European IT – Product Lifecycle and Release Definition

1. European IT – Product Lifecycle and Release Definition Concepts across E1, Atlas and Siebel

2. The Product Lifecycle From Cinema To Home Entertainment • Fox releases a film cinema-wide • DVD / BluRay (home entertainment) released circa 6 months after theatrical release

3. The Product Lifecycle Lifecycle Defined • What does product ‘lifecycle’ refer to? • Time period [in months] allocated to a physical product (DV/BD) • Period split into stages (FNR/FTP/catalogue) • Metrics / key business functions are set and measured against these stages

4. The Product Lifecycle …Lifecycle Defined – Key Business Functions: • Physical DV / BD production • Marketing activity • Forecasting • Orders • Sales • Re-promotions • Retail [group] promotions • Financial reporting • Budgeting • Lifecycle is key to concept of forecasting / managing entertainment products • Home entertainment products have a full reporting lifecycle

5. The Product Lifecycle Fox Lifecycle & Key Business Areas: • Forecasting • Budgeting • Sales tracking • Returns • Marketing • Accounting • Financial reporting …all essential functions for Fox

6. The Product Lifecycle Lifecycle By Area • Product Manufacturing • - Plan manufacture schedule • - Estimating unit quantities (by period – FNR/FTP) • Sales tracking • - Sales preparation • - Maximising sales revenue based on known lifecycle features • - Bottom-line sales forecasts / actual sales tagged to lifecycle periods, for – • Fox local and HO (e.g. IA3 lifecycle-based impact across whole group) • Newscorp Intl • - Sales patterns based on previous / competitive releases

7. The Product Lifecycle …Lifecycle By Area • Marketing • Release planning (FNR / FTP / catalogue stages) • Reporting on / predicting sales patterns • - Competing titles and Fox titles (e.g. release date [start of lifecycle] based on competing titles) • - Assessing marketing spend in the light of forecast sales (cut back / reallocate spend where forecast is poor over lifecycle) • Returns • - Predicting / allocating returns • - Providing logistical support to managing returns (managing by predicted volume)

8. The Product Lifecycle …Lifecycle By Area • Accounting • - Fiscal / financial year planned and managed alongside concept of lifecycle • - Financial reporting throughout the business • - Fits in with standard legal accounting obligations Lifecycle Stages • FNR – feature new release: first three months of new release lifecycle • FTP / FTC – first to promotion / catalogue – next nine months • Catalogue / back catalogue: from one to two years after FNR

9. Lifecycle Overview

10. The Release Concept What Is A Release? • A release is: • - A unique physical product or set of closely related physical products • … whose key attributes (including sales, orders, returns, etc) are viewed, reported on and managed in relation to a defined period

11. The Release Concept Release By System • Atlas • Release is the key concept in Atlas (and release ID is key to the core entity structure of Atlas) • Central MAP resource for all systems handling MAPs • Usage / function of Atlas differs between Siebel / non-Siebel territories (Siebel territories create releases sent to Atlas) • No concept of customer • Physical product attributes (SKU, channel, format, title) are secondary to release (whilst mandatory) • More focus on promotion / grouping of releases (Atlas pivotal to other systems in this respect, e.g. Siebel)

12. The Release Concept Release By System • E1 • Repository for all distributor / financial transactions at release level • Release exists as in Atlas • Can report / view release information by Atlas release ID • Can report / view based on Siebel concept of group customer, release as a sub-section • Can report on accounting groups / companies etc • Siebel • - Releases handled as a promotional concept (like Atlas) • Additionally, customer-based concept of release (unlike Atlas)

13. Release - Concept Across Systems

14. Product Lifecycle / Release Definition Any Questions?