Advanced Television

Exane/BNPP

Bank upgrades ITV

Analysts at investment bank Exane/BNPP have upgraded the UK’s commercial television broadcaster ITV to ‘Outperform’ (from ‘Neutral’), saying its positive review was helped by increased optimism on the UK’s advertising cycle. In summary, the bank says that it has reassessed ITV’s business catalysts and the broadcaster’s recent track record, new clients coming aboard and the […]

January 11, 2022By Chris Forrester

ITV Studios to increase streaming hours

ITV Studios, the production arm of UK commercial broadcaster ITV, has revised its business expectations towards its 2026 expected trading. It suggests that it will double the already growing number of high-end streaming hours by 2026 from 200 hours to 400 hours. In essence, ITV Studios says it expects trading for 2022 to have recovered […]

December 10, 2021By Chris Forrester

Bank looks at Covid winners & losers

A timely note to clients from investment bank BNPP/Exane looks at the potential media-related winners and losers impacted by the latest Covid variant. The bank says that while there are justifiable fears from the new variant, there will inevitably be media businesses that are impacted, some with good news, and others not so likely to […]

November 30, 2021

Satellite operators hit by Russian action

November 16th saw Eutelsat’s share price crash 5 per cent and SES suffer a 2 per cent fall on the day. In the US Viasat and Loral both fell 3 per cent with Echostar and Iridium falling 2 per cent. Asian satellite shares also fell. The reductions were seen as being “excessive” according to analysts […]

November 17, 2021

Analyst: Viasat is satellite industry’s biggest player

The planned $7.3 billion (€6.3bn) acquisition by Viasat of Inmarsat confirms Viasat’s position as the satellite industry’s largest player in terms of revenues. But the deal could also herald a further suite of consolidations. In the words of analyst Sami Kassab, from investment bank Exane/BNPP, this transaction will help diversify Viasat’s geographic and vertical exposure, […]

November 10, 2021By Chris Forrester

Viasat to acquire Inmarsat

The long-expected consolidation amongst major satellite players is happening. California-based Viasat is set to buy London-based Inmarsat for $7.3 billion (€6.3bn) in a cash and shares deal. Inmarsat was taken private in 2019 at $6 billion. Today, Viasat is paying an extra $1.3 billion as management have valued the Net Present Value of synergies at […]

November 8, 2021By Chris Forrester

Bank: “Upgraded guidance highlight for ProSieben.Sat1″

ProSieben.Sat1 published its Q3 results on November 4th which were in line with expectations on revenues but in the words of analysts at investment bank Exane/BNPP there was “a surprising miss on its EBITDA”. Net income benefitted among others from the financial result and beat consensus expectations by 38 per cent. The highlight, said the […]

November 5, 2021

Microsoft ups gaming revenues

Drilling down into Microsoft’s record results (overall net income of $20.5 billion, up 48 per cent) and looking at its gaming division reveals the software company delivered a very solid July to September quarter. Gaming revenues were up 16 per cent with its hardware division sales sustained (+166 per cent year-on-year) driven by strong demand […]

October 28, 2021

Bad news is good news for Eutelsat shares

The Paris bourse share market responded exceptionally well to the potential bad news of Rodolphe Belmer’s departure from Eutelsat. In early trading Eutelsat’s share price rose a full 1 percent in early trading to €12.60 and matching its recent peak of €12.60 at the height of the Patrick Drahi unsolicited €3.2 billion take-over bid, and […]

October 21, 2021

Survey: 50% don’t know difference between 4G and 5G

A report on the UK take-up of 5G telecom services from analysts at Deloitte says that since the launch of 5G back in 2019 only about 5 per cent of consumers have adopted 5G plans. More worrying, says Deloitte, is that over 50 per cent of respondents said they didn’t know the difference between 4G […]

October 19, 2021By Chris Forrester