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D2C 2020 Media, Tech and Communications Majors Go Head to Head

Tim Mulligan
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The 20,000 Foot View: The current division between the new video            entrants of            has revealed a strategic split between those that are leveraging established distribution advantages versus those focused on monetising existing content assets. The current market distortions wrought by the ongoing            epidemic have placed power firmly in the hands of services able to leverage zeitgeisty originals combined with libraries of proven content and brand assets. Media majors and the subsidiaries of communications majors are currently best placed to capitalise in the streaming transition.

Key Insights

               lockdowns have created an additional            entertainment time for            of global consumers            of US consumers and            UK consumers watched more TV during March 2020
  • Owning the            without controlling the downstream has            an existential issue for the            majors
  • In a            market, known content equity is            heightened value for demonstrating value            money
  • Media majors            uniquely able to leverage group            to offset production and licensing           
  • Communications majors            acquired dominant access to TV           
  • Netflix and            forcible reshaping of TV is            driven, rather than industry driven
  • Fandom bases            media major engagement while network            drive engagement for tech and            majors
  • The tech            are going up against equally            adversaries in the communications majors
  • The tech            and the communications majors can            their hegemonic positions to generate            facto taxes to fund            strategy
  • Communications majors            the            edge over the media            the tech majors through ownership            subsidiary media majors 

NOTES: MIDiA defines majors as follows:

  • Media majors:            of revenues derived from media           
  • Communications majors:            of revenues derived from communication           
  • Tech majors:            of revenues derived from tech           

Companies and Products Mentioned:            Century Fox, Alphabet, Amazon, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, AT&T Blue Bloods, Comcast, CBS All Access, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D, Criminal Minds, Disney, Disney +, Friends, HBO Now, HBO Max, Hotstar, Hulu, NBCUniversal, Netflix, NCIS, Game of Thrones, Peacock, Star, Stranger Things, , Time Warner, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, The Voice, The Walking Dead, The Witcher, ViacomCBS, Warner Media YouTube, YouTube Premium