Alistair Taylor

Disney’s Latest Earnings Are Buoyed by Growth in Their Theme Park and Direct-to-Consumer Revenues

10 May 2019

On Wednesday night the Walt Disney Company reported quarterly earnings for its second fiscal quarter ending March 31st 2019, beating analyst estimates with a 3% increase in year-on-year (YoY) quarterly revenue.

Opportunistic K+ Swoops to Acquire Premier League Rights for Vietnam

Alistair Taylor

23 Apr 2019

Canal Plus Group carriage partnerships d-day for sporting rights

K+, the joint venture between VTV and Canal+, has acquired exclusive rights in Vietnam for the English Premier League (EPL). The three-season deal starting this August spans the 2019/20 – 2021/22 seasons.

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Can Disney do a Hulu?

Alistair Taylor

12 Apr 2019

21st Century Fox brand equity Disney

Disney finally unveiled to investors during a presentation yesterday its much anticipated direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service Disney+, announcing a November 12 th 2019 launch . Disney+ will be an ad-free subscription launching in the US at $6.

Fox News to ‘New Fox’: What is Left After Disney Deal

Alistair Taylor

1 Apr 2019

CBS Disney Equity stake

On the 20th March 2019 , The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Rupert Murdoch’s 21 st Century Fox became official. What did Disney acquire? The $71.3 billion merger significantly strengthens Disney’s value proposition as a service, solidifying its position as the world’s largest media con...

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E-sports
An Alternative Future for Televised Sports?

Alistair Taylor, Karol Severin, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

1 Apr 2019

YouTube Amazon Google

E-sports continue to gain attention, with more brands seeking to enter the space populated as it is by a succession of new leagues, competitions and teams. But for all the hype, e-sports has not yet managed to deliver the scale of audience that the market activity warrants.

Mediapro Offers Eleven Sports a UK Lifeline!

Alistair Taylor

21 Mar 2019

ad-supported model BT Sport carriage partnerships

Streaming service Eleven Sports will now have to table a new offer to maintain its UK La Liga rights, as Mediapro (the agency selling La Liga’s international rights) decides to return La Liga to the UK media rights tender market ahead of the 2019/2022 season.

Why Did Facebook’s EPL Rights Deal Collapse?

Alistair Taylor

15 Mar 2019

BeIN Sports bidding brand image

The English Premier League (EPL) is now back on the market with its rights for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam following its deal with Facebook collapsing. Back in July 2018 , the social media giant acquired the exclusive rights to stream 380 EPL matches in the Asian territories for $265 millio...

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Can the NBA Capture the ‘Cord-Nevers’?

Alistair Taylor

8 Mar 2019

Audience engagement cable providers Clippers CourtVision

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference in Boston last week, explained his vision of the league’s games, which will look “dramatically different” in five years’ time.

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Fail Fast, Fail Early – Can Eleven’s UK Struggle Aid Future Growth?

Alistair Taylor

21 Feb 2019

Allsvenskan altice Amazon Fire Stick

Eleven Sports announced last week it had successfully agreed long-term distribution agreements with all four TV operators in Portugal – Altice, NOS, Nowo and Vodafone. Achieving this agreement puts Eleven Sports on TV platforms across 3.

Will An EPL Streaming Service Devalue Domestic Rights?

Alistair Taylor

15 Feb 2019

addressable audience BT BT Sport

Following the English Premier League (EPL) announcing in November its plans to launch its own streaming service for the next rights cycle (2022-2025), the Sunday Times reported that the EPL is coming close to launching.

ESPN+ leverages UFC appeal to double subscriber base to 2 million in five months

Alistair Taylor

8 Feb 2019

BAMTech combat sports direct-to-consumer

Disney announced in its Q1 earnings call on Tuesday that its sports-centric streaming service ESPN+ had surpassed two million subscribers, doubling its subscriber base in less than five months. Launched in April 2018 , Disney revealed in September 2018 that it had taken less than five months to surp...

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Streaming Video Consumer Trends Q4 2018
Reaching The Post-Peak Attention Economy

Alistair Taylor

6 Feb 2019

Apple YouTube Netflix

With streaming video subscriptions surpassing that of pay-TV in Q1 2018, traditional linear providers are under growing pressure to better understand consumer consumption habits. Pay-TV failed to entice the younger audience to engage with its services as the digital landscape is successfully catering to their consumption needs.

Eleven Sports Loses Serie A Rights As Partnership With IMG Ends

Alistair Taylor

1 Feb 2019

Allsvenskan audience acquisition Bundesliga

Eleven Sports, the fledgling sports-centric streaming service has lost the UK and Irish rights for Serie A and Eredivisie, following a strategic decision to ‘amicably’ end its partnership with international rights agency, IMG .

UFC’s Debut on ESPN+ Draws In Record Subs

Alistair Taylor

24 Jan 2019

Bellator BT DAZN

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debuted on ESPN+ this past weekend, featuring the highly touted championship fight, which saw Henry Cejudo knockout current Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw in just 32 seconds to retain his Flyweight title.

DAZN Stepping Up Its Domestic Rights Offering – Insurgent come Enforcer?

Alistair Taylor

17 Jan 2019

Bundesliga D-Day DAZN

Having grown its portfolio for premium international and domestic sporting rights, DAZN is now starting to graduate from a disruptor into an established part of the landscape. Emphasised by its latest plan, aiming to snap up domestic Bundesliga rights in Germany for 2021–2025 (provided the terms a...

Sports Viewing 2018
SVOD Taking Over?

Alistair Taylor

17 Jan 2019

Willingness to pay Spotify Discovery

Facing the menacing presence of streaming alternatives, TV networks find themselves under growing pressure to ensure that viewing patterns are strong enough to deliver a return on expensively acquired sports rights. Against this backdrop, sports viewing in Q3 2018 was largely one of stagnation, remaining flat at 38%, while free streaming declined.

Knockout Blow For Eleven Sports?

Alistair Taylor

13 Dec 2018

additive service Audience behaviour BBC

Eleven Sports, the insurgent subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, is considering closing its operations in the UK and Ireland after failing to secure distribution via traditional TV operators. Failure to attract enough subscribers onto its platform since its launch has only increased doubts ...

Sport1 To Drop US-centric Channel in Favour of Esports

Alistair Taylor

5 Dec 2018

addressable audience audience demographics broadcaster

German broadcaster Sport1 is replacing its US sport focused channel for the very first German-speaking esports channel. Sport1 announced last week that the channel dubbed eSports1 will launch in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on January 24th 2019, replacing Sport1 US.

TV Fandom Q2 2018
SVOD Audiences Become Mainstream

Alistair Taylor

19 Nov 2018

Consumer behaviour US UK

TV fandom underpins viewing across all platforms and territories, but is being reshaped by streaming, with audiences having much greater control over what they watch. This choice-led viewing provides the foundations for deeper degrees of audience fandom, but also the diminishment of more passive audience elements.

Sky Shows Hand With Bid For Scottish Football TV Rights

Alistair Taylor

12 Nov 2018

assets broadcast rights BT

Sky sports has doubled down on UK football and is the firm favourite to acquire the exclusive rights to broadcast Scottish football (SPFL), having bid £100 million for the next block of rights, starting in 2021 .