EXPRESS: Commercial Success through Commercials? Advertising and Pay TV Operators

The US pay television service market had been dominated by cable operators until the nationwide entry of satellite operators in the early 1990s. The latter have been consistently growing their footprints since. This study documents the role of television advertising to explain the success. Using data on US households’ subscription choices and operators’ advertising decisions, the authors document both demand- and supply-side conditions conducive to the growth of the satellite operators. First, the authors find consumers in this market were sensitive to advertising, and especially so to that of the satellite operators (ad-elasticities of about .05-.06 for satellite operators vs. .02 for cable operators). The authors employ a border strategy to demonstrate advertising-elastic demand and discuss its robustness to potential threats to identification. Second, the authors provide suggestive evidence that a form of asymmetric cost efficiencies in television advertising benefited the entrants more than the incumbents. Specifically, the unit costs of local advertising tend to be higher than of national advertising, which likely allowed the satellite operators to better leverage their national presence with (cheaper) national advertising. Overall, this study highlights the interaction between advertising efficiencies and the scale of entry in explaining the competition between market incumbents and entrants.

Growth and Upheaval in the Network Media Economy in Canada, 1984-2019

This report examines the development of the media economy over the past thirty-five years. Since beginning this project a decade ago, we have focused on analyzing a comprehensive as possible selection of the biggest telecoms, Internet and media industries (based on revenue) in Canada, including: mobile wireless and wireline telecoms; Internet access; cable, satellite & IPTV; broadcast television, specialty and pay television services as well as Internet-based video subscription and download services; radio; newspapers; magazines; music; Internet advertising; social media; operating systems; browsers, etc.

Pay-Television Welcomes Brazil

This chapter focuses on the pay-television sector. Though it first arrived to Brazil in 1990, for the better part of two decades Brazilian pay-television was largely characterized by slow growth, access limited to the country’s most affluent classes, and a programming-grid chock-full of content imported from the United States. The Pay-TV Law’s establishment of quotas for locally produced content, however, has helped to carve out a space for the production and distribution of Brazilian content. With this in mind, the chapter analyzes 1 contra todos (1 Against All, Fox Brasil) and Lama dos dias (Mud of the Days, Canal Brasil). In addition to satisfying the content quotas outlined in the Pay-TV Law, both series benefited from government financing mechanisms, were directed by celebrated Brazilian filmmakers, and explicitly, albeit in distinct ways, contemplate the nation and Brazilianness.

Conclusion

Although more changes will certainly arise as the transformations to the Brazilian mediascape continue to take hold, it is clear that the confluence of legislative, technological, economic, and creative factors during the post-2011 context have given way to the most competitive mediascape in the history of Brazil. This particular moment represents a snapshot of Brazil, where the increasingly diverse field of television and Internet fiction is altering the relationships between distributor and producer and producer and viewer, and where a hegemonic force like Globo struggles to maintain and reproduce its audiences in the face of a number of subnational, transnational, and global movements, organizations, and technologies. In short, in the new Brazilian mediascape, while Globo competes with national and international pay-television channels, YouTube, and Netflix and while telenovelas compete with series, both local and foreign, more Brazilians in more parts of Brazil are faced with more symbolic portrayals of the nation than ever before. The result is a Brazil reframed by the small screens.

SVOD Global Expansion in Cross-National Comparative Perspective: Netflix in Israel and Spain

This article compares the processes by which Netflix entered national pay-television markets in Israel and Spain. In both contexts, Netflix first establishes itself through collaborations with over-the-top (OTT) television operators and then expands through collaborations with legacy providers. By using the perspective of cross-national comparative research, this analysis complicates the scholarly understandings of subscription video on-demand (SVOD) global expansion by drawing attention to the significance of national multichannel providers. Given the differences between the Spanish and Israeli pay-TV markets, Netflix’s similar pattern of engagement in each case highlights the value of understanding SVOD global expansion as a coherent industrial process that produces distinct, context-dependent outcomes. Ultimately, the histories of Netflix in Israel and Spain reveal that internationalization operates at a meso-level where collaborations with pay-television providers facilitate access to national audiences.

Price Discount and Retention of Customers of Pay Television Sector in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Aim: To determine the correlation between price discount and customer retention in the Nigerian pay television sector particularly in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Study Design: Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. Place and Duration of Study: Ekiti State, Nigeria between February and November, 2019. Methods: Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to select the 390 subscribers of pay television in Ekiti State namely Startimes, Dstv and Gotv who are respondents of the study. Primary data used for the study were collected through a well-structured questionnaire and were analysed using percentages, frequency table and multiple regressions. Results: Findings from the study revealed that provision of price discount had a significant positive effect on retention of customers of pay television in Nigeria. Also the study revealed that reduction in subscription fees at interval has a positive effect on customer continuous patronage of the pay television service provider. Conclusion: The study concluded that increased sales promotion led to increased customer retention in the pay television sector in Nigeria. It recommended that pay television service providers should give more of price discounting and free to view stations to customers with a view to attracting potential customers and retaining the existing ones.

Film Financing in the Digital Single Market: Challenges to Territoriality

This article discusses the role of territorial licences for feature films against the background of judicial and market developments in the EU. Currently, territorial licences are deemed a cornerstone of the exploitation and financing of films in Europe. However, current models of film financing are under increasing pressure both from market developments such as the turbulent growth of global online video platforms, and from developments in EU law aimed at removing national territorial barriers to the Single Market. Examples are the rule of Union-wide exhaustion of the distribution right, the EU Portability Regulation and the country of origin rules for satellite broadcasting and online simulcasting. EU competition law sets additional limits to grants of territorial exclusivity, and prohibits clauses in broadcasting and pay television licences that prevent or restrict “passive” sales to consumers/viewers in non-licensed territories. The freedom of right holders to preserve territorial exclusivity by way of contract is likely to become increasingly vulnerable to EU competition law, as underlying territorial rights no longer support territorial grants. For the film sector where territorial exclusivity remains indispensable, the European Commission could create specific competition law rules in the form of “block exemptions”. Language exclusivity – i.e. exclusive grants of rights for distinct language versions of a film – could provide a practical and legally more robust alternative to territorial licensing.