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As Jamie MacEwan, senior research analyst at Enders Analysis, explained: “The benefits like badges, icons, early access and customisation options are more akin to features we see on social apps in China or Japan than the paid tiers being rolled out by Western social platforms.”

“Given that subscriptions doubled in the last year, they could actually be responsible for about half of incremental revenue last quarter — that’s a great story, but one that will get harder to sustain over time,” added MacEwan.

“If you want to challenge Sky, you must put a lot of money on the table,” says Francois Godard, senior media and telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis.

“For the money Amazon spent, they will have been very happy,” says Godard. “If the same thing had been available, I’m sure they would’ve been interested again, but that package was not there.

“They came into the Premier League with a retailer’s mentality, wanting people there on the platform right at the time they would shop most, and then moved towards a broadcasters’ mentality, where you need to people to come back to your service.

“For that, weekly sport is ideal. Amazon were so happy with the Champions League in Italy and Germany that they switched to the UK. I never saw this as a vote against the Premier League, but it is so expensive.”

“LinkedIn has put a lot of effort into encouraging more frequent and interesting posting in a more social environment in the last five years, and if enough inventory was available then this kind of automated tool could help to attract advertisers who are unfamiliar with the platform,” said Jamie MacEwan, senior analyst at Enders Analysis.

“It’s been a mess for years,” said Alice Enders, director of research at Enders Analysis, a media and entertainment consultancy, noting that for all the problems, the Telegraph remains a profitable business. “But without an owner, the management cannot implement a strategy. For the staff, whose salaries and promotions are frozen, it’s an ongoing challenge.”

“The only reason he is the preferred bidder is because he offered so much more money than anyone else,” said Enders, noting that the reserve price was £500 million.

Enders Analysis analyst François Godard told Reuters that bumpy trading in Canal+ was expected until the company's narrative was fully grasped by investors.

"It (Canal+) is both incumbent and digital, profitable but not the way streamers are profitable, it is growing but not next year, it is expanding in Africa, which investors don't really understand," he said.