Posts Tagged ‘broadcast industry market research’

EVS Reports Strong Q2 Results: Revenue up 61.2%, Operating Margins of 52.4%

broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast technology vendor financials | Posted by Joe Zaller
Aug 26 2010

Belgian-based broadcast sports slow motion and studio server specialist EVS announced strong results for the second quarter of 2010 today, driven by an improving broadcast market and the 2010 World Cup.  The company also reported a strong order book of future orders.

The company reported revenue of €30.2m during the quarter, with gross margins of 79.4% and operating margins of 52.4%. The revenue for the quarter represents an increase of 61.2% versus the same period a year ago, and an increase of 41.6% at constant currency and excluding rental income from major events. Sales were positively impacted by the 2010 World Cup, where EVS supplied more than €5m of equipment (with rental revenues split over Q2 and Q3).

For the first half of 2010, EVS revenue came in at €51.1m, an increase of 40% versus 2009. Operating margins for the first six months were 49.9%.

The company also announced that its summer order book had risen by 64.8% to €38.9m, 40% of which is for studio applications.

Revenue was up in all geographic regions.

EMEA revenue increased 83.9% to €17.6m, with studio applications accounting for 58% of sales.  The company said that the fragmentation of the European market continues to present a strong opportunity as broadcasters in multiple countries make the transition to tapeless workflows and HDTV operations.

Revenue from the Americas region jumped 55.9% to €9m, driven by continuing HD upgrades and expansion of existing workflows.

Sales in Asia rose 7.5%, with studio applications accounting for 69% of the total.  The company says that it expects increased traction in Asia during the second half of the year due to forthcoming large events there.

In both its earnings press release and presentation to analysts, the company stressed that it is investing in its future, saying it has been recruiting new staff and still has 30+ open positions.  The company says it is recruiting software engineers to develop studio applications, and also plans to expand geographically.

The company issued an upbeat statement in its earnings press release.  CEO Pierre L’Hoest declared the 2010 World Cup a huge success and, and highlighted the company’s progress in the studio market, where it continues to make good progress. EVS CFO Jacques Galloy said that the company’s order momentum continues to be solid in both studio and outside broadcast segments, which have benefitted from the market recovery.

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EVS always provides a lot of detail in its earnings press release and presentations.

You can read the full EVS earnings press release here

You can see the full EVS presentation to analysts here

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Strategic Planning and Business Development Top Broadcast Technology Vendor Improvement Wish List

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, Broadcast technology channel strategy, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jul 19 2010

As part of the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey, just under 800 broadcast technology hardware and software vendors were asked what they would most like to improve about their organizations.

Respondents were presented with the following list of nine issues and asked to rank which ones they would most like to change about their business. 

  • Strategic planning / vision
  • Relationship with customers
  • Business development (partnerships)
  • Engineering
  • Marketing
  • Relationship with channel partners
  • Internal communications
  • Product management
  • Sales

 

 The results are summarized in the chart below, which also provides interesting insight into the difference in attitudes and business approach of vendors of different sizes types and businesses.

Question: What would you most like to change in your organization?

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This table shows the difference in response based on size of organization, percentage of revenue derived from the broadcast industry, geographic region, company ownership structure, product mix, and finally by the role of the respondent.

Across all vendors, 42% of respondents want to change some aspect of their sales and marketing organization (sales, marketing, or business development).  An additional 13% cast their vote to change strategic planning / vision.  For all respondents, business development is ranked as the top area that vendors would most like to change about their organizations, followed by sales and strategic planning / vision, which are tied for second place.

When these results are viewed by organization size, the rankings marketing-related issues decrease as the organization size increases, so it appears that the marketing functions of larger vendors are better regarded internally than those of smaller companies.

However, as organizational size increases, different issues appear to become more problematic within broadcast technology vendors.  The top issues for improvement cited by employees of large vendors include product management, relationships with customers, and strategic planning / vision.  In large organizations, the top-ranked issue for improvement is strategic planning / vision.

From a geographic point of view, results are fairly consistent, however the top factor is different in each region.  In the Americas, the top issue is strategic planning / vision, in EMEA the top issue is business development, and in Asia the top issue is sales.  Please note that these results are based on the location of the respondent rather than the headquarters of the company in question.

Finally, there is a contrast between the small and large vendors.  Small companies are focused on improving sales and partnerships (business development) above all other issues.  Every sale is critical to small firms, and many must work through third parties such as partners and channel partners.  Larger, more established companies are less concerned with sales than with strategic vision, customer relationships, and product management.

If you work for a broadcast technology vendor, do these findings resonate with you?  Either way, let me know.  I’d interested to hear your perspective on this issue.

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Quality Rankings for Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jul 08 2010

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the how the brands of broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS).

Each year as part of the Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global sample of broadcast professionals are asked to rank their opinion of a number of technology vendor brands on a wide range of metrics.  This information is used to create a series of reports, which through benchmarking and industry “league tables” enable these vendors to understand their competitive position in the market.

More than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participated in the 2010 BBS, making this the largest ever and most comprehensive study of the broadcast industry. In addition to measuring a variety of broadcast industry trends, more than 100 vendor brands (in 27 separate product categories) were evaluated by respondents.

Recently, posts which rank broadcast technology vendors include:

 

In keeping with the theme of top 30 rankings, let’s now turn to one of the most important metrics for any technology company – quality.

In an industry that prides itself on the fidelity of its sound and images, the perception of quality is a very important metric for broadcast technology vendors.  Many vendors use quality as one of the key components of their market positioning.

To determine the market’s perception of the quality of broadcast technology vendors, respondents were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “Quality” on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market.  The top 30 ranked brands for overall opinion are shown below for the global sample of all respondents.

 

In all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the survey. 

 

As with the top 30 innovation rankings published earlier, this list contains a broad mix of vendors table including both audio and video and audio companies. 

There are also interesting similarities and differences in terms of the types of products produced, geographic location and company size (something that is not measured in the BBS and won’t be discussed further here).  So let’s look a little deeper into these results.

 

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Number of products per vendor – Single Product Companies Dominate Quality Rankings

One obvious question that should be asked when reviewing these results is how many products are produced by each vendor on this list.  This will help us to understand if whether quality comes from small focused companies, or large multi-product vendors.  

A breakdown of how many product categories are produced by each vendor on the top 30 quality list is shown below:

With 22 out of 30 vendors on this list producing a product in only one BBS category (out of 27 measured) it’s clear that focused, specialized companies are regarded as quality leaders in the eyes of the market. 

This finding reinforces a previous post called Purchasing Preferences of Broadcast Technology Buyers – “Best-of-Breed” or “One-Stop-Shop?, which shows that broadcast technology buyers overwhelmingly prefer to evaluate products from individual suppliers and create best-of-breed solutions.

Nevertheless it’s also worth pointing out that large companies can also be considered industry innovators. For example Grass Valley is covered in 10 product categories in the 2010 BBS and Avid is covered in 7 product categories. 

Please keep in mind that this is not an absolute measure of the products produced be each vendor.  In total, the 2010 BBS looked at 148 vendors in 27 separate product categories (based on the IABM’s industry model), but even so it did not necessarily cover the entire product range of all vendors.

 

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Geographic Location

Another factor to consider is the geographic location of each company on the list.  By this measure, companies headquartered in EMEA are the clear quality leaders, while companies based in the Americas and Asia trail the pack. 

In terms of individual countries, the Germany and the USA are tied with 11 companies each on the Top 30 Quality Rankings.  Japan, the UK, Finland and Belgium round out the rest of the countries where the quality leaders are headquartered.  Keep in mind that when looking at geography, it’s important to remember that many of these firms are truly global, with offices all over the world, regardless of where they are headquartered.

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Product Categories

Finally, let’s look at the product categories produced by the vendors who made the top 30 quality list for the 2010 BBS.

Out of the 27 product categories covered in the 2010 BBS, 23 appear on this list; showing that quality is widespread across the broadcast industry.

Audio products lead the list of products produced by the top 30 quality leaders, with microphones, audio consoles and audio monitors topping the rankings.

Please keep in mind when reviewing this information that, unless otherwise specified, all data these charts are presented in alphabetical order, not in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2010 BBS.  Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all 2010 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.  

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis.  If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

 

 

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This article is based on the findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands.  With more than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participating, the 2010 version of the BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

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Devoncroft Digest — June 27, 2010

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast technology vendor financials, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Devoncroft Digest | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 27 2010

Here’s a recap of some of the items that caught my eye over the past week or so.

Broadcast Technology Vendor News

Another M&A Deal — RGB Buys Ripcode

In a multi-platform, multi-format world, video transcoding is one of the technologies that everyone needs.  But transcoding is a tough business with fierce competition, and it’s considered by many to be a commodity product.  This makes it tough for pure-play transcoding vendors (which is why most of them will tell you that they focus on workflow optimization).  All of the above makes it an interesting market to watch, so I took note when I read that Ripcode has been purchased by RGB networks. I always thought Ripcode was a pretty interesting company.  They raised a lot of money for their platform and they had a different approach to others in the market.  It will be interesting to see how they perform as part of RGB. 

To read more about this, check out Dan Rayburn’a Business of Video Blog, which has complete coverage of the deal here.

 

Evertz Delivers Good Results for Q4 and Full Year

Evertz Technologies delivered pretty good results for their Q4 and full year, topping the expectations of equity analysts. 

Here are some highlights from the company’s earnings press release here.

Revenue for Q4 was C$75.3m, down 3% versus the same period a year ago, but up 14% over the previous quarter.

In terms of geographic split, sales in Q4 from the US and Canada decreased by 28% versus the same period last year, but this was partially offset by a 41% y/y increase in international revenue (which Evertz defines as markets outside of the US and Canada).  International revenue rose by 23% versus the previous quarter, while sales in the US and Canada decreased by 28%.

Revenue for the full year was C$286.5, a 9% y/y decline. 

Annual revenue from the US and Canada declined 26% versus last year, while international revenue was up by 24% over last year.

The company’s gross margins slipped a bit to 58% (versus 61% last year).  On the earnings conference call, the company attributed this to pricing pressures and the cost of international expansion.

Overall, this was a strong performance from Evertz.  The company’s international growth is particularly notable. 

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Wegener Issues Preliminary Results

Wegener, which was delisted from the NASDAQ earlier this year, issued preliminary operating results for the third quarter ended May 28, 2010. Final results for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 will be released on July 12, 2010.

According to the company’s press release  preliminary operating results for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 were revenues of $2.1 million and a net loss of approximately $(487,000) or $(0.04) per share compared to revenues of $2.9 million and a net loss of $(883,000) or $(0.07) per share for the same period in fiscal 2009.

Company President & CEO Troy Woodbury said that “bookings performance in the third quarter was an improvement over the first and second quarters of fiscal 2010, but there is significant room for improvement.”

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French Employees Protest Grass Valley Sale

TVB reports that nearly 200 Grass Valley employees at the company’s facility in Rennes France went on strike to protest the shutdown of production. Grass Valley, which has been for sale for what seems like forever, is one the broadcast industry’s most storied names. 

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Dolby Opens R&D Center in China

Dolby Labs announced that it’s first “from the ground up” R&D facility outside of the US will be based in China.  In the company’s press release, Dolby VP Mahesh Sundaram said “China is strategically important to Dolby. The establishment of Dolby China’s R&E Center is an important milestone as part of our continued commitment to China and innovation.”  The facility will focus on sound technology.

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Technicolor Opens New Lab in Palo Alto

Meanwhile, French technology provider Technicolor (formerly known as Thomson) has announced that it is planning a new lab in Palto Alto, CA.  The company says the new lab will focus on the personalization of digitally delivered content, and enhance the company’s research skills in content discovery.   The company also says it chose Palo Alto for its proximity to excellent universities and for the potential for interaction within the Silicon Valley technology ecosystem.

 

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Broadcast Technology Vendor Confidence Beginning to Return

According to an article in TVB Europe, the IABM (the association which represents broadcast and media technology suppliers worldwide) has published the results of a new study about industry confidence.  The result — the worst of the recession appears to be over in the broadcast and media technology sector and vendors are feeling increasingly optimistic about the future.

The IABM says that 74% of vendors who participated in their poll are response anticipating better business next year than last, and that 47% of those surveyed are already reporting better order volumes than expected.  However the study also found that the industry is facing strong pricing pressure.

Disclosure: Devoncroft and the IABM partner on market intelligence.

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Other Items of Interest:

TVB reports that the new PricewaterhouseCoopers 2010-14 Global Entertainment and Media Outlook predicts that advertising revenues remain fragile in nature and spending is unlikely to return to former levels, and that by 2014, the U.S. advertising spend is expected to still be 9 percent below its level in 2007.

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NetApp Files 10K with SEC 

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Following April Announcement, John Malone Formally Steps Down as DirecTV Chairman 

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According to Dan Rayburn, here’s the “best article by far” about Google TV: “Google TV: everything you ever wanted to know” – Best article by far on the subject by Engadget. 

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The Wall Street Journal reported that News Corp Want to Buy Rest of BSkyB, but that Sky is holding out for more money.

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Harmonic was upgraded by Merrill Lynch, who say that the Omneon acquisition could be significantly accretive in 2011 

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Cablevision bought Bresnan Communications for $1.4Bn

 

 

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Market Research Note of the Week:

Innovation Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors – The Top 30 Globally

In keeping with the theme of top 30 rankings, let’s now turn to one of the most important metrics for any technology company – innovation.

The product side of the film & broadcast industry is driven by technology and innovation.  All vendors strive to create techniques that will make their products stand out from the competition.  Thus innovation is a very important component of the brand image and reputation of vendors in this space.

To find out which broadcast technology vendors are considered to be most highly regarded in terms of innovation, more than 4,000 broadcast industry professionals were  asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “Innovation” on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market. 

There’s a broad mix of vendors included in these ranking, including both audio and video and audio companies.  There are also interesting similarities and differences in terms of the types of products produced, geographic location and company size.  So let’s look a little deeper into these results….

To see the full results, included three ranking tables and analysis, please follow this link.

You can find other 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) here:

The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands by Overall Opinion, Ranked, Globally and Regionally

The Top 30 Broadcast Vendor Brands by Net Change in Brand Image.

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Innovation Rankings for Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 16 2010

This is the third in a series of posts about the how the brands of broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS). 

Each year as part of the Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global sample of broadcast professionals are asked to rank their opinion of a number of technology vendor brands on a wide range of metrics.  This information is used to create a series of reports, which through benchmarking and industry “league tables” enable these vendors to understand their competitive position in the market. 

More than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participated in the 2010 BBS, making this the largest ever and most comprehensive study of the broadcast industry. In addition to measuring a variety of broadcast industry trends, more than 100 vendor brands (in 27 separate product categories) were evaluated by respondents. 

Recently, I discussed how respondents to the 2010 BBS ranked The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands by Overall Opinion, Ranked, Globally and Regionally, and followed up with a ranking of the Top 30 Broadcast Vendor Brands by Net Change in Brand Image. 

In keeping with the theme of top 30 rankings, let’s now turn to one of the most important metrics for any technology company – innovation. 

The product side of the film & broadcast industry is driven by technology and innovation.  All vendors strive to create techniques that will make their products stand out from the competition.  Thus innovation is a very important component of the brand image and reputation of vendors in this space. 

To find out which broadcast technology vendors are considered to be most highly regarded in terms of innovation, more than 4,000 broadcast industry professionals were  asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “Innovation” on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market.  The top 30 ranked brands for overall opinion are shown below for the global sample of all respondents. 

In all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the survey.   

Innovation — The top 30 broadcast technology brands, listed alphabetically (global sample of all respondents) 

There’s a broad mix of vendors included in the above table including both audio and video and audio companies.  There are also interesting similarities and differences in terms of the types of products produced, geographic location and company size (something that is not measured in the BBS and won’t be discussed further here)..  So let’s look a little deeper into these results. 

 

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Number of products per vendor 

One obvious question that should be asked when reviewing these results is how many products are produced by each vendor on this list.  This will help us to understand if whether innovation comes from small focused companies, or large multi-product vendors.    

A breakdown of how many product categories are produced by each vendor on the top 30 innovation list is shown below: 

 

It’s interesting to note that vendors producing just one product account for more than half of the vendors in the top 30 innovation list.  This suggests that focused companies who apply their efforts to specialist product areas are often able to generate more innovation in the eyes of the market.  

Nevertheless it’s also worth pointing out that large companies can also be considered industry innovators. For example Grass Valley is covered in 10 product categories in the 2010 BBS and Avid is covered in 7 product categories.  These are examples of large companies who have managed to remain instill innovation across their product lines. 

Please keep in mind that this is not an absolute measure of the products produced be each vendor.  In total, the 2010 BBS looked at 148 vendors in 27 separate product categories (based on the IABM’s industry model), but even so it did not necessarily cover the entire product range of all vendors. 

 

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Geographic Location 

Another factor to consider is the geographic location of each company on the list.  By this measure, companies headquartered in EMEA just edged out those based in North America on the top 20 innovation list, while companies based in Asia trailed the pack.  

 

This is not surprising since this broadly reflects where the companies on the overall list are based.  

In terms of individual countries, the USA leads the way with 10 companies on the list of the 30 top innovators, with Germany close behind with 6 vendors on the list. 

When looking at geography, it’s important to remember that many of these firms are truly global, with offices all over the world, regardless of where they are headquartered. 

 

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Product Categories 

Finally, let’s look at the product categories produced by the vendors who made the top 30 innovation list for the 2010 BBS:

Out of the 27 product categories covered in the 2010 BBS, 23 appear on this list; showing that innovation is widespread across the broadcast industry.

Signal processing, studio cameras and video editing lead the list of products produced by the top 30 innovation leaders.

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Please keep in mind when reviewing this information that, unless otherwise specified, all data these charts are presented in alphabetical order, not in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2010 BBS.  Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all 2010 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.  

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis.  If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners. 

This article is based on the findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands.  With more than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participating, the 2010 version of the BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

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Recent Findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, Broadcast technology channel strategy, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 26 2010

Recent Market Research Findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey

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The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands, Ranked by “Overall Opinion,” Globally and Regionally

An overview of how broadcast technology vendor brands were ranked for “overall opinion” in the 2010 BBS. Results are shown globally and regionally

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What factors most influence the purchase of broadcast technology products?

Regardless of how broadcast technology products are purchased, what many in the industry want to know is why they are bought, i.e., what is the most important factors that influence the decision to buy one product over another.

When it comes to selling broadcast technology, there are several strategies that vendors have adopted. This includes positioning their offerings as having the best technology, the best feature set, the lowest cost, the best value, the best service, the most recommended, etc. But which factor is the most important to the most buyers?

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Purchasing Preferences of Broadcast Technology Buyers – “Best-of-Breed” or “One-Stop-Shop?

How do buyers of broadcast technology products prefer to purchase: using a best-of-breed approach (evaluating products from multiple vendors) or a one-stop shop where one vendor provides a complete solution?

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How are broadcast technology products typically purchased — direct from vendors, through an SI or a dealer?

This article examines the way broadcast technology products are purchased, i.e., what purchasing channels are typically used by buyers of broadcast technology products.

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NAB 2010: NAB: Stations Focus On Web, Mobile, HDTV (TVNewsCheck Interview)

In this interview conducted by Harry Jessell of TV News Check, Joe Zaller discusses the major trends that are impacting US broadcasters, including the transition to HDTV, multi-platform content delivery and 3D.

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What Broadcast Buyers Are Evaluating for Purchase in 2010

This article focuses on the products that are being evaluated for purchase this year by broadcast professionals.  We presented technology buyers with a list of relevant product categories, and asked them to indicate which product type they are currently evaluating for purchase.

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Where is Money Being Spent in the Broadcast Industry? — A Review of Major Projects Being Planned

In the current environment, everyone in the broadcast business wants to know which parts of the industry are doing well, where money is being spent and what is driving this spending.

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Broadcast Industry’s Largest Market Study Reveals Most Important Technology Trends

This article looks at how respondents ranked a variety of technology trends in terms of importance to their business. This article presents the answers to this question in two ways: as a global trends index and by the percentage of respondents who indicated the importance of each trend to their business.

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The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands, Ranked by “Overall Opinion,” Globally and Regionally

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 24 2010

This is the first in a series of posts about the how the brands of broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey.

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Each year as part of the Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), I ask respondents to rank broadcast a number of technology vendor brands on a wide range of metrics.  This information is used to create a series of reports, which through benchmarking and industry “league tables” enable these vendors to understand their competitive position in the market.

More than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participated in the 2010 BBS, making this the largest ever and most comprehensive study of the broadcast industry. In addition to measuring a variety of broadcast industry trends, more than 100 vendor brands (in 27 separate product categories) were evaluated by respondents.

This post looks at how broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents in terms of their overall opinion of these vendors.   Research participants were asked to rank their “overall opinion” of broadcast technology vendor brands on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market.

Results are shown in two ways:

  • An overall industry “league table” that shows the 30 highest ranked vendors for the metric “overall opinion.”  The data in this chart is broken out globally and regionally. 
  • An analysis of the “frequency” of appearance in the “overall opinion league table”

 

The top 30 ranked brands for overall opinion are shown below for both the global sample of all respondents as well as for all respondents in each of the geographic regions.  

 

Please note that in all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the survey.         

   

Question: Please rank your overall opinion of the following brands on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best in the market and 1 being the worst.         

  

 

 

Interestingly, a total of 46 broadcast technology vendor brands are included in this table, which demonstrates that there is strong variation in opinion based on geographic segmentation of respondents.  

In terms of frequency of appearance in this table:  

  • 17 brands appear four times, meaning they were ranked in the top 30 globally and in each geographic region. It is possible
  • 9 brands appear three times
  • 5 brands appear two times
  • 15 brands appear once, which demonstrates that some brands are strongest in one geographic area

   

Analysis of the data shows that are some clear market leaders on a global basis, while others are strong on a regional basis.   

A breakdown of how many times each company appears in the ranking shows how many times each brand appears in the chart above.  

Brands appearing four times:  

  • Adobe, AKG, Apple, beyerdynamic, Cisco, Dolby, Genelec, Grass Valley, Neumann, Panasonic, Rohde & Schwarz, Sennheiser, Shure, Solid State Logic, Sony, Studer, Tektronix

   

Brands appearing three times:  

  • Aja Video, AMS-Neve, Harris, Lawo, RED, Salzbrenner Stagetec, Snell, Tandberg, Yamaha

   

Brands appearing two times:  

  • Clear-Com, Electro Voice, Evertz, Ikegami, JBL

   

Brands appearing once:  

  • Audio-Technica, Avid, Barco, Calrec, EVS, HP, Klein + Hummel, Mackie, Omneon, Prism Media, Quantel, Rhozet, Riedel, RTS Intercom Systems, TVIPS

   

 

 

Analysis of the Frequency for Each Brand in the “Overall Opinion” League Table:  

In order to provide a better understanding of which brands were most higly ranked in each geography, the data has been provided in the table below, which shows the global and regional performance for each brand in the top 30 ranking of overall opinion.   

  

The frequency chart shows some interesting geographic variation in the data.  

Appearing in the  top 30 “overall opinion” ranking globally + one region  

Four brands managed to achieve a top 30 ranking in the global overall opinion league table , despite being in the top 30 of only one of the three geographic regions.  

Electro Voice (Americas), Evertz (Americas), Ikegami (Americas), JBL (Americas)  

The following 15 brands did not make the top 30 in the global league table of overall opinion, but they did appear in the top 30 overall opinion ranking in one of the geographic regions:  

 

Appearing in the  top 30 “overall opinion” ranking only in EMEA  

EVS, Klein + Hummel, Prism Media, Rhozet, Riedel, T-VIPS  

   

Appearing in the  top 30 “overall opinion” ranking only in Asia-Pacific  

Audio-Technica, Calrec, HP, Omneon, Quantel  

 

Appearing in the  top 30 “overall opinion” ranking only in the Americas  

Avid, Mackie  

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Please keep in mind when reviewing this information that all data these charts are presented in alphabetical order, not in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the BBS.  Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all 2010 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.   

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis.  If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

 

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This article is based on the findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands.  With more than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participating, the 2010 version of the BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

     

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Vizrt and Ross Video Report Increased Revenues

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, Broadcast technology vendor financials | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 20 2010

As earnings season continues, two broadcast technology vendors reported some good news this week.

Yesterday, broadcast graphics, asset management and online vendor Vizrt posted their Q1 results for 2010. The company said its revenues rose 38% versus the same period last year, while its backlog increased by 78% versus last year.  In the earnings press release, the company’s CEO said that “broadcast markets are slowly recovering and … CAPEX budgets are being restored”.

Today privately held Ross Video issued a press release highlighting continued growth.  The company said its revenues for the first half of its fiscal year rose by 7% versus a year ago. In the press release, company CEO David Ross said “We continue to buck the downward trend and have enjoyed some record months.”

While the earnings of broadcasters have been generally positive this quarter, reflecting increases in advertising and political spending, the fortunes of broadcast technology vendors have been mixed.  It will be interesting to see when (whether) the pick-up in broadcaster revenues and profit translates into increased technology capex, and therefore revenue and profit increases for broadcast technology vendors.  Watch this space.

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Two Investment Banks Offer Post-NAB Thoughts, Insight on Broadcast Industry

broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast technology vendor financials | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 18 2010

Two boutique investment banks, Silverwood Partners and Pharus Advisors have recently published notes to clients detailing their impressions of the NAB 2010 show.  Both companies gave me permission to re-publish them here.

 

Silverwood has been involved in a number of broadcast M&A deals including Blackmagic / DaVinci and Avid / Euphonix. Prior to the 2010 NAB show the company published a 40 page report about the broadcast industry for their investment banking clients, which is worth reading to get their full perspective on the broadcast market.  

Pharus has also been involved in a number of industry transactions including Neural Audio / DTS and Virgin Media / Two Way Media. The company published their post-NAB thoughts in their industry newsletter, which also includes a summary of recent M&A transactions in the digital media space, and a comparison of publicly traded companies.

 

 

Silverwood NAB Perspectives:

Revenue Flow versus Work Flow.  Broadcast and media customers are principally focused on sustaining advertising revenue from traditional outlets and driving incremental revenue over emerging outlets. The focus over recent years on cost containment through automation and technology efficiencies has been eclipsed by the need to adapt technology infrastructure to a changing business model.  The Newspaper industry provides an instructive lesson on the need to be responsive to external challenges to traditional business norms.  Technology vendors are faced with customers that have shifting purchasing priorities and that are scrutinizing expenditures on conventional broadcast infrastructure.

 

3D will not Reverse Industry Revenue Decline.  While 3D may drive some additional short term revenue, widespread adoption is still in question because certain content will never lend itself to the 3D medium.  Furthermore, with the exception of large screen environments showing purpose produced content (Avatar, Alice in Wonderland), the current 3D experience requires additional improvement.  There are no clear standards for end user devices (TVs and glasses) so mass end-consumer device adoption – if it is to occur – will take time.  Consider that the ongoing HD transition began with the first HDTV broadcast in 1998 and is still only 40% complete in the US market.  Lastly, production methods themselves must also adapt to the creation of 3D content – there is no consistency in the content acquisition process, much of which is based on trial and error and research.  3D requires a new approach in the creative production process as fast switching and cuts can prove to be nauseating to the viewer.  There are also concerns that poorly produced 3D will lead to negative customer perceptions in the near term which will slow adoption and the long term success of the medium.

 

Pricing is Collapsing.  Years of substantial profitability for media and broadcast customers masked poor cost discipline in the sourcing of technology.   Recent weakness in the advertising market and the broader economic disruption has caused customers to focus on capital budgets and look for more cost effective solutions.  Compounding this challenge, inexpensive general purpose IT infrastructure continues to replace purpose built hardware solutions, creating good enough solutions at attractive prices for many use cases.  This is putting pressure on margins for many traditional Broadcast technology vendors who organized their cost structures for the high price, ‘boom’ years and cannot adapt quickly enough to the changed industry circumstances.

 

Value Separation: Software, Hardware, Connectivity.  Historically, broadcast and post-production customers purchased purpose built solutions where the discrete software, hardware and connectivity components were blended within a hardware solution.  As the hardware portion becomes increasingly standardized, vendors will need to focus on defensible segments of the value chain, particularly within the software layer.  In many cases specialized hardware vendors are effectively software companies burdened with a legacy hardware orientation.  It is expected that vendors will need transformative change rather than evolutionary adaptation to address the fundamental changes in the media technology industry. 

 

Growing Software Opportunity.  It is expected that software companies will continue to be a growing presence in the media technology industry.  Differentiation from IT solutions for incumbent vendors resides in the software layer.  Well-positioned companies have software solutions that extend and leverage basic IT functionality, which will continue to improve in speed and capability.  From a product perspective, technology vendors should examine their product portfolios to identify and extract the unique software functionality that is truly differentiating their offerings.  In addition, the increasing use of standardized IT platform technology is creating a growing market for software vendors that can use the standardization to scale efficiently. 

 

Commercial Opportunity: Customer Diversification.  Well-positioned companies are diversifying and selling to a broader customer base, particularly customers outside the traditional broadcast market.   Targeting other industry verticals is not feasible with a customized hardware solution and an industry focused direct sales model.  In contrast, software solutions that extend standardized hardware and that are deployed through VARs and channel partners can be more easily adapted to large, adjacent industry verticals (Medical, Military, Enterprise).

 

Business Model Disruption.   For NAB exhibitors there remains fundamental weakness in the traditional broadcast technology industry.  The reduction in industry revenues will highlight one of the principal difficulties for many NAB exhibitors: sales and marketing expense is too high for revenue levels.  With pricing pressure, many vendors will need to change to a distribution model or become part of a larger solution that can support the fixed sales expense.   Well-positioned, well-capitalized vendors will have a unique opportunity to acquire established, respected brands with large user bases over the coming year.

 

Service Opportunity – Revenue Flow.  Broadcasters and media companies are faced with a proliferation of technologies and monetization possibilities, and an accelerating rate of technology change.  Historically, broadcasting challenges were solved by buying incremental technologies to plug into an existing well-understood technology infrastructure.  Current business challenges require business model innovation coupled with technology platform innovation to drive revenues across a growing range of end-point devices and outlets.  Given the lack of clarity on the optimal revenue model and the rapid pace of technology change, broadcasters and media customers are reluctant to invest in standalone technology purchases.  This is creating an attractive service opportunity driven by the ability to provide incremental revenue growth with a low barrier to entry, a receptive customer and an attractive ROI.

 

 

 

 

PHARUS ADVISORS

PUBLIC MARKET AND M&A UPDATE ON MEDIA AND BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY

NAB OVERVIEW

We recently attended the NAB 2010 conference in Las Vegas. We came out of the conference feeling the media and broadcast technology market is experiencing a healthy recovery from 2009. The recurring comment echoed by many industry players was that the deals in the customer pipeline that were stalled in 2009 are now morphing into real opportunities. The RFP activity is showing decent improvement, however, the sales‐cycle continues to be long and spending not completely flowing.

Even though the network spending in North America, which was driven by conversion to HDTV over last few years, is slowing, other factors like changes in customer preferences, and pressure to generate new sources of revenues and reduce costs are expected to continue to drive technology capital expenditure for networks. These new developments are adding new dynamism to the sector, which can be witnessed by the plethora of vendors and solutions.

Here are some of prominent themes that we witnessed at the NAB show this year.

  • Emergence of 3D television broadcasting: As expected, this was the major theme at NAB similar to what was the case at CES earlier this year. TV manufacturers continue to be enthusiastic about this trend. CES expects 4.3 million 3D TV sets to be sold in 2010, with about 25% of total TVs sold in 2013 to be 3D‐enabled. Even though some major players (like DIRECTV, Discovery, IMAX, and etc.) have made announcements over last few months about launching 3D content, a lot of the content producers and broadcasters are still not sure about how quickly this market opportunity will grow in the near term. As a result, they tend to be reticent to make investment in this area at this point.

 

  • Development of multi‐platform content distribution (broadcast, web and mobile) capability: The spending on TV advertising is gradually declining. According to Yankee Group, the TV ad market declined 21.2%, from $52 billion to $41 billion, between 2008 and 2009. During this same period spending on Internet advertising grew as a result of consumers spending more time online and less time watching TV. With more and more eyeballs consuming video content on Web and mobile devices, broadcasters are investing in technologies which enable delivery of content over multitude of platforms.

 

  • Adoption of file‐based workflows: One of the important areas of investment for broadcasters remains implementation of file‐based workflow infrastructure. This is viewed as important by broadcasters to augment flexibility in day‐to‐day operations, facilitate reduction in operational costs, and enable efficient multi‐platform content distribution.

 

Emergence of Over‐the‐Top (OTT) Video and convergence of TV and Internet: The other recurring trend at the show was the focus on growing convergence between broadcast TV and Web video. Internet users are increasingly interested in streaming full length video directly onto their TVs and as a result variety of models are appearing to provide consumers with this capability. According to report by Tender Research from October 2009, about 7% of households will forgo Pay TV subscriptions by 2012 in favor of OTT services and free over‐the‐air television. OTT market is moving very fast with proliferation of enabling devices like Roku, Xbox, and a range of new HDTV models and growth of online video sites such as Hulu, Netflix,

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Brief Thoughts on NAB 2010

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Apr 20 2010

Like thousands of others (some of whom are still there because of the Icelandic volcano), I spent last week at the NAB show in Las Vegas.  The events of the show have been well covered elsewhere, so this is just a short note on my impressions of the show.

After a week in Las Vegas and more than 40 meetings with vendors, bankers and broadcasters, my take-away from NAB was not about any one technology, company or product. Instead it was the general feeling that the tide has turned, and that things in the industry are starting to improve. 

Most vendors conceded that 2009 was less than stellar, but several companies such as Pilat Media, Ross Video, and Utah Scientific reported that they saw growth and made money in 2009. 

The question is whether 2010 will be better for the industry as a whole.  Many vendors I spoke to at NAB reported many projects did not go away, they just “moved to the right”, and that some projects which had been shelved are now back on the table.    In an industry where major projects drive product purchase, this is reassuring news for the battered supplier community.

Prior to NAB, and at many of the booths and press conferences during the show, the majority of attention seemed to be focused on 3D.  Yes there was a lot of 3D at the show, but as reported by Ken Kerschbaumer at the Sports Video Group, It Wasn’t All About 3D (Seriously!) As Exhibitors See Bounce in 2D Business.

As I have said previously, I am skeptical about 3D at least for the near term. Despite the hype, it’s just not that important commercially to most broadcast professionals.  My recent global study of the broadcast market found that the most important industry trends in the broadcast industry are about completing what’s already been started (transition to HDTV operations), cutting costs while creating efficiencies (file based / tapeless workflows), and creating new revenue streams (multi-platform content distribution).  If you look at the 2010 Global Broadcast Trend Index, you’ll see that 3D is near the bottom in terms of commercial important to broadcast professionals.

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