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Global Radio’s acquisition of GMG Radio has cemented its dominant position in the commercial radio sector, giving it a 51% share of revenues and a 47% share of listening.

If approved by the Competition Commission, the deal will allow Global to extend the Heart brand to the North of England and Scotland, helping to establish a stable listener base ahead of the digital switchover.

We believe there is scope for further consolidation, which is likely to focus around Planet Rock and Absolute Radio – two groups that are leading the way on digital platforms.

The broadcast and online success of the London Olympics and Paralympics, though never in doubt, was beyond expectations.

Despite the large growth in mobile devices and rise in social media, audience data underlined the importance of live viewing on the TV set in the living room.

Although commercial audiences (other than Channel 4) took a battering, the Olympics/Paralympics was a blip and unlikely to harm budgets across the full year or have significant knock-on consequences in 2013.

Lord Justice Leveson’s report to the Coalition Government is likely to recommend a new independent press regulator set up by an ‘enabling’ statute, in order to better protect individuals from press intrusion and maltreatment.

David Cameron and the Conservatives appear set to reject any use of statute, preferring to see the industry proposal for ‘contractual self-regulation’ implemented.

If a ‘Leveson Act’ is ever to be passed, it will have to be either a joint Liberal Democrat/Labour effort, or one undertaken by another Prime Minister after 2015.

A number of developments over the summer have, at least in theory, made the UK 4G mobile spectrum outlook a lot clearer: in July Ofcom issued its final policy statement regarding the 800MHz and 2.6GHz ‘4G’ auctions, in August it decided to allow Everything Everywhere (EE) to ‘refarm’ its 1800MHz spectrum for 4G use, and EE announced that it had sold 15MHz of its 1800MHz spectrum to H3G

The main short term implication is that EE will have clear short term advantage of being the only operator offering 4G (LTE) services for about 12 months from (roughly) the end of September 2012 to (roughly) the end of September 2013

The main uncertainty is legal action; O2 and/or Vodafone may appeal Ofcom’s decision to allow EE to refarm its 1800MHz spectrum, which would trigger EE to appeal the 4G spectrum auction rules, and give 4G in the UK an unhelpful delay

News Corporation’s Fox is to acquire a controlling stake in the Eredivisie Live pay-TV channel, which holds long-term rights to the top football league in The Netherlands.

The guarantees that Fox will give to the league imply that revenues will more than double over the twelve years from 2013-14. Although we see growth potential in the historically underdeveloped Dutch pay-TV market, this looks challenging.

Eredivisie Live operates in a wholesale market, making it very difficult to replicate the Sky platform model. The rationale for the deal appears instead to lie in an effort by Fox to opportunistically strengthen its global portfolio of sports channels.