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The Bank of England predicts a mild decline of real household consumption growth to 2% in 2017, as higher inflation chews at disposable income

City forecasters are more circumspect on consumption growth, and we agree that households are likely to display more caution on expenditure relating to non-essentials

Retail sales, a bellwether for advertisers, look subdued in the New Year, and we maintain our forecast of flat advertising expenditure growth in 2017

TalkTalk had a weak quarter, as was pre-warned, with the decline in the broadband base accelerating and consumer revenue growth of -6% slightly worse than the previous quarter

Guidance was however very bullish, with the company confident that it can bounce back to return to positive net adds in the March quarter, while still hitting its profitability guidance

This looks a difficult task in a market which is still highly competitive, but if it can achieve it, the longer term aim of a stable customer base and growing revenue and profits looks much more plausible

Enterprise cloud computing democratises access to IT capacity ranging from specialised software to platforms to infrastructure, transforming cost structures in sectors like media and retail

Cloud enables unprecedented scalability of bandwidth for digital media services like Pokémon Go and Netflix, while also hosting the back-end for advertisers and retailers 

As the industry consolidates quickly, intense competition among Amazon, Microsoft and Google is delivering value to customers and boosting adoption

Ofcom’s 2016 Digital Day confirms a pronounced shift in media and communication habits of UK adults since 2014 towards mobile and online viewing of TV content.

Time spent on TV devices has proved robust in the digital transition thanks to internet platforms like Netflix and Amazon, along with older users’ attachment to linear TV.

The ascension of mobile at the expense of computer time is very marked due to changes in the home, and among the young, is driving multi-sourcing and multi-tasking.

Sky H1 2017 results are broadly in line with company guidance on revenues, costs and synergies given at the 2016 Investor Day 

The core focus since the formation of European Sky in November 2014 has been investment for growth in all sectors of the business (i.e. retail products, content offers and customer service), an approach that is beginning to bear fruit. Sky Italy had a notably “excellent” start to the year

Most eye-catching in the results release was the planned launch in fiscal 2018 of an IP alternative to Sky’s DTH service. That speaks volumes about the know-how Sky has accumulated over the last ten years in meeting customer demands and building customer relationships

BT had a solid enough quarter, with revenue and EBITDA growth dipping due to pre-warned temporary factors, consumer continuing to outgrow business, and very solid operating trends evident, especially in high speed broadband and mobile

This has of course been entirely overshadowed by the profit warning, with prospective weaknesses in UK public sector and international corporate of far more concern than the contained, albeit surprising, accounting irregularities in Italy

BT has a large share of revenue and a much smaller share of profit from corporate/government data network/IT services, which are erratic in nature and arguably in long term decline in their current form, and without major changes they will continue to be so