The Lemon Fool

Brrr, morning all

I wrote on the Unilever thread yesterday that I was thinking of topping up either ITV or WPP and YeeWo commented that these businesses were 'FANG-food' viewtopic.php?p=197826#p197826 .

Now, I understand that businesses want their products in the face of consumers and that social media is where the majority of young'uns congregate (God knows our 20 year old has his face planted on a screen most of the time).

Now, companies like ITV and WPP are very aware of this so am I being naïve to think that they will be either already in the business of advertising here, or actively looking to access this market/link with companies already in this market?

I do appreciate YeeWo's comment as it got me thinking, and I know that ITV and WPP share prices have fallen (which is why they became high yield), but I don't think the yield is that high to be concerned. The younger generation don't watch TV like I used to - it's all on demand and Netflix so I'm led to believe, but again, these businesses know this so surely they must be coming up with solutions / business decisions to cope with this change?

Anyway, I thought it might be an interesting discussion to get others' views.

Cheers, OLTB.'

OLTB wrote:Brrr, morning all

I wrote on the Unilever thread yesterday that I was thinking of topping up either ITV or WPP and YeeWo commented that these businesses were 'FANG-food' viewtopic.php?p=197826#p197826 .

Now, I understand that businesses want their products in the face of consumers and that social media is where the majority of young'uns congregate (God knows our 20 year old has his face planted on a screen most of the time).

Now, companies like ITV and WPP are very aware of this so am I being naïve to think that they will be either already in the business of advertising here, or actively looking to access this market/link with companies already in this market?

I do appreciate YeeWo's comment as it got me thinking, and I know that ITV and WPP share prices have fallen (which is why they became high yield), but I don't think the yield is that high to be concerned. The younger generation don't watch TV like I used to - it's all on demand and Netflix so I'm led to believe, but again, these businesses know this so surely they must be coming up with solutions / business decisions to cope with this change?

Anyway, I thought it might be an interesting discussion to get others' views.

Cheers, OLTB.'

Morning OLTB. You raise an interesting point. I hold both companies. I agree that the youth of today act as they do, and I'm sure the kids of bosses of the two companies do likewise. Therefore, I'm not that concerned, and shall just rely on the management to do their jobs.

Ian.

OLTB wrote:Brrr, morning all
I wrote on the Unilever thread yesterday that I was thinking of topping up either ITV or WPP and YeeWo commented that these businesses were 'FANG-food' viewtopic.php?p=197826#p197826 .

Yes, that comment made me think also. I sold out of WPP for that reason, but was happy to buy into ITV (as a part replacement for Sky) because 50% of revenue is non-advertising related, and they produce content which can be sold on. OK that's only about 7% of revenue, but I view content production as a growth area in general.

torata

Give or take a day, WPP have had 15 years to respond to the potential Facebook threat.

ITV...share price was bulled up after it was touted as a possible takeover target...no doubt someone made a lot of money out of that rumour.
The content on ITV doesn't appeal to me but that's my preference..plenty of people like Corry, The Chase, Benidorm, On the Buses ( yes, the original!), Doc Martin, Marple, Poirot, Dickinson's Real Deal, Carry On films ..errr, I'm not selling it am I?

https://www.itv.com/hub/categories/films

That's what the ITV website indicates are amongst their content.

I had to do some googling to work out that FANG in this context refers to Facebook,Apple,Amazon,Netflix,Google

Thriddle wrote:I had to do some googling to work out that FANG in this context refers to Facebook,Apple,Amazon,Netflix,Google

Alternatively "FAANG is an acronym for the market's five most popular and best-performing tech stocks, namely Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet’s Google. FAANG was born out of the original acronym, FANG, which did not have Apple included when CNBC’s Jim Cramer coined the term."

OLTB wrote:I wrote on the Unilever thread yesterday that I was thinking of topping up either ITV or WPP and YeeWo commented that these businesses were 'FANG-food' viewtopic.php?p=197826#p197826.

Glad that my rather tart comment stimulated a good natured debate. I like to put my holdings through the intellectual filter of Mr Buffett's "Moat", ITV's franchise isn't the licence to print money it once was while WPP is busily trying to unbundle Sir Martin's acquisitions into some sort of strategy. Ten years from now who knows where either business will really be? Disc. Never owned ITV, had a unprofitable foray into WPP and bailed out licking my wounds after a great deal of thought.