The legacy media industry is so fearful of Netflix’s growing global scale and power that one company after another is reclaiming previously licensed programming and laying plans for their own direct-to-consumer streaming services (SVOD and/or AVOD). Legacy media’s hand is being forced by the realization that the bloated multichannel bundle will not hold; cord-cutting is set…
Facing mounting pressure about a mmWave focused 5G spectrum policy, the FCC announced this week that it would vote on a new order that it claims would “open up valuable mid-band spectrum” that “will advance U.S. leadership in 5G”. No, FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai wasn’t referring to C-Band spectrum. Instead, he was talking about the…
Since upgrading Snapchat to BUY in March 2019 (link), our conviction in the company’s recovery has meaningfully increased. In turn, we are increasing our financial forecasts and raising our one-year target price to $20 from $15, based on 25x projected 2022 Adjusted EBITDA, discounted back 1 1/2 years at 15%. We believe street expectations for…
There might be reason for increased optimism that the FCC can enable more mid-band spectrum to help US companies win the “Race to 5G”. This week, the C-Band Alliance proposed a detailed private auction process designed by a respected auction specialist and the Senate Oversight hearing only generated 3 questions on C-Band, an indication that detractors have not been able to rally…
We believe autonomous vehicles are inevitable. Technology improvements across multiple disciplines from sensors and batteries to software and compute power are aligning to enable what promises to be a new disruptive force across a multitude of industries. We have seen some of this first hand at autonomous conferences and in early discussions with the key…
Tim Cook is set to take the stage tomorrow at 10 AM, Pacific time, to deliver the opening keynote at Apple’s annual WWDC conference at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. WWDC is now almost entirely focused on software and services with an occasional hardware refresh. The event provides the 5,000 developers that attend with 3 months of lead…
On the Q1 earnings call T-Mobile CEO John Legere said “I feel very good about the deal as it’s structured and as it’s being reviewed”. Less than a month later, T-Mobile agreed to largely light behavioral conditions with the FCC. But in the past week, multiple news reports have indicated that T-Mobile has offered or…
In February 2018, Wondery, a podcast content creator focused on immersive storytelling, created the original series “Business Wars.” The first “war” the series delved into was Netflix vs. Blockbuster and what ultimately turned into Netflix vs. HBO and the broader legacy media universe. Originally, Netflix vs. Blockbuster was an 8-part series, where host David Brown…
“In general there is probably too much commercial interruption in television” — quote from Disney’s Chairman and CEO, Bob Iger, on a FYQ1 2018 earnings call (February 2017)
A little over a year ago, Jimmy Pitaro was named President of ESPN (link), replacing long-time exec John Skipper (who is now overseeing DAZN, a startup sports-focused streaming platform). Pitaro was interviewed earlier this week at the WSJ’s Future of Everything Festival by the WSJ’s Amol Sharma (@asharma). The interview focused heavily on the strategy…
You must be logged in to post a comment.