Decades of Experience Helping Communications, Media and Entertainment Companies in Good Times and Bad
FTI is at the center of the converging communications, media and entertainment worlds. Since formation of our industry specialty practice in 1998, we have witnessed 2 boom-to-bust cycles, and the devastating impact— and enormous opportunity, of digital technologies and the Internet on the business models of traditional communications, media, and entertainment companies.
Ad driven revenue models of newspapers and television and radio broadcasting have been hard hit by the evolution of the economy, the spread of digital technology, and resulting changes in consumer behavior. Though they appear to be diverse businesses, communications network providers and entertainment content providers alike have been hit by the same forces.
FTI has helped CM&E companies create value for stakeholders and to prosper in every stage of our client companies' lifecycle.
Specialized Industry Expertise
FTI’s Communications, Media & Entertainment team is a group of more than 50 dedicated professionals who have worked on literally hundreds of consulting engagements for companies and their stakeholders in every stage of a company’s life cycle: From early-stage to maturity, sale, or reorganization, we provide a broad range of value added consulting services through-out the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Companies include newspapers, radio and television stations, publishers of all kinds, production companies, digital media companies, wireless and wireline carriers, data centers and technology companies.
We provide the right people, with the right skills, to determine the right solutions to maximize value for our clients. Our ranks include PhDs, MBAs, CPAs, IT and Technology professionals, as well as former CEOs, CFOs, CIOs and industry executives, principal investors, investment bankers, lenders, economists, and professionals with far reaching specialties.
Bringing together a unique, multidisciplinary approach, our team of professionals provides balanced and objective perspective to the critical issues facing our clients.
Thought Leaders
CM&E professionals provide forward thinking strategies for executives dealing with a changing commercial and technological environment. The Thought Leadership articles and white papers published by our professionals represent non biased, reasoned intellect applied to the most important issues confronting the industry. The research and articles are archived in our Resources Library.
We invite you to follow our links at left to learn about our point of view, our services, our industry segment expertise and our people.
The Right People, with the Right Expertise for the Times
For more than a decade FTI’s CM&E professionals have been helping companies cope with boom-and-bust cycles and disruptive change in technology and markets. Here are some examples of situations where we help:
After 1996, communications companies emerged from an era of relative stability to a rapid rise and fall: from the “if you build it, they will come” network build-outs, to the bursting of the technology bubble. Today they face a variety of opportunities as well as financial and operational challenges.
We have provided assistance to companies in every stage of development: from start-ups to multinationals in every sector of the CME sector.
Since the Internet bubble burst in 2000, ad-based media companies in both print and broadcast have experienced continued, gradual declines in revenue as well as subscribers / viewers / listeners.
Newspapers and Publishers of various kinds which have been experiencing revenue and subscribers/readership declines because of digital substitution and changing technology-induced consumer behavior have been suffering significant financial and operational stress.
Television and Radio broadcasters, which had enjoyed nearly a half a century of relative stability, have been challenged by MP3, TiVo and like devices, facing unprecedented competitive threats. Couple a decrease in CPM rates and the precipitous drop in the amount of ad spending beginning in late 2008 with the financial leverage made available to media companies from the pre-2008 capital markets, and potential debt service problems and loan covenant defaults became common.
Entertainment industry companies long insulated from economic downturns have witnessed fundamental changes in the ways of selling music, ups-and-downs in box office, declines in DVD and electronic game sales and new limitations in financing available from Wall Street. They also face new distribution models and partnership opportunities. In the midst of economic uncertainty many companies in the motion picture and television industry face unprecedented challenges while others, unique opportunities.