Weekly Media & Subscription News Round-up | July 4, 2016

Brexit, NOW TV & Web Traffic Trends

MPP Global shares six stories from the last seven days of news affecting the media and subscription industries

Publishers have been offering consumers play-by-play updates following the UK’s shock departure from the European Union. Sky continues to innovate in the media and entertainment sphere as the TV industry continues to evolve. Here are our top six stories:

1. More than half of TVs shipped in Q1 2016 were Smart

In the Chinese market, four in every five TV sets shipped this year had smart capabilities, whilst just over half of all North American TV shipments were smart TVs. The key to value in smart TVs? Seamless streaming and high quality content in local languages.

2. How the FT drove digital subscriptions sales by 600 percent over Brexit weekend

The Financial Times (FT) lifted its paywall for 24 hours on the eve of the Brexit vote last Thursday leading to a 600% increase in digital FT subscriptions. Quality news journalism evidently remains a valued commodity despite slow consumer take-up of digital news subscription services.

3. NOW TV unveils UK’s first ever contract-free triple-play bundle

TV, broadband and calls will all be included in Sky NOW TV’s contract-free combo package launched this month. The next generation of telecoms services are broadening their services whilst increasing subscription flexibility. Find out more about how MPP Global supports OTT services.

4. Facebook is making its News Feed more about your friends and less about publishers

Content and links from friends and family will take precedent over that from publishers. The reach and referral traffic of some publishers’ posts are therefore expected to decline, unless they produce smart, shareable content specific to their target audience.

5. SVOD growing dramatically in Europe, Netflix has over 50% share

Subscription Video On Demand is forecast to be adopted by 50 million homes by 2020. With the market growing, operators of all shapes and sizes need to consider the technology they have in place to ensure they can support all aspects of the customer lifecycle.

6. Guardian records highest traffic day ever following EU referendum result

Last Friday June, 24, 17m unique visitors read a total of 77m page views, whilst offline over 77 thousand more physical Guardian copies were sold on Saturday versus the week prior. Publishers should be capitalizing on these global events using intelligent technology to profile consumer behavior and seek out opportunities to increase future engagement and revenue.