Week 12 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

• Euskaltel: Friendly offer from MasMovil (= KKR, Providence, Cinven): 11.17 EUR/share cash (16% premium) = EUR 2b; 52.32% agrees, unconditional at 75%; to maintain brand (Euskaltel, R, Telecable, Virgin)
• Telstra
• Update on proposed legal corporate restructure (part of T22 strategy); to be completed Dec 2021, AGM Oct 2021, scheme booklet to be published Sep 2021; 3 units: InfraCo Fixed (passive:  ducts, fibre, data centres, exchanges), InfraCo Towers (passive mobile: towers), ServeCo (products & services; active networks, RAN, spectrum; separate subsidiary for international business (incl submarine cables); to establish new holding Telstra Group; InfraCo Towers to attract external investment from 21/22Q2
• Rumor: may merge with NBN
• Verizon: Verizon Media to launch Yahoo Shops (marketplace) - Yahoo services have 3m subs, to be Verizon Media's consumer-facing brand
• RTL: Rumor: plans sale of RTL BE (candidates: Telenet, DPG, Rossel, TF1) and RTL NL (candidates: DGP) and M6 (48%, family Frère 7.2%); DPG denies
• Vivendi: Canal+ Polski files for IPO
• WeWork: Plans IPO via SPAC, valuation $9b

Results

• Salt: 20Q4
• Tele2: Annual Report 2020; Kinnevik holds 27.2% of the capital and 42.0% of the voting rights YE 2020; more-for-more strategy in SE; div received from T-Mobile NL zero (note 30), "Over time we see an opportunity to crystalize value for our shareholders as we exit this market."; Other non-current assets (mainly T-Mobile NL stake) valued at SEK 7.16b = EUR 700m); book value T-Mobile stake SEK 7.011b = EUR 690m); "As part of the annual impairment test in 2020, it was reconfirmed that the recoverable amount of our holding in the Netherlands exceeds book value."
• United Internet: 20Q4
• 1&1 Drillisch: 20Q4; plans national 5G roaming & construction deals 21Q2; plans multi-vendor Open RAN, Central, Edge & Far-Edge datacenters, virtualised network; outlook 2021: SR EUR 3.1b, EBITDA 650m (incl 30m negative impact from 5G roll-out, 25m negative from corona virus; excludes 34.4m positive impact from adjusted MVNO deal); adjusted EBITDA 735m for Access, -30m for 5G
• Tele Columbus: 20Q4
• Polsat: 20Q4 & 2020 Annual Report & Briefing
• Gamma Communications: Annual Report 2020
• Ericsson Annual Report 2020

Networks

• General
• BCG for ETNO report Connectivity and Beyond: How Telcos Can Accelerate a Digital Future For All: EUR 300b (o/w 150b for 5G, 150b for fixed) telecoms investment in EU in 4 yr will yield 2.4m new jobs + EUR 113b added to economic growth (from 5G), accelerated green transformation (digital solutions reduces carbon emissions 15%, smart cities 30%, digital transformation in transport 30%)
• Akamai reached new peak: 200 Tb/s
• FTTP
• KPN: Establishes 50/50 JV with APG    
• Proximus: EC approves JV with EQT (Delta Fiber) named Fiberklaar, targets 1.5m premises in Flanders in 7yr, EUR 2.5b [see 201127]
• Voneus sells majority to Macquarie, to transition from FWA to FTTP
• 5G
• Antina (network sharing JV of M1 and StarHub in Singapore) launches SA 5G RAN sharing, with Nokia
• TV Azteca trialed 5G (100 MHz in 3.5 GHz band) for TV transmission (from cameras to the encoding server), with Nokia
• T-Mobile PL extends 5G to prepaid
• Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 780G 5G Mobile Platform for powerful AI performance and brilliant camera capture
• 5G Smart Pole Standard Promotion Alliance established by 25 companies
• 6G
• Next G Alliance launches 2 working groups: 6G Roadmap Working Group (R&D) and Green G Working Group (environmental impact) [see 201013]
• LEO
• OneWeb reaches 146 sats in orbit; plans service launch end 2021 in UK, Alaska, N Europe, Greenland, Iceland, Arctic Seas, Canada; global by 2022

Services

• Video
• ViacomCBS: To raise $3b equity for investing in originals for Paramount+; $2b in Class B common stock,$1b in Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock - Moody's positive (Baa2, outlook stable)
• NBCUniversal (Comcast): Considers SVOD service Universal Stream for non-US markets (Peacock for US)
• HBO (AT&T): HBO Max to expand to UK, DE, IT 2025 (until then deals with Sky)
• Report on share of exclusive content: Disney+ 89% (Total catalog: 311 TV shows/742 movies), Netflix 83% (Total catalog: 2,069 TV shows/3,766 movies), HBO Max 72% (Total catalog: 606 TV shows/1,932 movies), Paramount+ 41% of TV, 23% of movies, Hulu 40% (Total catalog: 1,700 TV shows/916 movies), Amazon Prime Video 38% (Total catalog: 2,161 TV shows/14,670 movies)
• B2B
• Free (Iliad) enters B2B market with Free Pro, launches new Freebox Pro 50 EUR/mo (first year 40) + 10 EUR/line/mo for additional lines (incl 2 fixed lines, NAS server; WiFi, based on 10G EPON tech, max 7/1 Gb/s; tri-band WiFi; 4G backup; Cloud Sync Pro for protected data storage, firewall, support); offering includes 1 5G/4G line
• Sky (Comcast) Launches Sky Connect to enter SME market; launches Connection Pro: BB 4G backup, VoiceEdge (digital voice, 24 call mgt features), WiFi, security, support
• Google: Launches Network Connectivity Center: console for a business of any size to manage all its networks on a global basis, seamlessly connects VPNs, partner & dedicated interconnects, 3rd-party routers & Software-Defined WANs

Regulatory

• Congress US releases statements from Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs on Section 230 (liability) for Hearing 210325; Facebook proposes platforms should be required to demonstrate that they have systems in place for identifying unlawful content and removing it; Twitter advocates transparency, has 2 projects: Birdwatch (users report misinformation), Bluesky (open & decentralized standards for social media); Google invests in journalism - Reddit, Etsy and Dropbox defend Section 230