The FAPL has just auctioned six packages of televised live Premier League (PL) rights, each comprising 23 games, for the three years commencing autumn 2008. The total consideration of £1,714 million is 67% up on the £1,024 million BSkyB is now paying over three years for the same number of live PL games 

Barça cannot afford to dispense with Sogecable’s support as a pay-TV partner and possessor of contracts with the other leading clubs. A deal has to be struck 

Carphone Warehouse (CPW) has launched a broadband/telephony bundle which effectively offers free broadband to non-cable customers in urban areas 

O2’s purchase of Be may only have cost £50 million but its entry into UK broadband may ultimately prove an expensive distraction 

The FA Premier League Limited has set a deadline of 14:00 on Thursday 27th April 2006 for receiving bids for live televised Premier League (PL) rights under the new three-year contract due to start with the 2007/08 football season. BSkyB is everyone's favourite to win at least four out of the six packages of 23 games up for auction, but probably the maximum best-looking five under the new rules that will not allow total exclusivity. Valuing Premier League Football Rights [2006-11] addresses the question of how much BSkyB may have to bid in order to win.

The combined NTL/Telewest occupies the centre ground of the triple play space in the UK. It has long provided the triple play of TV, telephony and broadband and is now the largest ISP in the UK. However, it has historically been constrained by high prices and poor customer service.

H3G’s 2005 results underperformed in 3 key areas: net subscriber additions were lower than promised, unit SACs were higher than promised and the group failed to reach EBITDA breakeven as promised 

2006 promises to be much worse due to a markedly bigger drop of about 11.5% in weighted share of commercial impacts in 2005, due to a number of factors (not just multichannel platform growth), and an anticipated decline of between 2% and 5% in total TV NAR in 2006. Taking a mid-value of -3.5% yields a drop in ITV plc NAR of around £180 million in 2006 

NTL’s acquisition of Virgin Mobile will improve NTL’s prospects for revenue growth and enable it to exploit the Virgin brand and marketing expertise 

The Personal Video Recorder (PVR) will play a central role in contesting the digital TV landscape in the UK over the course of digital switchover and broadband expansion. BSkyB’s market leader Sky+ will be present in over 60% of its Sky Digital homes as the central media storage unit and intelligence hub.

The product, however, has a massive cost to Orange’s economics, and we cannot see how lowering churn or offering extra services can possibly compensate for this – the strategy appears to be driven by French rather than English economics 

Mobile video services (along with music) have been heralded as the ‘killer applications’ set to deliver the revenue and customer satisfaction long promised by 3G. In our report Mobile TV: Trials and Tribulations [2005-20] we addressed live TV services; in this report we now consider non-live video downloading services. We conclude that while this is currently the largest ‘media’ mobile service (excluding ringtones) and it may continue to grow strongly in the short term, the market opportunity is ultimately limited due to the small size of video files downloadable over 3G, and that live TV and PC-based downloads will eventually force the market into decline.

The cause of subscription take-up already falling behind management targets set in mid 2005 is the CanalSat DTH basic rather than the Canal+ premium service, now under pressure from rival DSL and DTT services 

With the launch of two new analogue terrestrial services and a relaunch of digital terrestrial television (DTT), the Spanish government has opened up the country’s free-to-air (FTA) TV market. Although we expect the government to assist the new analogue terrestrial entrants, we anticipate that both will struggle to become profitable. Meanwhile, the DTT space will be more interesting for the takeover opportunities that it presents to the leading terrestrial commercial groups.

Fastweb’s high service model increasingly appeals to the business segment but aggressive competition on the residential segment is eroding ARPU 

BT Wholesale will launch IPStream Max, a rate adaptive ADSL product, on 31st March 2006, providing a downstream data rate greater than 6.5Mbit/s – a line speed that should support a wider range of good-quality video applications – to 25% of UK telephone lines

We believe that its focus on 3G is to blame, and the company seems poised to repeat this mistake with a focus on the latest industry fad, convergence 

Sharp rise in EBITDA margin to 31% in 2005 as Free increases the share of unbundled (on-net) subscribers from 53% to 70% and retains tight control of marketing spend in the 'landgrab' for customers in France

The new management is teeing up the core UK business for a successful turnaround