Verizon unveils mixed bag as media continues downward spiral

Verizon has released its third-quarter financials with the mobile business growing, broadband middling and media dropping.

Total revenues for the three-month period ending September 30 stood at $32.09 billion, a 0.9% increase year-on-year, though it has racked up $97.093 billion across 2019. As with previous quarters, there are positives to take away though the media business is still weighing heavy on the prospects of the group.

“Verizon continued its momentum in the third quarter by driving strong wireless volumes in both our Consumer and Business segments, while delivering solid financial results, highlighted by continued wireless service revenue growth, increased cash flow, and EPS growth,” said CEO Hans Vestberg.

As many would have imagined, little attention was given to the fragile media business. With each financial statement, the $5 billion bet on Yahoo’s media assets looks a little bit more like a waste of funds. Revenues in this business totalled $1.8 billion, down 2% percent year-on-year.

What was supposed to be the pursuit of alternative revenues in the ever-growing digital advertising segment is seemingly turning into nothing more than an Elephant’s Graveyard for assets in the digital economy. Aside from divesting interests in Flickr, Moviefone, MapQuest and Tumblr, Verizon is also reportedly on the search for a buyer for the Huffington Post. Perhaps executives have just had enough and are searching for a way to elegantly backtrack.

The failings of this business unit have been well-documented, so we do not want to invest too much time here, but Verizon was always going to fighting a losing battle. Winning a slice of the digital advertising profits requires out-of-the-box thinking, the ability to make money out of nothing. This is what Google, Amazon, Facebook and other innovative digital players can do.

But Verizon is not that type of business. It is a functional, engineering-focused, traditional beast. From a culture and risk-appetite perspective it was always going to struggle to compete with the lateral thinking Silicon Valley residents, and this is further evidence.

That said, when Verizon focuses on what it does best it can make money. The mobile business unit boasts of 193,000 retail postpaid net additions over the quarter and revenue growth of 2.6% year-on-year. Revenues for the broadband business are down year-on-year, but the number of Fios subscriptions are up 2.3%. It might not be as exciting to talk to investors about the world of connectivity compared to digital advertising, but it is what the company is very good at.

The team should of course attempt to secure new revenues to bolster the bottom line as the business of connectivity becomes increasingly commoditised but taking on the likes of Facebook and Google for digital advertising revenues always looked like too much of an ask.

Although this is a dampener for the Verizon business, there is more than a glimmer of hope around the corner; 5G.

There might be some questions regarding the coverage of its mmWave spectrum, but Verizon is making progress with 5G deployment. Alongside the financial results, the team also hit the go button for 5G in Dallas, Texas and Omaha, Nebraska. All of the launches are very limited from a coverage perspective, but momentum is gathering very quickly.

5G can form the catalyst for growth is the telcos force themselves through their own digital transformation. Let’s be clear, the telcos will not escape the utilitisation trends with 5G alone. The business needs to be transformed to offer new connectivity solutions to enterprise and consumer customers alike. Digital transformation is a more pressing concern for telcos than any other vertical.

But there is hope on the horizon. The lure of 5G contracts are proving to be tempting for consumers, which will help the bottom-line as data tariffs quickly surge towards unlimited as standard, and enterprise customers are enthusiastic about the connectivity euphoria. There are of course companies who want to steal the profits from the telcos, but the opportunity is still there.