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Showing posts from October, 2012

What I've been reading this week

This week I’m going to go counter-trend and say nothing about Surface or the tiny iPad or the sleek new Macs. You’ve all heard enough about those things and I can’t add much. Instead, this post is a collection of the less well publicised articles that have caught my eye. This week: CMOs slam mobile, Mayer prepares for Yahoo! future, Penguin House emerges from shadows, future of wearables and connected cars in focus Digital media CMOs aren’t happy with the results they’re seeing from mobile advertising. Not a surprise to me – the techniques of mobile advertising are not well established at the moment, so trial and error is inevitable. http://www.digiday.com/brands/brands-struggle-in-mobile/ Some Olympic Games sponsors saw a lift in brand awareness. I hope it was worth it! http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/topics/branding/some-olympics-sponsors-enjoyed-lift-in-brand-awareness-esteem-24181/ It is a little silly that ebooks are counted as software and therefore attract VAT in the...

Sorry Ed, ebook lending isn't the problem with public libraries

I'm hearing a great deal about the current e-lending review that Ed Vaizey has kicked off and, since it's topical, I thought I'd offer some opinions. Commercial players in the book value chain - the government contends - are constraining the growth of that market and thereby making the library less relevant. I can’t help feeling that MPs are missing the point. First, some numbers. Public libraries in the UK cost the tax payer just under £1.2b in 2011. Amazingly, just £70m (6.5%) of that total was spent on books – less than was spent staff (more than half the total), “support services” (somehow discrete from staff: 14%) and premises (13%). Although funding declined a little in the downturn, it has been stable for the last couple of years and all the forecasts I’ve seen have it pegged to inflation here on in. The ebook market, on the other hand, is going gangbusters. Our latest numbers (October 2012) put ereader penetration of the adult penetration at 20%. The last offici...

What I've been reading this week

I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week: Nintendo takes us inside Wii U, NYT plans pan-territory newspapers, Pinterest serves up inspiration and MS accidentally kills Surface Digital media Canada’s TV market grew this year. Cord-cutting is rife of course. Rife! http://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2012/09/05/crtc-releases-market-growth-data/ I suppose it’s good to have your assumptions validated. Turns out that those who tweet the most have the most followers. I’ll stop there. http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/interactive/most-active-tweeters-also-boast-most-followers-24064/ 70% of Pinterest users say they use it to get inspiration on what to buy, versus only 17% of Facebook users. I always divide these consumer behaviour statements by three to get to the actual...

September 2012 African Telecoms Investment

September was a relatively quiet month in African telecoms, with only $377Mn of new infrastructure investments announced. That said, September tends to be a little quiet - only $134Mn was announced in the same month of last year. Major items of note were Monaco Telecom being unexpectedly awarded the 3rd mobile operating license to be issued in Mali and Egypt's Mobilnil receiving a $450Mn capital injection to pay down debt and provide around $100Mn of new infrastructure. At the other end of the scale, the US Trade and Development Agency are spending $80,000 to investigate the market for 2 IP exchange points in Libya, a precursor to a restarting of the wholesale telecoms market in the country. That's about it. Let's hope for a more interesting October!

What I've been reading this week

I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week: $10 ereaders, AOL discovers social media, robots fly in formation, Vodafone eyes cheap SFR deal & Apple poaches Samsung’s chip guru Digital media CDNs account for 40% of the traffic flowing into ISP networks and I can only see their role getting more significant as the web gets richer in content terms and quality of service and latency become ever more vital in powering experiences like augmented reality. Doesn’t mean there’s much money in the industry, mind you. Moore’s Law makes the infrastructure side of the CDN business a Sisyphean task. http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2012/10/cdns-account-for-40-of-the-overall-traffic-volume-flowing-into-isp-networks.html This FT article about the unexpected benefits of digital ...

TV's future - have I got it all wrong?

I sat in the audience at a Deloitte TV event last night, listening to another well judged analysis of data that showed how sustainable broadcast TV is against substitutes. On several occasions the facilitator – Ray Snoddy, for those who know him – invited the panel and the audience to explain why this analysis was incorrect. And as usual, no one could come up with anything. But I came away worried. Over my career I’ve been part of several attempts to disrupt scheduled network TV and come up on the losing side. Thankfully the hundreds of millions of dollars that supported that failure weren’t my own. So I’m long converted to the sustainability of TV, which retains its characteristics as entertainer, social enabler and mass market brand builder. Converts are always more zealous. Did newspaper executives in the early 2000’s also look at their data sets and come to the same conclusions about their own indefatigability? Slow grow assured, iterative substitution a distant threat. Y...

What I've been reading this week

I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week: X-Com returns, social policies attract grads, Microsoft take device fight to Apple, comes to blows with Nokia, Google accuses Apple of trolling Digital Media A dumb Guardian story. How dare Jeremy Clarkson make money out of selling his Top Gear rights? It’s not like the BBC isn’t making much more money off Top Gear... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/sep/27/top-gear-jeremy-clarkson The FCC is about to embark on a reclaim and sell-off of broadcast spectrum in the US. I think this’ll be the scenario that plays out in many major markets as the value of mobile broadband grows and the inefficiency of terrestrial broadcast (versus satellite, for example) becomes manifest in the face of increasing TV resolutions. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/t...

RTS notes #3 - games vs TV

I was lucky enough to attend this year’s Royal Television Society Conference at the Barbican and am in the process of sharing my notes from the event. This is number 3 in the series. Having heard about the Olympic Games in the morning, the first afternoon session at RTS focused on games with a small “g”. The panel discussion was hosted by Ed Vaizey – Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries. Vaizey has the odd punchy one-liner, but it strikes me that he knows little about the sector besides an obviously poor quality briefing before the session. I doubt that he plays games or watches much TV, for that matter. The rest of the panel consisted of Sefton Hill, from Rocksteady Studios, Steven Moffat – the writer of Doctor Who and Merlin, no less - and Henrique Olifiers of Bossa Studios. Console gaming and TV The panel discussion was rather rambling. These notes therefore pick out the recognisable subjects rather than attempting to be comprehensive. [The first thing ...

RTS notes #2 - Digital Olympic lessons for Rio

I was lucky enough to attend this year’s Royal Television Society Conference at the Barbican and am in the process of sharing my notes from the event. Here’s the second set, covering the digital Olympics and lessons for Rio. This was a panel discussion featuring Tessa Jowell (UK Government), Ralph Rivera (BBC Future Media), Cindy Rose (Virgin Media), Alex Balfour (Head of New Media, Olympic Games) & Mike Darcey (COO, BSkyB). As an aside, why is it that so many Heads of Digital in this country are from the USA? We have fabulous digital skills in the UK and I question the need to go abroad. Must be the accent. Anyway... Only 13% of UK citizens didn’t watch any Olympic coverage. 97% of viewing was live and the median viewer watched 2 hours per day. Quality was the most common reason given for watching on TV versus other mediums – why watch live online when live on broadcast is so much nicer. The BBC’s coverage was the most comprehensive ever. All sports were covered and availabl...

What I've been reading this week

I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week: maps inspires ill-advised Apple sniping, 27th level Paladins better Managers than MBAs and Android forgives Nokia Digital media I initially presumed that this article about when to fire your social media consultant was intentionally ironic... then I realised that it was serious advice. Worth a read just for the comedy value, but I wouldn’t follow much of the advice! http://www.fastcompany.com/3000052/7-things-your-social-media-consultant-should-tell-you As a friend of mine who works in the mobile ad industry said to me, the reason agencies don’t buy mobile ads from these publishers is that they think they’re selling something special. And they aren’t, so they’re too expensive. Reduce prices, manage yield, ladies and gents. http://paidcontent.org...