Fergal Carr Consulting Inc.
 

JULY MONTHLY ROUNDUP - Media, Tech and Innovation
 
 

Greetings!

Welcome to my monthly round up of media, technology and innovation news. With face to face meetings continuing to be on hold, I am spending the summer out in North Fork, Long Island. I’m extremely lucky to be able to do so, but like everyone else I’m looking forward to feeling the energy, the hustle, and the camaraderie of New York again.

In media news that may have slipped under some radars this month, Apple (and Ireland) won a landmark €13 billion tax decision against the EU. The Irish government has disagreed with the EU ruling, citing that they provided no preferential treatment to Apple. For Ireland it’s a surprising stance, considering they are in 30 billion in debt this year with Covid-19. 

With sports finally coming back in the US, advertisers are scrambling to invest in the live sports space. Covid-19 cases are creeping into the game again, so broadcasters unable to fulfill their live sports commitments could lose out to streaming services.

Finally, in the latest entry in my ongoing entrepreneur series, I posted key products I have leveraged over the past year to get started with my business.You can find out more on my medium post here. Hope they are helpful, feel free to ask me any related questions.
 

Ireland wins appeal in €13 billion Apple tax case

In late 2016, the Irish government decided to appeal the EU Commission’s ruling on providing unfair tax advantages to Apple. Ireland argued that the State did not give favorable treatment to Apple and that it does not do tax deals.

  • The Irish government and Apple argued that, because Apple’s products and services are created, designed and engineered in the US, the bulk of the profits of the units are due on the other side of the Atlantic.

  • The verdict comes at a sensitive time for Ireland, which has been forced to fight a rearguard action against European efforts to impose different types of sales and digital taxes in recent years.

  • The Ireland budget deficit is €30 billion this year to deal with the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis.

The fallout from the case remains uncertain, as Ireland’s honesty could potentially impact its relationship with the EU.
 

Advertising dollars to switch to streaming if live sports take another hiatus

Sports are back. MLB opened its season on July 23. The NBA and the NHL’s return this week. The NFL is expected to start its season in September. However, with the rising number of Covid-19 cases there’s a potential to send the sports world back into hiatus.  In the event of another suspension, it’s unlikely that advertising spend would simply idle in corporate bank accounts.

  • Advertisers and their agencies would likely seek to invoke escape clauses with networks. 

  • Disney, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS would likely point advertisers to their broader portfolios, such as their broadcast networks’ prime-time shows as well as their cable news and entertainment networks. 

  • Advertisers collectively spent $4.6 billion during the NFL’s 2019-20 season alone, according to data from Kantar Media.

Broadcasters will continue to find innovative solutions for advertisers in order to keep their business. NBC just released Peacock offering three tiers of service. From free (with ads) up to a $10 per month subscription. Free is new to the market as many others have lower price offering with ads.
 

Amazon’s Twitch is getting into real sports

The standalone sports category will include streams from soccer clubs like Arsenal and Real Madrid, with Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain set to follow. Twitch’s new sports category will also host  the existing NBA, NHL, RFL, UFC, and NWSL content that’s available on the platform.

  • The new sports category on Twitch comes just weeks after Amazon streamed Premier League soccer free on Twitch for the first time.

  • British Formula 1 driver and regular Twitch streamer Lando Norris became the youngest ever Brit to stand on a Formula 1 podium earlier this month. Norris uses his phone to stream behind the scenes looks at the planning and preparation phases for races, sometimes just minutes before he’s about to start practice laps. 

Twitch can be a perfect platform to provide  sports enthusiasts and provide them behind the scenes experiences with celebrities as they prepare for their own events, or as they show their gaming skills.
 

Uber acquires postmates and 37% of the market

Postmates, the clear #4 player behind DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, provides  both a defensive and offensive acquisition in the food delivery space for Uber. This comes at a time when Uber’s  core ride-sharing business is seeing massive headwinds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • A merged Uber-Postmates would control about 37% of the national market, versus DoorDash’s 45%

  • Uber signaled a hard pivot to food delivery. Gross bookings for its Eats business were up 52% YOY in Q1.

A big pivot for Uber when their taxi business has taken a significant hit in these uncertain times. Likely something to keep their investors hopeful, if nothing else.
 

House lawmakers go on the attack to the big tech CEO’s

All four CEOs were subject to antitrust questions -  their monopolization of markets, the buying out and copying of competitors, and the utilization of data to provide unfair advantages for their products.

  • Apple: Took sustained heat for its power over the iPhone's App Store and the cut it takes from developers selling digital products.

  • Google: Lawmakers homed in on the company's acquisition of DoubleClick in 2007 as the pivotal moment when its dominance of search was partnered with newfound power in online ad targeting.

  • Facebook:  Panel said the social network's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were plainly anti-competitive — that the company made the deals to stop Instagram from becoming a competitor to its main platform and WhatsApp from becoming a competitor to its messaging service.

  • Amazon: faced tough questions about its role as both a massively successful online retailer and the proprietor of the biggest online marketplace for third-party sellers.

The real solution would have prevented these companies from buying out the Instagrams, the Whatsapps, and the Doubleclicks of the digital world. The result? The majority of companies now innovate hopes to be bought out by big tech, not to be a competitor.

Quibi is a perfect example. With all the hype they received before an underwhelming launch, I’m sure any Quibi  executive would be thrilled with the prospect of a Netflix buyout. Unfortunately for Quibi, I don’t see much from the product that Netflix can’t simply copy and execute themselves.
 

JOBS IN MY NETWORK

If anyone is qualified and looking for referrals, recommendations, introductions for any of the below roles I am happy to help.

  1. Medium - Senior Product Designer, Design Director

  2. The Atlantic - Product lead

  3. The Inquirer - Senior Product Manager

  4. AdForm - Sales Director

If you would like to have your open role(s) featured in next months newsletter, please get in touch.
 

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