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Moreover, Enders Analysis’ senior research analyst Claire Holubowskyj said she still believes Google’s promise of a new reporting line showing the impact of AI Max is little better than other black box reporting. 

“While useful to identify an impact, the ‘how’ and ‘why’ have always been the more interesting (and difficult to identify) insights,” she said.

In Holubowskyj’s view, Google is providing the base level of visibility necessary in AI Max to build trust in the system among marketers. “But part of widespread AI adoption will be trusting the outputs and ceding limited control in some areas — the key questions are which areas, and how much oversight is required?,” she continued.

“Consistency is incredibly important to investors and Ofcom has largely been consistent,” says Karen Egan, head of telecoms at Enders Analysis.

Openreach hosted internet service providers including Sky, TalkTalk and BT’s own retail units on its network, which comprised about 80 per cent of the market by 2016, according to Enders Analysis.

Others see it differently. Although the altnet drive had been crucial, the UK’s meteoric rollout is largely owed to Ofcom’s decision to guarantee Openreach its fair bet, argues Egan. 

“I just don’t think that you can [say] to your board and to your shareholders, ‘We’re rolling this out because the government’s kind of really leaning on us to do so,’” Egan says. “I think it was more about the fair bet from Ofcom.”

Tom Harrington, a broadcast expert at the research firm Enders Analysis, says of YouTubing: “You’re completely at the whims of a platform, an algorithm that can change any time. If you do well, you do very, very well. And if you do badly, you do very, very badly, and no one ever sees your content. There’s incredible risk being on that platform and having your entire existence on that platform.”

Harrington thinks that many presenters would prefer the old, risk-free broadcast system, where they would accept payments upfront for commissions, rather than YouTube’s “performance-based” model. He adds: “It’s kind of precarious even for someone like him.”

“It’s a generational shift — text is less important [to young people] than video and audio,” says Douglas McCabe, chief executive and director of publishing at Enders Analysis. 

Tech is also a problem for parents, says Douglas. “They are not modelling great reading habits because they’re always on their phones. They are also more likely to put kids on a device. There is a decline in parents reading to children.”

"This could attract new people who could then subscribe to the League's channel," explains François Godard, an analyst at Enders Analysis. "This would be a good thing for the League, which needs to reconnect with the population."