Global Media Intelligence, Report

CTC Media to Prosper As Russian TV Revives - 05 Mar 10

CTC Media, the Nasdaq-listed broadcaster, saw a 3% decline in ad revenues in local currency terms in...

Games Market Monitor: Acquisitions and Funding in 2009 - 23 Feb 10

Merger and acquisition activity in the games sector was roughly on a par with the year before in 200...

The End of the 30-second Spot is Postponed - 19 Feb 10

New evidence from viewer research in the UK suggests that owners of digital video recorders time-shi...

THQ CQ4 2009 Guidance - 02 Feb 10

GMI suspects that THQ is on the cusp of confirming a turnaround story from the darker days of 2008 w...

Ubisoft CQ4 2009 Guidance - 01 Feb 10

Ubisoft's latest guidance revised its revenue to 495m Euros for the last quarter of 2009 and 860m Eu...

Electronic Arts CQ4 2009 Guidance - 28 Jan 10

GMI believes that EA will generate sales of around $1.3bn in the final quarter of 2009, just short o...

Virgin Media's Ad-funded VoD Explores New Territory for... - 27 Jan 10

Virgin Media, the UK cable operator, has commercially launched dynamic advertising insertion, allowi...

Market Monitor: TV Advertising in Central and Eastern E... - 20 Jan 10

GMI's survey of TV advertising in 11 Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) markets shows the region was e...

Activision Blizzard CQ4 2009 Guidance - 14 Jan 10

After a reasonable if unspectacular first nine months, the crucial Christmas quarter will determine ...

For Non-Majors, Animation Has Become a Hard Sell - 12 Jan 10

The easily exportable nature of animation, the longevity of some properties (Mickey Mouse, created b...

Comcast Joins the Major Media Company Elite - 21 Dec 09

With the addition of 51% of NBCU, Comcast will become a major force in content creation and distribu...

Private Equity Seeks Ways To Exit From European Cable - 16 Dec 09

Private equity investors have pumped more than 40bn euros into European cable companies over the las...

Strengthened Competition Threatens RIM's Stellar Record - 02 Dec 09

Thanks to a slew of innovative devices, the higher end of the handset market has managed to weather ...

Mobile Market Monitor Q3 09: EA Maintains Lead - 30 Nov 09

EA Mobile led the mobile games sector in Q3 with record revenues of $51m, ahead of Gameloft (up 6%) ...

ITV Has Finally Turned A Corner But Has Some Way To Go - 13 Nov 09

ITV, which accounts for 40% of the UK TV advertising market, is reporting an improved last quarter o...

Liberty's Return To German Cable Is Well-Timed - 13 Nov 09

Liberty Global's deal to acquire number two pay-TV player Unity Media, financed by �2.5bn debt and �...

Soccer Truce Puts Spanish Pay TV Platform Back In Play - 13 Nov 09

New legislation allowing the launch of pay services on digital terrestrial in Spain was passed in Au...

Games Market Monitor: Hardware Q3 2009 - 05 Nov 09

Hardware sales fell for the second quarter in a row in Q3, and were down 3.3m units year-on-year. Bo...

New Laws Offer Some Relief for Spain's A3TV and T5 - 22 Oct 09

The two main channels of Spanish public service broadcaster TVE will be entirely advertising-free fr...

Mobile Funding and M and A Trends: Q3 2009 - 16 Oct 09

The quarter was the most active for mobile mergers and acquisitions since Q1 2008, with 37 deals reg...

Watch Instantly: Adding Value For Netflix - But Not Rev... - 07 Oct 09

Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming option, launched in January 2007, offers a value-add to its DVD ...

Netflix and Redbox Combine To Stabilize US DVD Rental - 30 Sep 09

Netflix' discs-by-mail subscription service and Coinstar's dollar-a-night Redbox kiosks appear to ha...

Electronic Arts CQ3 2009 Guidance - 15 Sep 09

GMI believes that Electronic Arts will generate just over $1bn in non-GAAP revenues in the quarter e...

1H 2009: Europe's Broadcasters Hoping They Hit the Bott... - 10 Sep 09

All eight of the leading free-to-air broadcasters in Europe's big five territories reported double-d...

Disney's Bold Move For Marvel Reasserts the Power of Co... - 04 Sep 09

Disney's bold move in acquiring Marvel reasserts the primacy of content and brings a new creative an...

Disney Can Unlock Marvel's Value in the Games Sector - 02 Sep 09

Disney's growing strength in games has taken a major step forward with the Marvel merger. The compan...

India Set To Resume a Passage to TV Growth - 02 Sep 09

Despite a slight decline in the rate of economic growth and a downturn in TV advertising, India rema...

Games Market Monitor: Hardware Q2 2009 - 27 Aug 09

Sales of games hardware were down 3m in Q2 2009 compared to the same quarter of 2008. Nintendo's Wii...

Activision Primed to Beat Guidance for Q3 - 13 Aug 09

GMI believes that Activision Blizzard will generate revenues in the region of $720m in the quarter e...

USA: Broadband Market Monitor - 11 Aug 09

There were 79.2m fixed broadband connections in the US at year-end 2008, with cable accounting for 5...

Video Games Company Insight: Ubisoft 3Q guidance - 06 Aug 09

Ubisoft will come in slightly above its revenue guidance for the forthcoming quarter (Q2 of its 2009...

Mobile Funding and M and A Trends: Q2 2009 - 30 Jul 09

GMI's latest look at M&A deals in the mobile industry counted 25 deals in Q1 2009, down from 34 in t...

Television Market Monitor: IPTV Q1 2009 - 24 Jul 09

IPTV households reached 22.8m worldwide in the first quarter of 2009, up from 21.1m at the end of Q4...

Studios Seek To Make More Of $1bn Internet Video Market - 08 Jul 09

Consumer spending on paid internet video grew to $939m in 2008, with sports accounting for the bigge...

VoD: Consumers Love It, As Long As It's Free - 26 Jun 09

Free video-on-demand (VoD) transmissions of movies on US cable have been a huge hit with consumers, ...

US Networks Claim Half of Free Online TV Market - 15 Jun 09

Online platforms owned by the owners of the big four US networks have secured leadership of the free...

E3 notes and impressions: Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo - 10 Jun 09

Microsoft made the headlines at the annual E3 conference with Project Natal – its new motion t...

Blu-ray Gains Fail to Offset Slump in Int'l DVD sales - 04 Jun 09

International (world excluding US and Canada) consumer spending on video software fell 3.6% to $26.4...

Mobile Funding and M&A Trends: Q1 2009 - 21 May 09

With 22 deals versus 44 in Q1 2008, the quarterly number of mobile content mergers and acquisitions ...

Games Market Monitor: Hardware Q1 2009 - 19 May 09

Hardware sales exhibit zero year-on-year growth in Q1 2009, hovering at 16.5m units. Nintendo's Wii ...

Subscription MMOGs: Operator Performance Review - 01 May 09

The western market for subscription massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) grows to $1.4bn in 20...

Mobile Market Monitor: Games Q1 2009 - 01 May 09

EA Mobile has consolidated its position as the number one global mobile games publisher. Backed by a...

Mediaset Premium Threatens News Corp's Sky Italia - 01 May 09

Italy's dominant commercial broadcaster, Mediaset, is pushing further into pay TV by driving custome...

Europe's Broadcasters Look for Cost Cuts Amid Ad Gloom - 24 Apr 09

Broadcasters in Europe's big five territories are responding to precipitous declines in ad revenues ...

Will 3D be the next big thing after HDTV? - 17 Apr 09

Standards for 3D in the home must be agreed if it is to surpass 15% penetration worldwide by 2015. D...

US Online Adspend To Decline 5% in 2009 - 08 Apr 09

GMI has revised its forecasts for online advertising in the US downwards following a weak fourth qua...

Market Monitor: European TV Advertising - 01 Apr 09

All Big Five European countries are officially in recession, having experienced at least two (and of...

Slowdown in Digital Drive Threatens Hollywood's 3D Hope... - 25 Mar 09

The rate of conversion of cinema screens to digital, a necessary pre-condition for 3D, slowed dramat...

Coinstar's Redbox Kiosks Find a Formula for Growth - 20 Mar 09

GMI estimates that US consumer spending on kiosk DVD disc rentals was $486m last year, with 77% of t...

Market Monitor: Cross-platform Video-On-Demand - 13 Mar 09

North America is the largest market for on-demand content on both pay-TV and online platforms, and w...

Mobile Market Monitor: Games Q4 2008 - 05 Mar 09

Electronic Arts division EA Mobile, France's Gameloft and Glu Mobile remained the three largest publ...

Exhibitors Ride Strong Box Office Through Downturn - 27 Feb 09

Despite a relatively favorable performance at the box office for the US cinema and an outlook which ...

Microsoft Must Fight Back in Mobile Market - 17 Feb 09

GMI believes it is vital for Microsoft to strengthen its position in the mobile space to ensure that...

Nintendo Drives Games Market to Record Levels - 13 Feb 09

Nintendo's formidable Q4 2008 performance - especially in Western territories - drove the games mark...

Viacom Ready to Rock as it Builds a Base in Games - 20 Jan 09

Viacom Inc has tried and failed to break into the games industry in the past, but it has now embarke...

European TV Groups Hit as TV Ad Market Declines - 14 Jan 09

Six of of the eight largest European broadcasters face a decline in ad revenue in 2009, according to...

Reasons To Hope Media Stocks Have Hit Bottom - 06 Jan 09

The U.S. economy has, we now know officially, been in recession for more than a year. Given that the...

Hulu Numbers Highlight Flaws in YouTube Model - 05 Dec 08

Hulu, the News Corp/NBC Universal joint venture, is already generating a positive gross margin and d...

Disney is Now a Major Player In Global Games Market - 02 Dec 08

Disney has set a goal of establishing a viable, significant and lasting foothold in the global games...

Media markets: just how recession resistant are they? - 24 Nov 08

Given the widely accepted view that the worldwide economy is heading into recession, GMI analyzes th...

Why Google Has to Expand into Mobile, and Why it will S... - 18 Nov 08

Google's move into mobile will provide a key source of growth over the next five years, developing a...

Games Hardware: GMI cuts FY PS3 sales guidance - 12 Nov 08

GMI has reduced its forecasts of sales for Sony PS3 hardware in light of the poor econiomic outlook ...

Cablevision Most at Threat as Telco TV Footprint Grows - 11 Nov 08

Verizon and AT&T are continuing to roll out video services in the US, putting cable companies under ...

Making VoD Pay is UK Cableco's Challenge - 04 Nov 08

Virgin Media, the major cable operator in the UK with 3.5m subs, reported a surging increase in vide...

Hearst-Argyle Q3: US TV Market Weak, but Hardly Falling... - 03 Nov 08

Hearst-Argyle Television (HTV), one of the largest operators of US network affiliates, reported thir...

BSkyB Q1 Financials: Reasons for Optimism - 28 Oct 08

GMI reiterates its view that BSkyB, reporting its first quarter 2008/9 financial year results this F...

New Free-to-air Strategy for Discovery's Intl Network - 17 Oct 08

Discovery Communications is to launch a free-to-air channel in the UK early next year. The channel w...

TF1, M6 Groups Rescued by Regulatory Windfall - 09 Oct 08

The French government plans to end advertising on public service TV after 8pm from January 2009, and...

Premiere's Phantom Subscribers Shift German Pay TV Dyna... - 06 Oct 08

German premium satellite pay-TV operator Premiere has made a major downward adjustment in its report...

Selling online video: rise of 'value-add economics' - 02 Oct 08

Internet and technology companies, retailers and e-commerce businesses have made virtually no meanin...

Key European Broadcaster Hit By Ad Sales Debacle - 19 Sep 08

ProSiebenSat.1 lost its leadership of the German TV advertising market after a disastrous change to ...

Economy Fails to Dampen First Half U.S. Home Video - 08 Sep 08

The U.S. home video market was not so badly hit by the threatened economic recession in the first si...

Nintendo's FY Upgraded In Line with GMI Forecasts - 01 Sep 08

Nintendo has increased its forecasts for hardware sales in the current financial year, bringing them...

Shift in Negotiating Power as Sports Hits the Net - 22 Aug 08

The intense focus on the success of the 2008 Olympics-and how much of a ratings and advertising bona...

Sony's FY PS3 forecasts could be bettered by 50% - 19 Aug 08

Year-on-year Q2 2008 global volumes for games hardware sell-through were up 9.4 per cent, a meaningf...

Can the Industry Afford a Big Blu-ray Success? - 15 Aug 08

GMI expects consumer demand for Blu-ray (movies, TV and games) to increase to 225m discs this year; ...

BSkyB Will Weather the UK's Economic Downturn - 07 Aug 08

The threat of the widely-expected recession to the outlook of pay-TV company British Sky Broadcastin...

Could News Corp's Goal Be Deeper Move Into Pay TV? - 01 Aug 08

The collapse of the deal between Leo Kirch's Sirius Group and the German football league (DFL) for T...

Nintendo Leads The Race, But Rivals Are Catching Up - 22 Jul 08

Nintendo has achieved a commanding lead in the console market thanks to the Wii, which had a worldwi...

Worldwide Film Revenues to Grow at 4.4% CAGR to 2011 - 18 Jul 08

Projections of worldwide markets suggest that major US studio revenue from feature film exploitation...

Financing the Movie Industry in a Slow-growth Era - 07 Jul 08

Feature film revenue for the major studios totaled $34.9bn in 2007, but growth is slowing as the DVD...

Broadcast TV: Alive and Thriving in East Europe - 27 Jun 08

Two Nasdaq-listed companies, Central European Media Enterprises (CME) and CTC Media, offer a direct ...

DVD Burning Could Light a Fire under Retail Market - 13 Jun 08

Manufacturing on Demand (MOD), a process enabling retaliers to burn DVDs on demand, could shift the ...

Rousing the Giant: Chinese Cable TV Industry Explodes - 05 Jun 08

China will be the world's largest digital cable market in 2009 and the largest IPTV market in 2010. ...

The Netflix set-top box: connecting for good? - 29 May 08

Netflix (NFLX)'s recent announcement of a $100 dedicated device for streaming of movies direct to th...

Animation Giants See the Future-and it's 3D - 09 May 08

Disney, DreamWorks and other US studios are producing most of their upcoming animated movies in ster...

Euro Cable Strives To Raise Its Game - 30 Apr 08

Cable is the main form of pay TV in Europe in terms of subscribers, but DTH satellite has caputerd a...

MySpace Signs To Make Music With The Majors - 16 Apr 08

News Corp.-owned social networking site MySpace has signed a joint venture with three of the major r...

Blu-ray Sales Take Off; Can Industry Keep Up? - 10 Apr 08

Blu-ray disc sales in the US are going strong soon after the resolution of the next-gen DVD format w...

FCC Auction Boosts Telcos' Battle With Cable - 08 Apr 08

Verizon and AT&T were the big winners in the US auction of Spectrum that will bring them into direct...

Movie Exhibition: The Future Is Looking Brighter - 31 Mar 08

The future of the theatrical exhibition business in the US is brighter than most observers believe: ...

Can Microsoft Really Control The Future Of TV? - 20 Mar 08

Microsoft has finally succeeded in expanding into TV with its Mediaroom IPTV product. Although reven...

Hi-Def Format War Over: The Real Battle Begins - 18 Mar 08

The abrupt surrender by Toshiba's HD DVD format leaves Sony's Blu-ray the winner in the now-ended hi...

AOL/Bebo: Hanging Out With The Wrong Crowd? - 17 Mar 08

AOL is to buy Bebo, the privately-owned social networking site, for $850m. GMI thinks it's doubtful ...

Qualcomm To Lead As US Mobile TV Emerges - 07 Mar 08

GMI projects that total mobile TV revenues in the US will grow to $2.56bn in 2012 (39% of the global...

A Gloomy Oulook For Global Ad Markets - 03 Mar 08

GMI projects that ad revenue growth in Europe's big five markets and the US will be sluggish in 2008...

EA Courts Take-Two To Create Games Giant - 26 Feb 08

The unsolicited bid by Electronic Arts for games publisher Take-Two Interactive, values the company ...

SanDisk's Fanfare heralds Apple challenge - 22 Feb 08

SanDisk, whose Sansa range of portable audio devices is currently number two in the US to Apple's iP...

European Pay TV Groups Fight To Stay On Top - 14 Feb 08

Leading pay TV players have fought off competition in the DTH space but cannot rest on their laurels

Man Bites Dog: Studios embrace iTunes rental - 08 Feb 08

All major studios license digital movie rights to Apple - but for rental only, after failing to come...

Amazon pacts with LoveFilm in Europe - 06 Feb 08

Amazon exits the online DVD rental business in UK & Germany via deal with privately-held LoveFilm; p...

Masters of the children's television universe - 31 Jan 08

The children's TV market is dominated by vertically-integrated groups - in particular, Disney, Nicke...

DVR: more friend than foe to TV ads? - 28 Jan 08

UK and US viewing research data suggests that DVRs may not be the ad-killers once feared. However, a...

Warner's abandonment of HD DVD for Blu-ray - 15 Jan 08

Warner decision to opt for Blu-ray HD format is first step towards returning packaged media market t...

MMOG: growth beyond Warcraft? - 08 Jan 08

While World of Warcraft continues to dominate the subscription-based massive multiplayer online game...

Will digital save the IMAX business model? - 21 Dec 07

The IMAX and AMC digital JV will double the number of US commercial IMAX locations to 200, lower the...

Is the party over for online DVD sub growth? - 14 Dec 07

Online DVD subscriptions have been the only bright spot in a declining rental market but online DVD ...

Holiday season console bets - 14 Dec 07

This Christmas season dozens of game publishers, who had previously underestimated the popularity of...

Video Via Social Networks - 07 Dec 07

Internet-based social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and last.fm hope to become important new...

Activision & Vivendi Games. A Perfect Fit. - 04 Dec 07

GMI believes that the proposed Activision Vivendi Games merger represents a perfect marriage between...

700 MHz spectrum auction strategies - 03 Dec 07

The qualities of the 700MHz spectrum to be auctioned off in January 2008, are such that this sale re...

Lowering download-to-own movie estimates - 21 Nov 07

Major Studios and Apple have failed to reach an agreement regarding download-to-own (DTO) movies on ...

The business case for digital 3D cinema - 31 Oct 07

Unlike earlier iterations seen in the 1950s and 1980s, this time around 3D is not a gimmick. Consume...

Do movies make money? - 24 Oct 07

iPhone: hardware - not content - is king - 28 Jul 07

GMI sees the iPhone as just one relatively small piece in a holistic, 360-degree strategy by Apple t...

The prospects for online DVD rental services - 31 Mar 07

The online DVD rental model -- pioneered by Netflix in the US, and adopted by Blockbuster and other ...

US screen advertising: the launch of National CineMedia - 27 Feb 07

Wall Street discovers the field of screen advertising as the IPO of National CineMedia creates a $2....

European pay TV sports rights: money well spent? - 06 Feb 07

Competition from new pay TV platforms such as IPTV has caused prices for the rights to show Europe's...

Will the US digital cinema boom spread to Europe? - 30 Jan 07

Digital cinema experienced rapid growth during 2006 in the US, well ahead of original forecasts. Eur...

European cable business: a bargain for investors? - 15 Dec 06

Are plans to revive triple-play cable services (combined TV, telephone, internet) in Europe too late...

User-generated online video - 13 Dec 06

With major media companies buying into user-generated video sites, will the long-term earnings poten...

Television on the internet: the US market - 01 Dec 06

Revenues from internet-delivered premium television content in the US market will grow significantly...

Next generation games consoles - the software challenge - 15 Nov 06

Games publishers face significantly higher development costs and risks as they create software for t...

Mobile TV: likely winners and losers - 23 Oct 06

Mobile network operators, TV channels and content producers are all keen for mobile TV technology to...

Can hi-def discs arrest declining DVD growth? - 12 Sep 06

The format war between Sony-backed Blu-Ray Disc and HD DVD, promoted by Toshiba, won't prevent new h...

Will games retailers survive digital distribution? - 04 Sep 06

With downloads and streaming growing fast as a means of distributing PC - and increasingly console -...

Will digital cinema change the balance of power in film... - 24 Aug 06

The beginning of roll-out is introducing new players into the film industry. While established playe...

Hi-Def TV: Hype definition, or the next big thing? - 07 Aug 06

HDTV is finally set for global lift-off with winners and losers throughout the TV value chain. After...

Is the TV content production sector ready for investors... - 24 Jul 06

Quotas, rights rules and new technology make the cream of European television production companies ...

Dot com boom or bust? is the web the way forward for TV... - 01 May 06

As advertising dollars shift from network TV to the internet, downloads offer new revenue streams fo...

Will digital distribution leave games retailers out in ... - 17 Apr 06

Retail companies will play a significant role in the digital distribution of games content to PCs an...