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James said “Strategically it’s about moving to broad convergence, EE as a single brand selling a bunch of different services.” It is a telecoms proposition that has not always been successful, notably with Orange’s attempt to move into banking, and several European telecoms’ stunted ventures into sports rights. But Barford said: “While the strategy has failed elsewhere, here it’s being done in an incremental and careful way.”

Karen said "EE’s expansion in consumer electronics was relatively low risk and that the new customer app could help EE to strip out costs from back-office operations such as call centres...They’re not betting the house on it, but it’s a sensible move in the right direction.”

Marshall is seen by analysts as one of the most credible owners of the Telegraph, alongside other bidders such as Lord Rothermere’s DMGT. Claire Enders, a media analyst, said this was in part because Marshall would be one of a “handful of media owners acceptable to the Conservative government”.

Griffin would give his bid “real US conservative firepower”, Enders said, adding: “Paul Marshall wants to influence wider culture.”

Alice Enders, director of research at media advisory firm Enders Analysis, said in a note this year that Spotify’s decision to “massively invest in podcasts” had “spectacularly failed to deliver the anticipated financial rewards to shareholders”. She said that, in general, “monetisation is extremely difficult” for large companies seeking to make serious revenues in podcasting because of shortcomings in the digital advertising market. One solution is to build paid-for subscription bases, but this is difficult when much content is free.

“What you’re seeing in the podcast area, which is basically a very fat head and a very thin tail and nothing in the middle, is what you already see in music,” said Enders. “Only the big-hitters make any money from it.”

Francois Godard, senior media and telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis, puts it another way: “European TV had it too good for too long.”

“We’ve seen a change of pace recently with ITVX and RTL+ in Germany,” Enders’ Godard. says “ITVX is releasing more content online before the linear channel. It is conceived as a destination rather than ITV Hub, which was catch up.”

As Europe’s commercial networks come to grips with streaming, they are also wrestling with shape of their wider businesses. Analysts expect consolidation of one form or the other to follow over the coming decades, as scale becomes ever more decisive. Enders’ Godard says it’s a “trial-and-error environment” right now but adds he would be “reassured” if the thinking was “more collective.”

“Microsoft has clearly missed the 2023 holiday marketing window given how long this approval process has taken,” Gareth Sutcliffe, senior games analyst at Enders Analysis, told IGN. “It’s going to be well into 2024 before we start to see the first signs of joint marketing and other combined initiatives with Activision franchises.”

“The replacement of senior leadership starting with CEO Bobby Kotick and Blizzard President Mike Ybarra is inevitable and long overdue,” Sutcliffe said. “It’s difficult to envisage much of the rest of the senior leadership at Activision remaining long term given their compensation was grossly out of proportion to Activision results, and which Microsoft would be wise to recalibrate quickly.”

Douglas McCabe, the chief executive of Enders Analysis, estimates the sunset on the traditional printed national newspaper model will potentially be around 2030.

McCabe, of Enders Analysis, says: “Newspapers still have tremendous influence, and are still originators of the news agenda. These assets do not come to market very often. The Telegraph represents an extraordinary and rare opportunity to buy influence that, if it wasn’t up for sale, money couldn’t buy.”