|
US MEDIA
Comcast will be in Washington on Thursday pitching its plans to buy NBC Universal.While politicians will be more interested in making noises about consumer protection，they might also ①do a service to Comcast investors by asking the company to explain why it makes sense to mix programming in with the pipes.
Wednesday’s fourth-②quarter results from Comcast certainly gave a foretaste of what may lie ahead if it is allowed to ③take control of General Electric’s media division. Content is the smallest part of Comcast(just 4 per cent of revenues)，but higher programming costs caused profits from the unit to plunge，even while sales④expanded. More experienced management from NBC may help–although its own prime time line-up has recently been the subject of some very high profile troubles–but the move is a reversal of the split undertaken by Time Warner last year.
The bisection allowed both to stand on their own merits.Time Warner returned to profit in the fourth quarter thanks largely to its film division and the surprise contribution from The Hangover.Such volatility is a fact of life for content companies–News Corp raised ⑤earnings guidance on Tuesday to reflect the success of ⑥smash hit Avatar. Along with less need to invest in physical infrastructure，it is the reason they typically command higher valuations than the pipers.
Yet Time Warner Cable is reassuringly predictable，a fact it underlined with last week’s ⑦dividend increase. And compared to the two big telecoms companies that it and Comcast are outmanoeuvring–taking two-thirds of net new broadband customers last year，according to Bernstein–they are cheap on five times earnings before interest，tax，⑧depreciation and ⑨amortisation，to AT&T and Verizon’s six. Better to stick with reliability than an ego-driven rush into content.
譯文梗概
美國媒體的內容與渠道之爭
康卡斯特(Comcast)赴華盛頓推銷收購NBC環球(NBC Universal)的計劃。雖然政客們更感興趣的是就消費者保護問題制造噪音，但或許也會幫上康卡斯特的投資者一把，要求該公司解釋為何將節目制作與分銷渠道合并是合理的。
康卡斯特公布了第四季度業績，讓人們預先體味一番如果該公司獲準收購通用電氣(GE)媒體子公司，會是怎樣一番前景。內容制作是康卡斯特規模最小的一塊業務(僅占收入的4%)，但較高的成本導致該部門在銷售增長的情況下依然利潤大降。NBC經驗更豐富的管理團隊也許會有所幫助——盡管其自身的黃金時段節目最近也出現了一些備受關注的問題——但此舉與時代華納(Time Warner)去年的分拆行動恰恰相反。
分家使得雙方都能立足于自身優勢。時代華納第四季度恢復盈利在很大程度上要歸功于其電影部門，以及《宿醉》(The Hangover)一片的驚人貢獻。這種波動對于內容提供商來說是家常便飯——新聞集團(News Corp)上調收益預期，便源于熱映影片《阿凡達》(Avatar)的大獲成功。再加上內容提供商不太需要投資實體基礎設施，這就是它們的市值通常高于渠道供應商的原因。
時代華納有線電視(Time Warner Cable)行事頗為按部就班，其上周宣布增加派息的消息就凸顯了這個事實。時代華納有線電視和康卡斯特正逐步勝過美國電話電報公司(AT&T)和Verizon這兩大電信公司，前者去年贏得了2/3的凈增新寬帶客戶。而且時代華納有線電視和康卡斯特的股價是息稅折舊及攤銷前利潤(EBITDA)的5倍，比前兩家公司的6倍更低廉。與其妄自尊大地魯莽進軍內容制作業務，不如堅守自己更有優勢的陣地。
(文章來源：FT中文網)
點評
①do a service，意思是(為…)效勞(幫忙)；作出貢獻;
②quarter results，表示季度業績，其前加上序數詞，表示具體某個季度業績；
③take control of，本意是“控制”，在此意為“收購”；
④expand，本意是“擴張，擴大”，在此是指銷售額的攀升或提高；
⑤earnings guidance，相當于profit prospect，“盈利前景”；
⑥smash hit，有兩層意思，一是指“轟動的演出，巨大的成功”；一是指“風行一時的事物；極受歡迎的人”；
⑦dvidend，指“紅利，股息”；
⑧depreciation，會計術語，意思是“the loss of value of (an asset/a currency)”，“固定資產的折舊”；“貨幣的貶值”在此是折舊的意思；
⑨amortisation為accretion(增值)的反義詞。該詞有兩種意思：1.分期償還，指通過購買基金(purchase fund)或償債基金(sinking fund)將負債分期還清；2.攤銷，指在一定的年限內將無形資產的成本分期攤銷為費用。 |