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Location-based services (LBS) have long been credited as a key new mobile data application destined to generate substantial extra revenues for the mobile operators. A number of consumer-focused LBS have been now launched, and in this report we examine their progress and potential, drawing on our own experience and a number of consumer studies.

Does Freeview, the free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) service, represent a serious and growing threat to the pay-TV offerings from BSkyB, NTL and Telewest? This report presents the results of a survey we commissioned that strongly suggests that Freeview is starting to drain subscribers from pay-TV platforms.

Broadband took off in 2003 reaching 3.1 million cable and DSL connections at the end of the year. We anticipate a further massive shift to broadband in 2004, but mainly to the benefit of DSL suppliers. DSL has twice the geographic coverage of cable, and Tiscali's recently introduced 150k DSL service is undercutting NTL's own mid-band service in areas of overlap. This report examines the intense struggle for market share being waged by ISPs.

Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) is a fashionable topic and this report provides our assessment about whether the mass market potential in Europe matches the rhetoric of enthusiasts or the experience of the United States. In other words, does VoIP represent a fundamental threat to the continent's (and the UK's) incumbent telecoms operators, which still dominate the fixed telephony business? In our view, VoIP in Europe has quite a limited potential for consumers in general although business applications will expand significantly.

We expect the music publishing market to grow from $3.7 billion in 2003 to $5 billion in 2010. Performance, mobile phone ring tone and synchronisation revenues will be the most important drivers of growth in the near term, with legitimate downloads becoming significant in the medium-term (a big if given piracy, but one that we still are confident about). These will offset the expected decline in mechanical copyright revenues derived from physical sales of recorded music, as volumes continue to fall. There are however worrying signs that the standard mechanical copyright rates currently being applied (according to an expired agreement) may be reduced, which has the potential to negate the expected market growth.

A new menace hangs over the future of regional newspapers, an industry already suffering from declining display advertising and paid circulation. Starting with the NHS Electronic Recruitment Programme (ERP) launched this month, we expect the public sector will shift recruitment activity to its own sites, in the wider context of e-Government objectives to bring all services online by 2005.

Our first report on Mediaset, the Italian commercial TV empire controlled by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, covers the company's strong results for 2003 and prospects for 2004 and 2005. The company reports on 24th March 2003.

Fastweb is an interesting altnet break-out story from Milan, Italy. Fastweb has a two-tiered network composed of a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network and the more recent DSL network based on fully unbundled Telecom Italia lines. Taking advantage of Italy's relatively low prices for unbundled local loops, Fastweb is among the leading unbundlers in Europe, with Free based in France (Iliad [2004-02]). Fastweb anticipates passing 6 million households (25% of the total) by 2006 and 10 million by 2010.

Although the prospect of a successful Comcast bid for Disney has receded almost completely, we expect it to come back. The strategic imperative for Comcast to integrate with a leading content producer remains acute. It confronts a reinvigorated and very aggressive competitor in DirecTV. Satellite is rapidly draining high ARPU pay-TV subscribers from the cable companies. Increased expenditure on programming, services and marketing are the only responses possible to combat the erosion.