The Premier League has launched its first competitive rights auction since 2018, offering broadcasters a longer four-year cycle and 70 more live games.
Sky could reduce costs by cutting down on one weekly slot, but we expect it to fight for four packages, consistent with its history of prioritising the prominence of its Premier League coverage.
Competitive tension may be the strongest between TNT Sports and DAZN.
Paid sharing and "price optimisation" are returning clear benefits for Netflix, with healthy subscriber growth (+8.8 million, up to 247 million) and an 8% YoY increase in revenue ($8.5 billion) in Q3. However, success of the advertising tier remains slow
In the UK, Netflix is growing revenues and ARPU, and although it is now a challenge to grow the subscriber base, there is a clear and large group of non-paying users that are now being targeted
Netflix's per household engagement is materially higher than its direct competitors. However, this is plateauing and has implications for revenue levers such as advertising impacts and price rises
Online retail is a prime arena for AI implementation, with a high degree of tech involvement and proximity to the point of sale
Generative AI’s near-term prospects are inflated by the hype cycle; instead, improvements to product discovery and logistics will be the next frontiers for growth and AI-driven efficiency
Retailers risk their reputations as they jostle for early mover advantage: larger players Amazon and Shopify through major investments, and SMEs with specialised data and licensing
YouTube has just introduced Primetime Channels in the UK, following launches in the US and Germany, becoming another video-content aggregator in a crowded market.
The US has carried YouTube's subscription revenue boom—layering on a premium video marketplace in the UK may prove harder to achieve.
Google's NFL Sunday Ticket package offers exclusive, high-end content to US consumers. Primetime Channels' UK launch just a few weeks before the Premier League auction is interesting timing, but will not change the game.
News UK and the Mail propose to set up a joint venture, pooling most of the infrastructure and capacity of their printing operations
The proposed JV is subject to competition scrutiny, with two print sites—Thurrock and Dinnington (both DMG Media)—identified for potential closure
Opportunities for digital collaboration should be higher up publisher agendas more generally, as the opportunities and threats of the next digital phase evolve
Project Gigabit, the process of awarding subsidies to cover the hardest-to-reach 10-15% of the UK with gigabit broadband, is well underway, with altnets having been awarded all of the contracts won so far, although these are only 5-10% of the prospective total.
While wholesale provision is mandatory under the contracts, logic and experience suggests that this option may prove impractical, leaving the national ISPs (such as BT, Sky and TalkTalk) at risk of losing up to 15% of the market, and consumers being denied hard-won choice.
Openreach would be well advised to build its own network in these areas using the ducts and poles of the subsidy winners (also mandated), to protect the prospects of its ISP customers and maintain consumer choice.
Sports clubs, leagues and federations are accelerating investment in their direct-to-consumer strategies, developing next-generation apps and streaming services.
Objectives include gathering first-party fan data, diversifying revenue streams, and extending reach in growing markets and among younger audiences.
New league streaming apps supplement broadcaster coverage in core markets and enable new partnership arrangements with incumbent pay-TV operators and online video marketplaces.
Newspaper mergers are likely to be subject to both a competition and public interest process, representing a hurdle for potential buyers.
Warner Bros. Discovery is grappling with declining legacy cable revenues and its $48 billion debt burden. DTC losses have attenuated but de-leveraging will be trickier post-2023 as many of the easier cost-savings have been achieved.
The US launch of its DTC offering, Max, attempts to dovetail IP from across Warner Bros., alongside Discovery's food, lifestyle and documentary programming, and soon, CNN. Adding sports may prove more challenging.
In Europe, WBD’s rational strategy would be to maintain a mixed distribution strategy, agreeing exclusive deals for its DTC platform with incumbent aggregators such as Sky.
The US and UK have highly dissimilar approaches to regulating political advertising during elections, with far less spent in the UK (46p per registered voter compared to $51 in the US per year), although spending on online political advertising is rising fast in both.
The UK caps electoral spending and bans political advertising on broadcast channels, newspapers are partisan and regulation of online is very light touch.
With the UK’s next general election on the horizon, it’s vital to level the playing field between the broadcast and online channels, to prevent false and misleading statements by parties, candidates or their supporters from swaying voter intentions, to the detriment of the quality of democracy in the UK.