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Niamh Burns, senior research analyst at Enders Analysis, told The Media Leader that the latest Bellwether’s main media splits “encapsulate the theme that has characterised the last decade: online is growing (though modestly here) while everyone else is under pressure”.

She added: “This is a well-worn path for business as budgets are squeezed: a flight to direct-response channels, which offer more certainty in the short term.”

“If you can connect brands to a strong source of robust data and [sales] conversions, that could be powerful, but stitching it all together is very hard work,” says Jamie MacEwan, an analyst at Enders Analysis. “On paper, it looks simple. You have great customer data and you can see when sales complete, but the metrics and data aren’t easy to match up.”

“A streamer tax is never, never going to happen [in the U.K.], forget about it,” says Claire Enders, founder of media research group Enders Analysis. “Netflix invested $6 billion in U.K. production, they aren’t stealing anything, they are writing checks to good people.” With British public broadcasters under pressure from rising costs and budget constraints and commercial networks suffering from a chronically-weak ad market, she notes, “we are absolutely lucky to have Netflix, Disney+ and anyone else who wants to make shows here.”

“Europe isn’t moving, but the U.K. will acquiesce to all the demands of the Americans in the digital space,” says Enders

Even this option wouldn't be a perfect solution for the LFP, given the degradation of the "L1 product" since the Mediapro incident. Since then, viewership has declined and rights prices have plummeted. "L1 needs to rebuild its brand, and to do that, the option of broadcasting on free TV shouldn't be ruled out," says François Godard, an analyst at Enders Analysis. "At the current price, I'm convinced that TF1 could buy one match per week, or even ten matches per season. And the rest would remain on a paid service. This would be the real way to get out of the rut and rebuild the bond with the French people."

Karen Egan, of Enders Analysis, said: “There are certainly some opportunities for cross-selling Vodafone’s broadband product to Three’s 9.3m mobile subscribers, but broadband is a really tough market right now with very slim margins so they’ll be quite constrained in the level of incentive discounts they can offer.”