had an effect on Disney+, a strong next six months should flow through to service growth

ITV's total external revenue is down 8% (to £2,321 million) so far in 2024 with Q3 total advertising revenue flat and Studios continuing to battle tough phasing comparators. Although Q4 advertising is expected to see a YoY decline, Studios will improve with a strong slate of deliveries and greater efficiencies

Advertising has fluctuated significantly across 2024, with 2025 remaining unclear. Digital ad revenue continues to see double digit growth, in line with the overall advancement in streaming hours

ITV is consolidating its disparate strands of streaming viewing on ITVX—where it can be better monetised—but overall growth is being well-outpaced by linear decline