M&A between big broadcasters must strike a balance between scale and agility to succeed these days, bulking up to compete with increasingly sizable rivals while remaining nimble enough to respond to changes in consumption and monetization.
Nonfiction giant Discovery for example, having bought Scripps, is working out how its combined assets can best serve incumbent and new distribution partners.
This means revamping and sometimes rationalizing local portfolios as contracts come up for renewal, while developing new video and non-video digital services that tap into its brands and IP.
All this will unfold against an ongoing shift towards a more focused linear portfolio, with more investment and time directed to flagship brands, while nurturing a growing stable of targeted digital offerings, which will likely include some former linear channel brands in the future.
In Asia, this also heralds more investment for China and India while paring down support for underperforming legacy businesses in Southeast Asia.
“We will continue to relentlessly look at reducing all the costs we can, everywhere in the world, that is not singularly focused on content and digital products,” says JB Perrette, president & CEO of Discovery Networks International.
The latest issue of MPA’s Asia Media & Telecoms Digest looks at what’s next for a much larger Discovery following the Scripps acquisition, with a particular focus on India, sports and digital expansion.
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