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Douglas said the Athletic differs from older digital media companies in that it comes from “A completely different era of the development of the internet. It is not about advertising or sponsorship and it is entirely about the quality rather than quantity of content, and building a niche audience rather than thinking about scale." 

He added that success will depend on sports fans making The Athletic core to their daily football news habit. “I don’t think yet that the UK launch has been a proven success, because it takes time, but they are getting quite significant support.”

Claire Enders was quoted in the Financial Times on New BBC chief will inherit broadcaster under attack on all fronts. Claire said “The next three years will be the most extraordinary period for the BBC to navigate, there’s no doubt about that."

James Barford was quoted in The Times on Huawexit? Ministers weigh Trump’s threats against 5G. James said “Huawei is a major provider of equipment in Openreach’s full-fibre roll-out. You can’t roll out full fibre quickly if you are having to take Huawei kit out.”

Joseph Evans was quoted in the Financial Times on Facebook shares hit record high, surpassing 2018 peak. Joseph said "The thing about Facebook is they just have an unbeatable ad product, there isn’t really anywhere quite like them . . . Whatever public or political sentiment says, that commercial reality is going to take them very far.” 

He added that “There is that sense of GDPR that maybe the transformative change that people were worried about didn’t really materialise."

"They are going to come under more pressure as the election ramps up. There is still risk there. I still think they are not taking on the full costs of all the problems associated with the platform, in terms of harmful or illegal content.”

Tom Harrington was quoted in the Financial Times on Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman show off Quibi at CES. Tom said “Quibi seems to face all the challenges that the other streaming services face: trying to create a sustainable model. The other major obstacle is that its direct competitor, YouTube, has an endless mass of content, the stickiness of experience and the quality of recommendation engine that it is almost impossible to compete with. Plus it’s free.”

Tom Harrington was quoted in the Financial Times on Netflix regional numbers reveal challenge of overseas streaming. Tom argues that while free trial offers were the entrance point for most subscribers to Netflix, the streaming service is finding it harder to convert users into paying customers. This is proving true not just for the US, but in some international markets where Netflix is relatively more expensive because of the lower cost of living. In a paper released on Monday,Tom noted increasing free-trial abuse — where one person signs up to multiple offers with different email addresses — had prompted a rethink. Netflix has ended free trial offers across much of Latin America, and India early this year, and had since extended the policy to parts of Europe and Canada. 

Tom Harrington was quoted in The Times on Sky dashes hopes for BritBox deal. Tom said a failure to secure a deal with Sky would be “very damaging” to the new service. “[If you are BritBox], these are the subscribers that you want to get because these are the people that pay for TV. If you are not on Sky, you are marginalised. BritBox doesn’t make a lot of sense for Sky because it is not in the business of promoting nascent services and making them big."