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January 28, 2020Peacock: the future of ad-supported TV brands?
Focus Report, ReportsComcast’s new, on-demand service, launching in April, is an attempt to break NBCU’s unsustainable dependence on sales to Netflix and other SVODs. Peacock provides a path of digital transition for advertising-funded TV with a revamped low-load, high cost-per-thousand model. Reach will be built with a free online tier and distribution to Comcast subscribers. Peacock seeks carriage from other pay-TV operators, with which reciprocal deals would make sense (i.e. HBO Max on Comcast alongside Peacock on AT&T’s platforms. In Europe, where Comcast has no existing major free-TV offering to transition, launching Peacock will be challenging but could present Sky with ideas to counterweigh Netflix on its own service -
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January 23, 2020Can’t spell Media without AI – AI in Media and Video Consumpt [...]
Focus Report, ReportsAustralians love their video content, but as the infamously high piracy of Game of Thrones has gone to show, we don’t like to pay ridiculous amounts for our weekly fix. New entrants in the video market have heeded the call for more affordable content in Australia with the launch of multiple SVOD services in recent years, including the recent announcement of the Disney+ November 2019 launch in Australia. However, overall market growth has been – and will continue to be – relatively stagnant as SVOD replaces incumbent video entertainment platforms. -
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January 22, 2020Subscription game services: moving beyond core gamers
Focus Report, ReportsSubscription game services will finally allow platform owners and developers to deliver truly accessible gaming experiences for all, across devices, at a lower entry price point, and curated to ensure consumer safety—both in terms of cost transparency and content types. Consumer comfort with subscriptions should be embraced by the games industry and has already started in mobile. Apple’s Arcade subscription is the test case, providing focused all you can eat games that minimise exposure to violent gameplay, and the ‘free to play’ wild west. Core gamers remain the most vital and profitable games customer segment, but they have been overserved and are an obstacle to broadening the reach of games. Now is the time to move beyond this group, to restructure, expand, and normalise the games market in the next decade. -
January 15, 2020
Video Entertainment Market Outlook
Market Outlook, ReportsWe forecast the Australian video market to remain flat at about A$5.8bn through to 2023 even as the mix of revenues and consumption changes from traditional video to digital video platforms. While we don’t expect the size of the video entertainment market to change materially, we forecast household spending on video to decline gradually driven primarily by the revenue deflation from traditional to digital platforms. The launch of multiple new SVOD platforms in 2019 and 2020 will increase the competitive pressures on traditional platforms and accelerate the shift away from linear viewing.
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January 14, 2020Netflix: churn, content release and marketing
Focus Report, ReportsNetflix’s US business provides an insight into the patterns of the subscriber take-up of a maturing streaming service, trends that the comparatively nascent international markets may yet have ahead. Through analysis of the relationship between Netflix’s churn, subscriber additions, marketing spend and content release schedule, a clearer view of the rhythms of the streaming business become apparent. Rising churn, and correlation—such as the emphasis on returning original series during the year’s turbulent second quarter—gives guidance on Netflix’s likely future course, including its use of debt. -
December 16, 2019The ayes have it: DMGT scoops the i
Focus Report, ReportsLow-priced quality tabloid the i has been bought by DMGT for £49.6m, a 4.5x multiple on historical operating profit. The sale provides a lifeline to JPI Media as Reach has withdrawn from negotiations for the local estate. The i signals growing confidence in consumer media at DMGT after a long period rebalancing the portfolio towards B2B, and new ownership serves as an opportunity to rethink and drive the i’s online service. Although the acquisition will be reviewed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), we expect the deal to passSector Media. -
December 9, 2019Prime Video Channels: part of Amazon UK’s bigger picture
Focus Report, ReportsAmazon Channels’ aggregation of third-party streaming services enhances the consumer appeal of its wider video proposition, provides incremental revenues and increases the stickiness of the Prime shopping service. Content partners range from major players (e.g. Discovery and ITV) to the more niche (e.g. MUBI and Tastemade), who all benefit from a ready-made platform, billing relationships and a receptive subscriber base. But the revenue shares, data costs and lack of direct customer relationships remain too high a price for some. Two and a half years on from its UK launch, opportunities for live, ad-supported and bundled content are diversifying the platform, but Amazon must prioritise discovery within Prime Video to continue to flourish.
December 2, 2019Champions League senses end of growth cycle
Focus Report, ReportsWith pay-TV competition faltering, UEFA is aiming to stimulate demand for 2021-24 TV rights with early auctions, a possible relaunch of FTA broadcasts, and even, unrealistically, by considering an online service of its own. In the recently completed UK auction, facing no major threat from Sky, BT kept the rights at an almost flat price – probably missing a cost saving opportunity. In the upcoming auctions on the Continent, with former buyers such as SFR, Mediaset and Vodafone having cut back on premium sports, the major platforms’ bids will probably be unchallenged
November 27, 2019Australia Out-of-Home Market Outlook
Market Outlook, ReportsThe Australian Out-of-Home (OoH) market has been growing continuously for the past eight years at a CAGR of about 9%. Going forward, we expect the OoH market to grow at a 5.4% CAGR through to 2023. This growth will be primarily driven by growth of Digital Out-of-Home, which will be further driven by improving programmatic advertising and new and innovative audience targeting solutions. We forecast that Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) will grow at a 14.3% CAGR from 2018 to 2023, reaching A$869mn by 2023 and representing 76.5% of the overall OOH advertising expenditure, while Physical OOH will decline at a -9.2% CAGR from 2018 to 2023, reaching A$275mn by 2023 and representing only 23.5% of overall OOH revenues.
Sector Media.
November 26, 2019Local UK media at a crossroads: from incremental to radical innov [...]
Focus Report, Market Outlook, ReportsLocal newspapers are often identified as the most disrupted of all media. The impact of declining news media has widespread implications: for the healthy functioning of democracy, community and social cohesion as well as for local business and trade. In this report we look briefly at the existential state of local news media, and spell out a radical new approach that would require a complete rethink of local journalism and its commercial and operating models. We reimagine local media as a start-up would, rather than as incumbents with expensive models to maintain.
November 25, 2019Sky UK Q3 2019 results: balanced, but more to come?
Focus Report, ReportsWhile Sky’s overall revenues continue to rise, Q3’s growth was hampered by a significant fall in advertising revenue and to a lesser extent a slowdown in content sales. Underlying EBITDA growth was in the mid-teens. Next quarter, Sky will continue to benefit from lower Premier League rights costs versus last season, and profit appears on track to meet full year guidance. Q3 saw a rare decline in Sky’s total number of customers due to the conclusion of Game of Thrones. Sky clearly understands the value of unique content—recently extending its HBO deal. In our view, this was essential, since without a distribution deal for Disney+ (launching in the UK in March) Sky would lose Disney’s alluring content.
November 20, 2019Consumer magazine publishing in the UK
Market Outlook, ReportsLong-known market trends have become even more accentuated: circulation decline is -13% (consumer spend decline is c. -3%); print advertising is down -12%, with online advertising spend up a mere 1% (see pages 3, 11)
November 18, 2019Free video! Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max and Peacock in a rush for [...]
Focus Report, ReportsNew SVOD entrants are prioritising reach over revenue in the US with extensive ‘free’ offers, including Apple TV+ (to hardware buyers), Disney+ (to Verizon customers), HBO Max (to HBO subscribers) and Comcast’s Peacock (to basic cable homes). This is the latest development in an unfolding global story of partnerships, continuing on from multiple Netflix and Amazon distribution deals with platforms, bringing benefits to both parties. In Europe, Sky faces price pressure, but it has secured its HBO partnership and can now talk to Disney from a position of strength.
November 14, 2019Webscale Playbook: Baidu
Focus Report, ReportsBaidu, often referred to as “China’s Google”, is embarking on a new journey to pursue growth outside its core search and advertising business. That’s vital as the online advertising business is maturing, yet Baidu continues to rely heavily on it (80% of 2017 revenues).
November 12, 2019UK’s TI Media goes back to the Future
Focus Report, ReportsSpecialist publisher Future has offered £140m for generalist TI Media’s 41 brands, which will give Future 220 global brands upon expected completion in Spring 2020. The acquisition, which includes wholesaler Marketforce, is contingent upon shareholder and CMA approval. Future is the darling of publisher stocks, pursuing an energetic growth and scale strategy, and diversifying revenues through digital and experience innovation. How Future’s culture of experimentation and optimisation will work with TI Media’s more general portfolio is an open question. Only time will tell if the overall portfolio balance will work.
November 11, 2019UK’s BT: Bumps on the road to recovery
Focus Report, ReportsBT suffered a weak Q2 with revenue and (particularly) EBITDA declines accelerating, but this was mainly down to timing (particularly at Openreach, which will likely recover in Q3), with the company confident in maintaining full year expectations. BT’s fixed broadband business enjoyed some recovery as the pricing environment improves, but will suffer another price timing bump next quarter, and its mobile business is suffering from a tough market environment that is unlikely to improve in the short term. The company is busy re-branding, re-positioning and transforming, but the outlook for football rights costs and fibre roll-out regulation will dominate in the short term, and further bumps (such as the Virgin MVNO contract loss) may emerge.
November 8, 2019Streaming wars and the future of Foxtel
Focus Report, ReportsUp until a few years ago, Foxtel has enjoyed an uninterrupted run as the monopoly premium Pay TV provider in Australia. But the arrival of international SVOD players and the rise of local challengers has made a dent in Foxtel’s business.We believe the challenges that Foxtel faces are structural in nature and Foxtel could find it tough to recover lost ground.November 6, 2019Champions League rights auction: BT’s cost-cutting opportunity
Focus Report, ReportsChampions League UK TV rights, at £394m/season, appear to have reached a ceiling, with costs on a per match basis now comparable to the more-desirable Premier League. In the imminent auction, current rightsholder BT is the clear frontrunner. Potential competitors appear reluctant: Sky Sports has thrived since losing the rights in 2015, and no other players can reasonably compete at this spend. This presents BT with a golden opportunity to rein in costs, with a view to moving BT Sport towards breakeven at an important time for the wider business, considering the financial pressure it is facing
November 4, 2019Peak football revenues and post-boom scenarios
Focus Report, ReportsBroadcast licensing revenues for football are likely to be ex-growth in the top five markets in Europe, with some limited upside from sponsorship and out-of-Europe rights. The broadcast revenue boom stoked the rise of super clubs with global fan bases, feeding player transfer valuations, and a potential downturn of the latter could magnify the impact of the revenue decline. The leagues in Italy, France and Spain are more exposed to the risks of broadcast licensing revenue decline, while the Premier League’s model looks robust
October 30, 2019Webscale Playbook: Alphabet
Focus Report, ReportsAlphabet is out to prove that it is more than just an advertising business. That’s important as the company remains heavily exposed to ads, which accounted for about 86% of 2017 revenues. Yet, Alphabet is facing new competition in ads from Amazon, plus ongoing regulatory scrutiny in Europe. Fortunately the company is generating incredible amounts of cash each quarter, and now has just under $102B in cash & stocks on hand. That has allowed the company to invest heavily in its network, with capex amounting to a telco-like 17.2% of revenues over the last four quarters. Alphabet also spends another ~15% of revenues on R&D. The goal of these investments is help the company enter (or create) new markets, with less ad-dependent business models. Alphabet’s vast network infra supports the company’s cloud computing and device portfolio, as well as AI-based projects in transportation (Waymo), logistics (Project Wing), and healthcare (Verily). As a result, Alphabet’s network, IT & software capex has soared, to $8.2B over the 4Q17-3Q18 period (from $4.1B the year prior).
October 28, 2019UK SVOD subscriber trends: who is buying and how many subs
Focus Report, ReportsWith a raft of new streaming services about to hit, there remains a question as to the appetite for multiple subscriptions. Pay-TV subscribers continue to be more likely to take SVOD services—especially when they are distributed on their set-top boxes—however the average number of services per household is well below one. Greater variety and quality of services will likely increase the average number of subscriptions but given the siloing nature of these services, Netflix’s incumbency, library and distribution are its strength; new entrants will battle for a supplementary role
October 24, 2019Webscale Playbook: Alibaba
Focus Report, ReportsAlibaba, once viewed as China’s answer to Amazon, has grown into a giant since its inception in 1999. Though still just about a fifth of Amazon’s size (by revenues), Alibaba has grown rapidly and outshines Amazon in some areas. Its scale in e-commerce is impressive: (i) Alibaba ships 12 million packages a day, 4x of Amazon; and, (ii) Alibaba’s “Singles Day” has become the world’s biggest shopping event. Alibaba has invested heavily in network infrastructure to support its businesses, not just e-commerce but also cloud computing, audio/video streaming, and devices. As a result, Alibaba’s network-related demand has soared in the recent times. It now accounts for over 5% of global webscale network/IT capex, from about 1% in 2012. Alibaba’s network spend share will continue to grow, but will be reshaped by the ongoing US-China trade war.
October 22, 2019Programmatic OOH: Coming soon to a billboard near you?
Focus Report, ReportsProgrammatic advertising in OOH is still a new concept in Australia and the groundwork in terms of digitisation and audience measurement is still being laid. While, many OOH players have introduced their version of programmatic advertising, the risk of having a fragmented market with multiple proprietary systems means that programmatic OOH may fail to take off. Outdoor, or out-of-home, advertising is distinct from other forms of advertising. It is highly visible, often very large, and placed in heavily trafficked areas in order to attract as many viewers as possible. Moreover, unlike television, radio, print, internet, and mail advertising, outdoor advertising cannot be turned off, put away or easily avoided. Traditionally OOH was mostly a real estate or location play but with digitisation, it’s now becoming increasingly focused on audience targeting and improving engagement. Industry players are looking to bring additional functionality, formatting and effectiveness to advertisers beyond just digitising existing sites, along with investing in improving measurement technology to help build further advertiser confidence in out-of-home. In particular, programmatic advertising which has transformed the online advertising space could play an important role in the growth of the OOH market going forward. In this report, we explore what programmatic advertising is and the impact it could have on the OOH market. We also look at the key challenges that OOH players face and the risk of Google, a global leader in programmatic advertising, making an entry into the OOH market.Sector Media.
October 17, 2019Global & Australian gaming market trends – mobile, cloud a [...]
Focus Report, Free Sample, ReportsMobile gaming is now the dominant driver in the global gaming market accounting for more revenue than console and PC combined and the majority of all growth. This shift has been enabled by improvements to internet infrastructure, from stronger mobile networks to faster wireline bandwidth to better cloud-based delivery models; however, there hasn’t been a significant amount of direct monetisation by telcos, as they have only dipped their toes, at best, into this new source of demand.Sector Media.
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