Latest Reports
Latest Reports
Venture Insights reports inform and enable better decision making through independent, objective, and high quality insights, analysis and thought leadership across the media, digital and teleco industries in Australia and New Zealand and with global insight from our European partner, Enders.
Tech
All companies are impacted by the evolution of technology and the changes in consumer behaviour that it enables. Our reports explore macro tech trends such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, drones, robotics, to determine how different industries will be impacted.
Media
The pace of change in the media industry has reached unprecedented levels. Global challengers are disrupting long established incumbents and attracting sky high valuations.
Telco
The wireless data revolution and cloud service provision are transforming the telco sector. Ambitious companies are investing in infrastructure, device innovation and cloud solutions as demand continues to explode.
Energy
As the energy sector transitions from fossil fuels to renewables, technology is driving changes in generation, distribution, storage and consumption. We track the challengers, the impact on incumbents and the policy debate.
Health
Technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, wearables and apps, coupled with genomics and the personalisation of health, are transforming the consumption, provision and management of healthcare. This healthtech revolution is being driven by consumers and healthcare providers alike.
Fintech
Fintechs are transforming the financial services market. Established players are responding through a mix of investment and innovation. Our reports cover areas such as lending, neo-banks, payments, robo-advice, insurtech and blockchain.
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June 15, 2018BBC iPlayer Boxsets: performance and what it tells us about on-de [...]
Focus Report, ReportsThe BBC is concerned with the performance of the iPlayer, handicapped by its inability to monetise its content. Nevertheless, as it moves towards an all-IP future, it is experimenting with new content strategies. Data from Digital-i shows that the iPlayer's Christmas Boxsets brought 360,000 unique viewers/week to the BBC portfolio; an audience which skewed encouragingly young. Furthermore, case studies of two of the programmes made available over this period—Peaky Blinders and Hard Sun—provide insight into how people consume content delivered this way, something that has been difficult to ascertain due to the major SVODs' secretive treatment of their own data.
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June 14, 2018UK broadband, telephony and pay TV trends Q1 2018: Diverging stra [...]
Market Outlook, ReportsUK residential communications market revenue growth strengthened in Q1, but this was entirely driven by an overlapping price increase from BT, and the decline in market volume growth continues. Continued pressure on both subscriber volume growth and ARPU has led to diverging strategies, with most operators focused on sustaining ARPU, but TalkTalk chasing volumes at the low end, with the former approach currently proving more successful. Looking forward, the benefit of BT’s price rise will fall away completely next quarter and market revenue growth will likely resume its downward trend, but the nadir may be within sight if the flight to quality persists at most operators -
June 12, 2018Advertising Market Outlook:The Digital juggernaut continues with [...]
Market Outlook, ReportsVenture Insights expects total advertising spend to grow at a 2.7% CAGR to $17.4bn in 2022. Digital will account for the majority of the growth in AdEx through our forecast horizon increasing from 49% of the market today to 66% by 2022. While we see risks to TV audiences and hence ad revenues, we believe the TV model is far from dead. TV can continue to attract significant audience reach (and engagement) but it must evolve to stay relevant. Overall we forecast -3.7% CAGR (to FY22) for TV AdEx. -
June 11, 2018Disruption in Premier League football? 2018 auction finally over
Focus Report, ReportsThe latest auction of live Premier League broadcast rights commencing in 2019/20 has concluded at last, with three different winners for the first time. The total sum has not been confirmed, but it looks to be down c. 10% from the previous auction at £1.55 billion per season—still substantial, and not far off the BBC’s entire TV content budget. As we predicted, Sky and BT remain dominant, winning 180 of the 200 games per season, whilst new entrant Amazon picked up one of the leftover packages at what looks to be a very low price. -
June 8, 2018
UK mobile market Q1 2018: Primed for revenue acceleration
Market Outlook, ReportsService revenue growth for the UK mobile market improved in the first quarter of the year, lifting from 1.0% to 1.2%. There was an easing of the EU roaming regulatory impact helping growth improve, but the SIM-only drag likely grew to counteract this, suggesting a modest underlying improvement overall. We expect continued market growth improvement in the coming year due to a number of tailwinds, namely annual price rises, the arrival of IFRS 15, and the EU roaming impact dropping out. The fundamentals of the market remain solid: competition is rational; pricing is firm; data demand is strongly rising; supply is partially constrained; MVNOs and convergence do not appear a threat. -
June 7, 2018Mobile Visual Search: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Searches
Focus Report, ReportsIn the past few years, search technologies have seen dramatic improvements with both voice and visual search emerging as alternatives to traditional text-based keyword search. While voice search may have gotten a head start, rapid improvements in AI and the quality of smartphone cameras means that Mobile Visual Search is fast catching up. -
June 6, 2018
Football embraces Chinese ‘hot’ money – at a risk
Focus Report, ReportsIn a display of chutzpah, Mediapro acquired the Ligue 1 domestic broadcasting rights from 2020-24 in what is the most disruptive shock to the French broadcasting industry in a generation; one that is likely to accelerate Canal+’s decline, force a review of the outdated regulatory framework, and possibly spur an M&A spree. The Mediapro move only makes sense as a highly speculative bid to resell the rights, or a dedicated channel, to French platforms in 2020. The odds are high that the broker ultimately fails to fulfil the contract, as just happened in Italy, where Sky is now expected to get the Serie A licence. Precedents of new entrants acquiring domestic top-flight rights bode poorly for Mediapro, and for the league. The Ligue 1 may live to regret the introduction of a ‘re-sell right’ into its licensing terms. -
June 4, 2018News brands and reader subscriptions: Towards a sustainable futur [...]
Focus Report, ReportsPrint remains the primary revenue driver for most newspapers, but after 20 years of online news publishing we ask the critical question: how will publishers sustain newsrooms at scale when print has disappeared, or has contracted to a weekend luxury experience? The question needs to be answered in the context of both: 1) Rapidly declining advertising revenues in print media; and 2) A tiny and shrinking market share of digital advertising revenues. We believe these circumstances strongly imply the race for audience scale is more investor fallacy than a sustainable business prize; and besides, over-reliance on the advertising market for quality content provision is unappealing, particularly to proudly independent news publishers. Reader revenue, long assumed to be an impossibility for general quality digital news services, is the only answer. Registrations, membership and subscription models are being explored, tested, adopted or exploited by almost every major quality news provider in the US and Europe. The transition to subscription is hugely attractive, but requires first and foremost a new editorial strategy, requiring a wholesale business transformation. -
June 1, 2018Hitting targets, but pushing too hard? TalkTalk Group Q4 2017/18 [...]
Focus Report, ReportsTalkTalk hit both its subscriber and EBITDA targets for 2017/18, but Q4 contained some worrying trends including core consumer revenue in decline despite strong subscriber growth, with strong business revenue growth compensating. It held fast on guidance for 2018/19, although the 15% target underlying EBITDA growth is largely driven by regulated cost cuts, and revenue growth may be (again) achieved through the business side, which will be purely wholesale following the sale of its direct business customer base. Having spent the last few years not growing retail subscribers enough in a growing market, TalkTalk is now perhaps trying to grow too fast in a mature market, putting pressure on its ARPU from new and existing customers alike. -
May 31, 2018French, Spanish and Italian telcos won’t bankroll further footb [...]
Focus Report, ReportsThe rights auction for France’s Ligue 1 will be held on 29 May. With Altice’s struggling subsidiary SFR unlikely to bid, Canal+ and BeIN Sports may not offer enough to meet reserve prices, triggering a postponement of the auction. In Spain, stiff fixed-line competition is shifting battlegrounds from football to scripted content. The Champions League has yet to sign up a platform for next season, while the upcoming 2019-22 La Liga rights auction may well fail to increase domestic revenues. With just 12 weeks before next season kicks off, Italy’s Serie A is also yet to secure a broadcaster, although we expect the league to back down and settle with Sky. In this deflationary environment, top clubs are eyeing a new Club Word Cup as an extra revenue stream – running the risk of further widening the financial chasm between themselves and smaller clubs. -
May 30, 2018BT new Consumer strategy: Converging, but in a good way
Flash Report, ReportsBT has emphasised ‘convergence’ in its new Consumer strategy, but it has avoided most of the usual fixed-mobile convergence mistakes, with separate brands, minimal discounting and only slightly flawed converged products. The general strategy is to improve customer service to improve market share trends (particularly in broadband), enable premium products/positioning, and allow for cross-selling of a strong set of converged (in a broader sense) products, which is very sensible in our view. It does require extra spending in the short-term to improve customer service and the perception thereof (particularly in broadband) before premium positioning and cross-selling can be effective, therefore improved trends at the bottom line may take some time to come through. -
May 29, 2018Machine Learning – connecting the dots…
Flash Report, ReportsMachine learning is a branch of Artificial Intelligence that enables computer programs to learn, analyse and identify trends and patterns within large sets of data. Rapid innovation in recent years has seen exciting advances in machine learning with the rise of multiple use cases across a range of industries. -
May 28, 2018Strategically challenged: Vodafone Q4 2017/18 results
Focus Report, Market Outlook, ReportsThe major change in trend evidenced in Vodafone’s Q4 results was a decline in mobile service revenue growth in Germany by 2ppts on the December quarter, in spite of record contract net adds and improving growth trends from its competitors. At least part of this deterioration is likely due to its strategic focus on converged products; we estimate discounts of around one third and question the rationale for this initiative, particularly given the admission that this is distracting from the core mobile business. Vodafone’s guidance for 1-5% group EBITDA growth next year reflects the challenging outlook and uncertainty in southern European markets, a more positive view on the UK, with Vodafone’s German strategy a major swing factor.Sector Telecom. -
May 25, 2018Retailing in the material world
Focus Report, ReportsEcommerce has grown to 17.5% of retail spend, and accounts for almost all growth in spend. Physical retailers are beginning to feel the effects, with chains reporting falling profits and even bringing in administrators. The UK picture is muddied by a general lack of economic recovery, and irrelevant comparisons with the US. Finished goods stores, however, are clearly under extreme pressure. We are moving into a retail paradigm of online and offline elements being freely matched. To survive this transition, brick and mortar retailers have to become differentiated experiences and close the data gap with e-retailers -
May 24, 2018European video-on-demand: Playing catch-up to the UK
Focus Report, ReportsThe UK continues to lead the EU5 in take-up and consumption of video-on-demand services, with close cultural alignment and a historic williness to pay for TV content making it a receptive home for US SVODs. Netflix dominates in most markets, benefiting from high-profile US imports and big-budget local productions. Local SVODs are struggling, with those operated by FTA broadcasters facing considerable challenges. Collaboration between local broadcasters and pay-TV platforms is essential if they are to hold at bay the threat of Netflix and co., with an increasingly favourable regulatory environment opening the door for unprecedented collaboration. -
May 23, 2018
BT Q4 2017/18 results: Slowing broadband bites, but recovery pos [...]
Flash Report, ReportsBT Group met expectations for the 2017/18 financial year, but future guidance is very modest compared to previous performance and financial market expectations, with 2018/19 revenue and EBITDA both guided to decline by around 2% with capex rising. In our view, this weakened outlook is primarily driven by the ongoing slowdown and increasing competitiveness of the UK broadband market, with operating metrics at BT Consumer particularly weak. BT’s re-vamped strategy looks good in parts, and could deliver the incremental improvements necessary to outperform the new (much more modest) expectations, helped by existing – and likely continued – strength in mobile. -
May 22, 2018Blockchain in Telecom – moving from concept to reality…
Flash Report, ReportsIn the past decade, Telcos have had to deal with a number of disruptive technologies. The pace of change is set to continue as Telcos transition towards a 5G and IoT enabled ecosystem. As Telcos seek new revenue opportunities and a way to streamline operations, Blockchain is rapidly evolving to become one of the most promising emerging innovations for telecoms today. -
May 21, 2018Virgin Media Q1 2018 results: Good, but beware headlines
Focus Report, Market Outlook, ReportsThe highlight of Virgin Media’s Q1 results was the return to growth for its UK cable ARPU (+1.3%), although the improvement in trend should be interpreted with caution due to accounting changes. Headline group revenue growth of 5.2% was boosted by profit-neutral handset sales, with underlying growth of around 3.2% – still strong in the sector context. Virgin Media continues to do relatively well in the increasingly challenging UK broadband market, but with evidence of limited pricing power, sluggish roll-out and subscriber growth, revenue trends look set to slow. -
May 18, 2018Vodafone/Liberty Global deal: Slim economics and regulatory risk
Focus Report, Market Outlook, ReportsVodafone’s acquisition of Liberty's assets in Germany and Central Europe is likely to face regulatory scrutiny at the EU – and possibly also German – level. We view Vodafone’s expectation of closure in mid-2019 with no remedies as unlikely. The economics of the deal for Vodafone are slim, highly reliant on extracting sizeable synergies, and vulnerable to operational risk and potential remedies for regulatory approval, particularly in Germany. While we see some synergy benefit from combining two cable assets in Germany, we are unconvinced of meaningful benefits from combined fixed/mobile offerings. -
May 17, 2018Wall St Shuffle: Spotify’s non-IPO
Focus Report, ReportsSpotify is now the world’s first publicly listed on-demand music streaming service. Its global footprint generated €4 billion in 2017 from over 70 million paying subscribers and 90 million ad-funded users across 65 countries. As it expands, the service is steadily but surely moving ever closer to profitability, with a 2019 operating profit a very real prospect. So far and for the near future, Spotify’s global pre-eminence versus competition from Apple, Amazon and Google proves remarkably resilient. Plans to build upon its differentiating features will become ever more decisive as the tech titans will continue to wield their resources and ecosystems against the comparatively undiversified company. -
May 16, 2018SXSW 2018 – Visions of the future: Blockchain, AI and Colonies [...]
Flash Report, Free Sample, ReportsVenture Insights attended this year’s South by South West (SXSW), Austin’s annual technology conference.This report highlights 7 key trends from the event, including: the impact of Blockchain, whether we should trust AI, how ethics apply to platforms, the battle for your voice and whether we will be on Mars by 2019! -
May 15, 2018
Covert growth in UK mobile
Focus Report, Market Outlook, ReportsThe UK mobile market is growing strongly – we estimate revenues by 5% and EBITDA by 8% in 2017 – excluding one-off regulatory drags and the loss of non-profit-generating handset revenue. Regulatory price cuts end in mid-2018, and the handset effect will disappear from all reported figures from April 2018, leaving scope for very positive headline growth next year – considerably better than its European comparators and the sluggish UK fixed market. The outlook for the UK mobile industry is the best it has been in a decade, with significant growth in data demand, price increases, some supply constraints, rational competition, and major regulatory drags rapidly fading. -
May 14, 2018
Video viewing forecasts to 2027: continued divergence by age grou [...]
Focus Report, ReportsOur latest forecasts predict traditional broadcasters will account for 72% of all video viewing in 2027, down from an estimated 82% in 2017, reflecting the continuing adoption of online video services across all UK age groups. Additional viewing of online short-form content such as YouTube will keep pushing overall volumes higher, with SVOD services serving more as a substitution for linear TV. The extent will be greater among younger age groups, for whom the shift has already been significant. We predict that in 10 years just 42% of 16-34s’ total viewing will be to conventional broadcasters versus 91% for the over-55s. -
May 13, 2018Bad health habits?
Focus Report, Free Sample, ReportsAustralia's overall health expenditure is growing faster than GPD - with no end is sight. Mega demographic trends such as ageing population suggest that our health costs as measured as a percentage of GDP will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. This places ongoing pressure on Governments and individuals to find the funding to support our health. The almost out of control tends with chronic avoidable diseases are a worrying concern. However, its not clear that lack of education is the only problem do we just have terrible health habits? If so, what can be done about its and who (governments, health insurers, health providers or individuals) should be responsible. -
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May 10, 2018TPG mobile launch plans – there’s going to be data on the str [...]
Flash Report, Free Sample, ReportsWith an increasingly commoditised fixed market, the Australian mobile market is under attack as both margins and market share are under pressure. TPG is set to launch its mobile network with rock bottom introductory pricing for mobile data.$0.00 -
May 10, 2018NBN update: more fibre + better pricing will lead to higher speed [...]
Focus Report, ReportsThe NBN has made significant progress on improving speed uptake on its network in the past six months driven by the pricing changes announced in November 2017. However, customer complaints that continue to rise as the rollout progresses and an increasing threat from fixed wireless substitutes continue to weigh on the future of the NBN. -
May 9, 2018European privacy: New Wave in the Old World
Focus Report, ReportsFor much of the online media industry, GDPR compliance has stalled at basic data audits and box ticking, as firms wait for the rest of the privacy regime to emerge. But weighing technicalities of legitimate interest and consent misses the point: transparent consumer value will be the only sustainable basis for processing personal data. The scrutiny of Google and Facebook privacy practices involves an added antitrust dimension, potentially leading to processing limits as remedies. -
May 8, 2018Trinity Mirror and Northern & Shell raise regulatory hackles
Focus Report, ReportsThe Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) halted the merger of the publishing assets of Trinity Mirror and Northern & Shell, and is inquiring into the merger’s likely impact on competition in the national newspaper market. The CMA will take into account efficiencies of £20 million in newsrooms, printing and advertising sales, which if realised could help sustain national news provision in a failing print market transitioning to digital services. Secretary of State (SoS) Matt Hancock has issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN) citing newspaper public interest (PI) grounds, on concerns the TM/N&S merger may be contrary to the public interest -
May 7, 2018Blockchain: Reinventing the wheel
Focus Report, ReportsDespite the hype, systems based on the technology underlying bitcoin are a poor match for most use-cases. The term 'blockchain' is nowadays applied to technologies with shared aims and ideals rather than technological unity; few – if any – of these aims require true blockchain, any many are double-edged swords. The promises of blockchain are seductive in the context of programmatic online advertising, but are over-sold. -
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May 5, 2018Venture Advisory Monthly Wrap – April 2018
Free Sample, Monthly wrap, ReportsVenture Advisory provides a review of leading Australasian telco, media and technology companies on a monthly basis. This review considers amongst other things share price performers ( best and worst performers during the month), company news flow and ASX release updates and respective valuation trading multiples. The report is designed for busy executives and investment professionals that want to get a flash update and stay on top of key news flow. If you wish to find out more or have an deeper enquiry please feel free to contact Nigel Pugh or Sarah Houghton.$0.00 -
May 3, 2018Grand new ideas for the content industry: Lessons from GDC 2018
Focus Report, ReportsLast month’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco was a triumphant showcase for crossover technologies and ideas designed to attract and engage new customers; ideas coming soon to all parts of the digital entertainment industry. Google and Facebook launched new “Instant App” technologies for game developers on their platforms, which will eventually have a significant impact on mobile app curation and discovery for not just games but the broader entertainment sector. Universal Pictures showed how media and entertainment companies should be working with indie developers to drive franchise development, utilise creative IP, and bring new ideas to market quicker. -
May 2, 2018Small Cells Part 1: Leveraging Public Infrastructure
Focus Report, ReportsRecent public infrastructure deals have demonstrated the joint benefits of combining smart city rollouts with mobile networks. Venture expects more infrastructure deals to be completed as governments recognise the clear public policy benefits and Telcos roll out 5G networks faster. -
May 1, 2018Sky Q3 2017/18 results: ever more attractive
Focus Report, ReportsSky posted yet another set of solid results, with revenues up 5% and operating profits up 10%, despite weakening operating metrics in Germany & Austria. Deals with Netflix and Spotify will enhance the customer experience, signalling Sky's confidence in its platform, perhaps a sign of further deals to come. A successful outcome from February’s Premier League auction sealed the prospect of a takeover battle for Sky, with Comcast launching its formal bid this week. -
April 27, 2018Brexit Update: Domestic Issues
Focus Report, ReportsDespite apparent instability of the political climate in Westminster, the direction of travel is predictable as both main parties share the aim of Brexit. The big fight in Parliament is over the future trade policy of the UK. Officially, the UK wants to agree a Free Trade Area (FTA) with the EU, while the Labour Party and Tory rebels hope a Customs Union (CU) prevails, binding the UK to the EU’s trade policy. The Supreme Court is about to hear the UK Government’s challenge to legislation passed by the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales, which claim their consent is required for policies on agriculture, fisheries and the environment. -
April 26, 2018The Influence of Bots on Fake News
Focus Report, ReportsFake accounts could represent up to 15% of a digital platform’s total accounts and generate a high proportion of activity. Whilst, digital platform providers are taking some steps to prevent fake bot accounts, it is likely that Governments will set regulation to ensure providers formalise monitoring, blocking and labelling processes. -
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April 24, 2018AltFi Conference 2018 – Growth with transparency
Flash Report, Free Sample, ReportsVenture Insights attended the annual AltFi Australasian Conference on April 15th 2018. The key takeaway from the conference was that the Fintech Industry in Australia is growing at a fast rate and the industry is optimistic about the Federal Government’s Open Banking initiative.$0.00 -
April 19, 2018Fox offers sale of Sky News to clear merger
Focus Report, ReportsThe Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will report on the public interest (PI) aspects of the Fox/Sky merger on 1 May to Secretary of State (SoS) Matt Hancock, who will announce his decision on 13 June to the Commons. Fox has offered to sell Sky News to Disney, which will prevent the Murdoch family from ever exercising control or influence and might appease opponents of the merger. The CMA is likely to advise the SoS to clear the merger, conditional on the Sky News sale to Disney, which the SoS could accept. Fox will then participate in the end-game for Sky, where Comcast is also a determined bidder. -
April 18, 2018
Sky’s Italian strategic breakthrough
Focus Report, ReportsAfter losing money for 13 years fighting Sky, Mediaset has given up. The two have agreed to wholesale channels to each other, and Sky gained the option to take over the infrastructure of terrestrial pay platform Mediaset Premium, in a deal designed to pass antitrust muster. The main strategic upside for Sky resides in eventual access to content from Italian FTA channels, allowing it to become the country’s ‘universal’ platform. Meanwhile, Mediaset may find it easier to resolve its dispute with France’s Vivendi now that the broadcaster has got rid of its main cash drain. Sky remains the only major potential buyer of the 2018-21 Serie A rights, to be sold on 21 April. However, due to the league’s unrealistic expectations and the faulty platform-based auction design, the auction may be aborted for a third time, raising the risk that heavily indebted clubs resort to short-term fixes. -
April 17, 2018
IoT & Cryptocurrency Mining: Cyber Security Update
Focus Report, ReportsThe Internet of Things represents a significant and growing target area for cyber criminals. The growth in cryptocurrencies is focussing cyber criminals on the benefits of crypto-mining malware. Individuals, businesses and governments need to include IoT related cyber risks in their security controls and plans. -
April 13, 2018Media Roundtable Breakfast – key findings: MarTech and AdTech [...]
Focus Report, ReportsWith technology continuing to improve and the known pitfalls of both Advertising technology and Marketing technology apparent, a convergence of these technologies will take place sooner rather than later giving more control to advertisers. Designing an advertising campaign has always been slow and somewhat clunky, however new technology platforms are speeding up the optimisation process allowing campaigns to be improved and optimised in real time. However, this increased control means little if the vast majority of inventory and customer data is controlled by a small number of players. -
April 12, 2018
TV set viewing trends: ‘Unmatched’ viewing growth and cha [...]
Focus Report, ReportsDespite the continued decline of linear TV set viewing through 2017 (-4%) and the first 12 weeks of 2018 (-3%), overall TV set usage remains flat at 4 hours/day due to the continued rise of unmatched activities (+19% in both cases). We consider the recent growth of unmatched use to be predominantly due to viewing of online-only services (i.e. Netflix, Amazon and YouTube), since time spent gaming is unlikely to have changed dramatically. The increase in unmatched usage since 2014 exceeds the total viewing to the most-watched broadcast channels for all age groups under 35. Within the shrinking pie of consolidated TV set viewing, market shares remain broadly flat. However, several key digital channels have shown surprising signs of recent decline, reflecting stalling growth from the multichannel long tail versus the main PSB channels. -
April 11, 2018
UK mobile market Q4 2017: Swings, roundabouts, and auctions
Focus Report, ReportsUK mobile service revenue growth worsened to 0.9% in the quarter from 1.5% in the previous quarter, although this was entirely due to an ARPU drop in BT/EE’s business segment. BT/EE’s consumer business is still growing strongly, and all the other operators improved their growth due to the EU roaming cut impact reducing in intensity. Looking forward, there are no further regulatory shocks on the horizon, and the annual price increases implemented in March/April are higher than previous years due to higher underlying rates of inflation. While SIM-only is likely to continue to rise, we still expect revenue growth in 2018 to be robustly positive at a similar or higher level than that of 2017. In the recent 4G/5G auction, O2 won all of the currently useable 4G spectrum available, and the 5G spectrum was split between all four operators, with H3G winning less that the others but (combined with its existing holdings) being nonetheless the largest 5G spectrum holder. -
April 10, 2018Hey Siri – What is the potential of Digital Voice Assistants in [...]
Focus Report, ReportsVoice as an interface is fast emerging as major interaction platform in the digital ecosystem. Rapid adoption has led to a growing appetite among businesses to build voice-focused experiences. From a media perspective it is therefore important to understand how digital voice assistants will evolve, their potential use cases and the implications for businesses. -
April 5, 2018Facebook’s data breach – an inflection point for internet pri [...]
Focus Report, ReportsAs Facebook has become increasingly popular, marketers have found it far easier to combine our online personas with our offline selves to enable better ad targeting, leading to concerns around how much data do they actually have. However the Cambridge Analytica data breach could emerge as the ‘line in the sand’ moment for not just Facebook but online data privacy as a whole. -
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Venture Advisory Monthly Wrap – March 2018
Free Sample, Monthly wrap, ReportsVenture Advisory provides a review of leading Australasian telco, media and technology companies on a monthly basis. This review considers amongst other things share price performers ( best and worst performers during the month), company news flow and ASX release updates and respective valuation trading multiples. The report is designed for busy executives and investment professionals that want to get a flash update and stay on top of key news flow. If you wish to find out more or have an deeper enquiry please feel free to contact Nigel Pugh or Sarah Houghton.$0.00 -
March 28, 2018Value in volumes: Books, midlists and retail
Focus Report, ReportsThere are signs of hollowing-out in the book trade: a lack of disruption at the top line obscures the fact that mid-selling breakthrough titles are becoming rarer, debuting authors is becoming more difficult and loyalty is declining. Publisher tools to overcome these trends are weakening, while self-publishing has introduced fierce competition in price, if not yet quality. To fight the tide, publishers will need to concentrate on the remaining points of differentiation, as well as preserving dedicated retail channels and changing conceptions around reader relations.
March 27, 2018OK Google: The rise of Voice Assistants in Australia
Focus Report, ReportsThe rapid growth in voice search technologies and the increasing penetration of Digital Voice Assistants indicates that voice search is fast emerging as a significant computing platform with the potential for a direct-to-consumer relationship.
March 26, 2018Time Inc. UK magazine portfolio
Focus Report, ReportsAt the end of January 2018, the acquisition of Time Inc. by rivals Meredith Corporation closed for $2.8bn. Time Inc. had already been in the process of selling its UK arm, which completed on March 19 to private equity fund Epiris LLP for an estimated £130m. The Time Inc. UK portfolio is a reasonably diverse one, with the following categories: Entertainment, Fashion & Beauty, Home & Design, Sport & Fitness and Specialist. Within the consumer magazine sector as a whole, oversupply remains the core issue, and we expect to see further closures of weaker titles benefiting category-leading brands.
March 26, 2018UK – ITV FY 2017 results: glass half full?
Focus Report, ReportsIn her first results appearance as the new CEO of ITV, Dame Carolyn McCall announced a fairly good full year performance in the face of 2017’s tough ad market, with NAR and Group EBITA both down 5%. The main announcement was the start of a strategic refresh. For now, this is light on detail, but with more to come at the H1 interims. The bottom line is to improve all areas of the business through greater use of data. Under the looming threat of tech giants, increased calls for collaboration—with content producers, advertisers, and other broadcasters and platforms—could spur more tangible opportunities for significant growth in the UK public service broadcasting system.
March 23, 2018YouTube: thinking beyond the long tail
Focus Report, ReportsEngineering excellence and user generated content (UGC) have propelled YouTube to Facebook-level reach, with growing viewing in all demographics and on the TV-set. However, the commercial limits and PR risk of its long-tail content model have prompted a diversification effort involving subscriptions and long-form content. Becoming a major part of Google’s revenue amid fierce OTT competition would require YouTube to be more flexible in its partnerships with the AV industry, and a more aggressive go-to-market strategy.
