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James Barford, head of telecoms research at Enders Analysis, also reckons Giffgaff may be going down the broadband avenue.

“For Giffgaff, the highest priority is probably to launch a broadband product to support the fixed network economics of its parent company VMO2,” he said.

“There has been a renewed push into ‘services beyond connectivity’ recently across a number of European telcos, although there have been many efforts at this over the years, and some of these are in reverse, such as Orange withdrawing from banking, and BT partially exiting from sports rights,” Barford explained.

Francois Godard, senior media analyst for Enders Analysis, believes that Sky will hold on to at least three of the five packages, but will be loath to lose one of its weekend slots and so could even try to have the maximum four.

“Sky could reduce costs by cutting down on one weekly slot, but we expect it to fight for four packages, consistent with its history of prioritising the prominence of its Premier League coverage,” said Godard, who added that Sky losing one TV slot out of the four it holds now would be a serious drawback.

“Sky may decide it does not want to take this risk,” he said. “This would be consistent with the company’s history of being ready to enter bidding wars if needed to keep its Premier League standing.”

“Without the Premier League, TNT Sports would likely lose its premium aura and need to cut its retail prices,” said Godard, who also views YouTube as a “long shot” while Apple has ruled itself out.

Douglas said “For obvious reasons, people will want to see inside the Telegraph accounts and its subscription model. That’s not the same as saying many fully loaded bids are inevitable.”

François said “My basic expectation is that there will be some room left for Dazn...The only possible speculative outsider I am keeping an eye on would be YouTube. Dazn won’t blow up the auction; they have been highly cautious not to push up prices in country-by-country deals. They are not crazy. From a Premier League perspective, if they can get a modest 5% increase in what they make as a headline figure, even if annually they receive less, that will be a good result.”

“While at an industry level, it isn’t practical to refuse to run ads for anything that might have a degree of harm, publishers should be urgently reviewing their moral compass when it comes to sensitive categories,” said Jamie MacEwan, senior media analyst at Enders Analysis.

“What matters is the state of the broadcaster market. However, competition is currently very weak. The billion goal is not achievable,” François Godard, consultant at Enders Analysis, recently told us. 

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.”