PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Nick Snow nick . snow @ advanced-television . com
MANAGING EDITOR
Colin Mann colin . mann @ advanced-television . com
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Chris Forrester
chris @ forrester-solutions . com
PUBLISHING ASSISTANT
Nik Roseveare
nik @ advanced-television . com
ART EDITOR
Steve Overbury steveoverbury @ yahoo . co . uk
CONTRIBUTORS
David del Valle - Madrid Pascale Paoli-Lebailly - Paris Branislav Pekic - Rome
INSIGHT ASSOCIATES
3Vision ABI Research Ampere Analysis Decipher Media Consultants Digital TV Research Futuresource Consulting MIDiA Research Omdia Parks Associates PP Foresight SNL Kagan
Strategy Analytics
SALES DIRECTOR
Sanjeev Bhavnani
sanjeev @ advanced-television . com
PUBLISHED BY
Advanced Television Limited Unit 4.04 Creative Media Studio 45 Robertson Street , Hastings , East Sussex TN34 1HL
www . advanced-television . com
PRINTED BY
Micropress Printers Limited Reydon Business Park , Fountain Way , Reydon , Southwold IP18 6DH Tel : + 44 ( 0 ) 1502 725800 sales @ micropress . co . uk
Inside information
AT & T has spun-off its media business into a new vehicle driven by Discovery . This happens at the same time as BT tries to sell its TV unit . Does this mean telcos can ’ t make TV work ? While AT & T keeps a big stake , the maths isn ’ t appetising from their stockholder ’ s point of view . The new company has a proforma enterprise value of $ 76 billion net of debt , of which AT & T has 71 %. Three years ago , AT & T paid over $ 85 billion for Warner Media . And they ’ ve already sold off their other big TV play , DirecTV , for a distress price – particularly distressing for its shareholders . David Zaslav , long time Discovery CEO , will lead the new business . There is no mention of AT & T execs to be involved . AT & T gambled heavily on becoming the biggest vertically-integrated content and distribution company , despite the evidence of several prior attempts unravelling ( Time Warner itself , Viacom and others ). Only Comcast remains in the vertical game . For Discovery – the wily budget content player that cleverly maintains the PR spin that is a serious documentary TV producer – this gets them out of the little league . For AT & T , it makes the best of a bad ( make that awful ) job . Why does it always go wrong for telcos ? The logic is impeccable : own the content , own the routes to market , milk the margins . That ’ s the logic of the spreadsheet . But content doesn ’ t always respond to the spreadsheet alone , it requires subjectivity , a willingness to make mistakes , judgement and the confidence to back it . The danger is that when the current generation of content execs move on – the Zaslavs , the Igers - will content be expected to be driven by algorithms in the same way as any other segment ? Of course , it ’ s true that hits have always spawned clones aplenty until the well is eventually run dry . But often those hits have come out of ‘ nowhere ’ in the first place . Nowhere isn ’ t a formula easily accommodated by an algorithm or a spreadsheet .
Editorial
© Advanced Television Limited 2021 . All rights reserved . Reproduction without permission is
prohibited .
ISSN 1477-8092
Inside The Wrap 4-8 Cover Story 10-16 Research 17-18
EUROMEDIA 3