Why did AT&T buy, and then sell, DirecTV and Time Warner after only six years? This report looks at AT&T’s decisions, actions and their consequences, and the lessons for others attempting adjacent market moves and M&A.
The music industry was one of the first sectors to be fundamentally disrupted by the Internet. Facing an epic and almost existential battle with piracy, coupled with expectations that music should be free, the record labels have tested many different business and distribution models. With sales of recorded music finally growing again, telcos and their partners can learn a lot from the music industry’s hits and misses.
TeliaSonera’s digital partnership with OTT streaming music disruptor Spotify has worked well when other operator music tie-ups have languished. We investigate how the partnership has helped both companies to target new market segments and develop innovative products, with Spotify benefitting from TeliaSonera’s marketing channels and direct investment, and TeliaSonera leveraging both Spotify’s brand association with youth-oriented digital innovation, and the serious stickiness of the Spotify service.
Partnering is a key competence for building telco digital services offerings, but many past attempts have failed. So what does it take to succeed? In this briefing we review viable strategies, key success factors and barriers, and profile the highly effective approach used in AT&T’s Drive Ecosystem.
Seven predictions and four scenarios for how the industry might play out in Europe in the next 5 years: ‘Digital Renaissance’, ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Commoditised Utility’ and ‘Telco Trainwreck’. Plus what are the take-outs for other markets?
In the first of two reports, STL Partners evaluates how several powerful forces, within and beyond the control of telcos, look set to change the shape of the European market and considers the options for how these forces might develop going forward.
What is ‘agility’ and what makes it meaningful to operators? We explored the concept and characteristics of ‘operator agility’ through 29 interviews with telco senior executives, found three main barriers and five key opportunity areas, and identified some surprising and important conclusions about both what it means and the key steps needed to achieve it.
Netflix’s success in the US and in Western Europe has demonstrated that consumers are willing to change how they watch and pay for TV and movies. As a result Netflix’s OTT proposition is challenging traditional pay TV models and changing how new broadband services are looking at content. For some players Netflix is a threat and for others an opportunity. So, how should content owners, channels, pay platforms and broadband providers respond?
What is disruption, when is it a good idea, and what do you do when it happens to you? We illustrate five principles of disruptive strategy based on our analysis of the telecoms and adjacent markets over the past eight years. The analysis covers both principles of creating and defending against disruption.
Operators face difficult choices on the best way to change their business models. In this note we analyse the approaches taken by AT&T, Verizon, Ooredoo, Singtel and Telefonica, extrapolate the options for all carriers, and offer a framework to help managers define the right new business model goal for their organisation.
Consumer and enterprise communications behaviours are changing significantly around the globe as new solutions meet core needs more effectively and change customer expectations. This extract from our latest major report provides insight to the changes, and describes effective strategies that meet these evolving needs for both incumbents attempting to defend existing services and innovators seeking to disrupt and create new value. (December 2013, Executive Briefing Service)
Psychological and social advantages of voice, SMS, IM, and Social Media Dec 2013
Our new research shows how telcos can slow the decline of voice and messaging revenues and build new communications services to maximise revenues and relevance with both consumer and enterprise customers. It includes detailed forecasts for 9 markets, in which the total decline is forecast between -25% and -46% on a $375bn base between 2012 and 2018, giving telcos an $80bn opportunity to fight for. It also shows impacts and implications for other technology players including vendors and partners, and general lessons for competing with disruptive players in all markets. It looks at the impact of so-called OTT competition, market trends and drivers, bundling strategies, operators developing their own Telco-OTT apps, advanced Enterprise Communications services, and the opportunities to exploit new standards such as RCS, WebRTC and VoLTE. (November 2013, Executive Briefing Service). Future Value of Voice and Messaging Cover Small
Telefonica and Vodafone are both European-based tier 1 CSPs with substantial revenues, cash flows and subscribers. They have both expanded beyond Europe – Vodafone into Africa and Asia and Telefonica into Latin America. However, their Telco 2.0 strategies are rather different. In this extract from our forthcoming report, A Practical Guide to Implementing Telco 2.0, we outline their Telco 2.0 strategies and their benefits and risks. (September 2012, Executive Briefing Service, Transformation Stream.)
Telefonica Strategy 2.0 Chart
An extract from our 284 page, 124 chart, strategy report that analyses the business models, markets, objectives, strategies and modus operandi of the major adjacent players, and their current and future impact on the telecoms industry. The report identifies the areas and options for competition and co-operation, and outlines potential strategies for interacting with each player. It also draws the combined activities of the digital empires – telcos, so called ‘OTT players’ and others – into the context of the new ‘Great Game’, the battle for power and value in the emerging digital economy. (Page updated February 2012, report published November 2011, Dealing with Disruption stream) Google Apple Facebook Microsoft Skype Amazon Telco 2.0 Disruptor Report Cover
The telecoms industry often puts so-called OTT (over-the-top) players like Google and Facebook at the forefront of its concerns, as they pose new competition for services and applications. But what about encroachment of companies “underneath” the telcos, displacing them from their core asset, the network? Telco 2.0 examines the strategic threats and opportunities from wholesale providers, outsourcers and government-run broadband networks. (January 2012, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream).
UTF Image Jan 2012
Customer Experience 2.0: Learning from Amazon?, Presentation by Phil Laidler, Director, Consulting, STL Partners. Can we learn from Amazon, or are we facing the fall of the Telco Empire at the hands of the OTT Invaders? Presented at EMEA Brainstorm, November 2011. Fall of the Telco Empire?
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are becoming familiar in the fixed broadband world as a means to improve the experience and reduce the costs of delivering bulky data like online video to end-users. Is there now a compelling need for their mobile equivalents, and if so, should operators partner with existing players or build / buy their own? (August 2011, Executive Briefing Service, Future of the Networks Stream).
Telco 2.0 Six Key Opportunity Types Chart July 2011