Sunday, October 25, 2020

Week 43 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

  • Telefonica: Establishes Telefónica Tech Ventures, with ElevenPaths & Telefónica Innovation Ventures (TIV) to invest in cybersecurity
  • Rostelecom: Acquires Synterra Media
  • Play (to be acquired by Iliad): Sells towers to Cellnex: 7k sites, EUR 800m for 60% stake, to close 21Q2; to add 5k sites in 10 yr, EUR 1.3b
  • TalkTalk: Rumor: interested in Post Office telecoms unit, 500k BB/voice subs, GBP 100m; also: Sky, Shell Energy (130k BB subs)
  • Eurofiber: Transfers services business of Unet Groningen to Hallo (= merger of Fieber, Tritel)
  • BMG: Acquires majority of Undercover (live concerts; Germany)
  • Walt Disney: California sets guidelines for reopening Disneyland & other large theme parks
  • ITV: Plans restructuring by March 2021, to focus on VOD, reduce office space London; to establish Media & Entertainment division with 2 BUs (broadcast, VOD), VOD unit around Hub (catch-up), Hub Plus (ad-free), BritBox
  • ProSieben: Sells Windstar Medical (92% owned via NuCom) to Oakley Capital, EUR 280m
  • ViacomCBS: Restructures streaming division to cover SVOD & AVOD globally
  • NENT Group: Moves license registrations from UK to Sweden
  • Google: Google study released on interest-based advertising: collective ad targeting of audience cohorts (people with similar browsing histories & interests) performs better than random user groupings
  • Amazon: To hire 1500 employees for 4 Amazon Fresh stores in Chicago

IPO

  • Orange: Considers IPO for Orange Cyberdefense
  • Vivendi: UMG plans IPO 2022
  • Canal+ Polski (Vivendi, Discovery, Liberty Global): Plans IPO from TVN Media (Discovery) & Liberty Global selling stakes (32% resp. 17%)
  • Round Hill Music: Plans IPO to raise $375m
  • Nextdoor: Considers IPO, valuation $4-5b; raised $470m
  • Databricks: Bloomberg: plans IPO 21H1 

Earnings

Networks

FTTP

  • Telecom Italia: Bloomberg: to expand FTTH coverage to 10m HH, EUR 4.0-4.5b, incl. maintenance & upgrade of 13m lines (2021-25)
  • Croatia plans NP-BBI: national FTTI network (public institutions: national, regional & local government offices & branches for educational, health, cultural, tourist, judicial institutions) 
  • NetCologne orders G.fast (212 MHz) from Nokia for in-building add-on to FTTB network (30k), max 1 Gb/s (replacxes VDSL2)
  • Total Play Telecomunicaciones (Mexico) raises $500m, Fitch rates BB-/stable
Mobile
Satellite
  • Inmarsat and Hughes Network Systems plan free in-flight WiFi (GX+ North America), plans trial 20Q4, commercial launch 2021, first in N-America
4G
5G
6G
  • 6G Symposium (2 days); FCC: 6G to be fully virtualised, blockchain for spectrum allocation; AT&T: to focus on AI, edge, latency; Ericsson: use cases: internet of the senses, connected intelligent machines, digitalised & programmable physical world, connected sustainable world; Samsung: immersive XR, high fidelity mobile holograms & digital replicas (enable remote monitoring of robots using VR or holographic displays)
  • NGMN Alliance launches 6G project: 6G Vision and Drivers

Services

Telecoms

  • UPC CH fined CHF 30m by Comco for not sharing ice hockey TV rights 2017-22 (abuse); plans appeal
  • Rumor: T-Mobile US to expand TVision nationwide (announcement 201027) [see 200724, 200720, 190410]
  • Google Fi (MVNO) launches separate (without mobile subscription) smartphone subscription program: 9 $/mo (24 mo contract) for Pixel 4A or 15 $/mo including device protection plan & upgrade after 24 mo (note: discount on the phone is lost if remaining balance is paid off ahead of time)
  • Virgin Media UK adds smart home portfolio from Google (Nest Hub, cameras, doorbell), from 10 GBP/mo

Video

  • Universal Pictures (Comcast) to shorten theatrical window, earlier option for onlines rental
  • Walt Disney: Hotstar to expand SVOD to Singapore 201101, 70 SGD/yr; distr deal with StarHub
  • Discovery: Rebrands Dplay (free AVOD) as Discovery+ in UK/IE, integrates with linear TV offering (Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, ID, Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo, Discovery History); 5 GBP/mo or 50 GBP/yr, 6 EUR/mo or 60 EUR/yr
  • Salto (France TV, M6, TF1): Launches: 19 live channels, catch-up from TF1, France Télévisions, M6; 3 tiers: 7 EUR/mo (1 screen), 10 (2), 13 (4); to add exclusive content - Tech from Bedrock (= M6, RTL)
  • Quibi: shuts down to save equity, to sell assets - Spent $63m on ads - To close around 201201
  • Apple: Launches Apple Music TV: 24/7 music videos in Apple Music and in Apple TV (free, no ads), with exclusive content (premieres, special curated music video blocks, live shows & events, chart countdowns, guests)
  • XITE Partners with Vevo to launch TV app Vevo powered by XITE
  • France Channel: Plans launch in US early 2021 via Netgem, 7 $/mo

Music/audio

Spotify

  • Overall deal with Ithaca Holdings (Scooter Braun) for podcasts, first series Country Shine
  • Launches first daily morning show The Get Up as playlist (led by hosts; combines news, pop culture, entertainment, music; music is personalized)
Apps, other
  • Google Launches Camera Go app for basic Nokia & Wiko devices, developed by Next Billion Users team (300 employees); other apps: Gallery Go (search & edit photos), Assistant Go
  • Facebook
    • Expands Facebook Dating to Europe (32 countries) (so far in 20 countries)
    • Trials Neighborhoods feature (local groups) in Calgary
    • WhatsApp launches In-chat Shopping (link to Facebook, add buy button); launches Facebook Hosting Services to host online assets & activity for SME (free); to start charging for WhatsApp for Business (50m business users, total 175m pops)
  • Huawei launches Petal Maps (navigation) & Huawei Docs (office)

Regulatory

Spectrum
  • EETT (GR) reserves spectrum (5 MHz in 700 band, 10 MHz in 3.4 band, 200 MHz in 26k band) + 25% of auction proceeds for universities and start-ups
  • PTS (SE) approves Telia, 3 Sweden, Teracom, Net4Mobility (= Telenor, Tele2) for 5G auction (2.3 & 3.5 GHz bands) 201110; excludes Huawei & ZTE as suppliers (to be removed from core networks by 250101)
  • MoC (Israel) awards 5G license to Cellcom
Self-regulation
  • Facebook
    • Oversight Board launches
    • Prepares for US POTUS election 201103: slow the spread of viral content, lower the bar for suppressing potentially inflammatory posts 
  • Google: Removed 3 Android apps for kids over data collection violations
  • Patreon: Rermoves accounts promoting Qanon
Regulation
  • Google: DoJ & 11 State AGs sue in DC over abuse of monopoly, to respond by 201219
    • in Search (general search services, search advertising, general search text advertising) in US through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices (exclusive distr deal with Apple for iOS, estimated value 15-20% of Apple's annual profit, $8-12b; also pays LG, Motorola, Samsung, AT&T, T-Mobile US, Verizon, Mozilla, Opera, UCWeb; default in Android; 'Some of these agreements also require distributors to take a bundle of Google apps, including its search apps, and feature them on devices in prime positions')
    • Google opposes (market share based on consumer preference for Google; 'we pay to promote our services, just like a cereal brand might pay a supermarket to stock its products at the end of a row or on a shelf at eye level'; 'Today, you can easily download your choice of apps or change your default settings in a matter of seconds')
  • Facebook: DCP (Ireland) starts investigation of Instagram over leaking data (email addresses, phone numbers) of 5m kids
  • Platforms
    • FTC Japan proposes alliance with US & EU regulators in regulating internet platforms
    • Associated Press (AP) election results to power voice, video & search products around US elections 201103 for Amazon (Alexa), Microsoft (Bing, News, MSN, Edge), AT&T (DirecTV), Google (Search, Home, Nest Home Hub)
    • No competing cloud gaming apps in Apple App Store
    • Ofcom publishes guide to regulatory requirements for video-sharing platforms (VSPs): protect children from potentially harmful content, protect all users from criminal content & incitement to hatred & violence, ensure that standards around advertising are met
    • PBO (ZA) proposes digital tax on consumption and income generated by digital economic activities & cross-border activities
    • EFF: leaked proposals for EU antimonopoly enforcement for gatekeeprs (part of DSA)
      • Prohibitions (customer transaction data to be shared with competitors, opt-in for combining platform data with other data, ban on preferential ranking of platforms' own offerings, ban on pre-laoding own apps only, ban on prevention measures for removing apps, ban on contracts that force businesses to offer their wares everywhere on the same terms as the platform demands, ban on prevention of side-loading, ban on prohibiting complaints about the platform, ban on requiring use of specific email provider, ban on requirement to sign in)
      • Compliance system
      • Greylist of activities

at 5:11 pm

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