Displaying 1 - 10 of 12

Our country is facing a deepening social crisis this winter, with millions of people living in poverty or destitution, including 1 million destitute children.

Multibanks offer an emergency service for families fighting poverty, providing surplus essentials like nappies, toilet rolls, toothpaste and school uniforms, donated by businesses like Amazon and others, reducing waste, and shipped to beneficiaries.

Co-founded by Gordon Brown and Amazon UK, supported by many donors and volunteers, two multibanks serve each of Fife and Wigan, the next will serve Wales, and the aim for 2024 is to reach six multibanks in the UK.

A cooler consumer market sees Sky now facing the same pressures as its SVOD competitors, with a loss of pay-TV subscribers in the UK.

However, Sky is performing better in telecoms in both the UK and Italy. These markets are less susceptible to recession with Sky also benefitting from its position as more of a challenger than an incumbent.

Uncertainty continues to loom over both the sale of its German platform and the upcoming allocation of Serie A rights in Italy.

On behalf of Lloyds Banking Group, AlixPartners seized the press assets of the Barclay family to recover debts, threatening to sell the Telegraph Media Group and the Spectator in a range of £500 to £600 million.

The least likely scenario is for AlixPartners to select another national news group as the buyer of the Telegraph, due to barriers to clearance from public interest considerations and possibly also at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

If AlixPartners considers that UK trade buyers are unlikely to be considered suitable buyers for the Telegraph, then the range of buyers reduces to non-UK trade buyers or wealthy individuals seeking a trophy asset.

The games industry, with the potential to become the world’s largest media and entertainment sector by revenue, is undergoing profound transformation.

The consolidation of major developers is a response to a revenue model pivoting toward subscription, with direct consequences for those already in the subscription space: film, TV and music.

A technology-led creative medium, with an audience approaching three billion gamers, is seeing its franchises become more valuable and useful than ever.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress, new hardware was stuck in beta, but glasses-free 3D screens impressed.

The metaverse confronted its identity crisis in a deflated hype cycle: blockchain and NFTs withdrew to the shadows, leaving the focus on enterprise and industrial applications.

AI: while aware of the (numerous) issues, discussions occasionally skated over issues of effectiveness, data inputs, the role of humans, and conditions for adoption.

Vodafone this week announced its formal 3G launch to great fanfare, with new handsets, services and pricing. This brief note gives our view on the launch and likely impact in Europe and Japan.

 

 

 

This note updates on 3G in Japan [2004-24] after visits to NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodafone Japan, and recent announcements in advance of Vodafone’s investor day next week. We conclude that the market's outlook remains poor and, in particular, Vodafone Japan will struggle.

 

 

 

The profitability of the UK 2G mobile networks depends on the continued avoidance of a price war. Are there any signs yet of retail price erosion? This report suggests that mobile prices have in fact risen in the last two years, despite the entry of ‘3’, the growth of Virgin Mobile and the regulatory pressure on termination charges.

 

 

 

MVNOs have attracted much attention recently. Virgin Mobile's IPO revealed attractive economics and discount MVNOs in certain smaller European markets have had success. This report considers the question of whether Virgin Mobile is a one-off or the start of a trend, and whether discount MVNOs can replicate their success in larger countries.

 

 

 

Although 3G mobile networks are being rolled out aggressively in Japan, instead of the promised land of increased voice and data revenue driving higher profits, revenue is stagnant and costs are rising. In this report we examine why and consider the lessons to be learned for European operators.