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After several years of preparation Sky’s AdSmart launched in August and is on schedule to be offered to all advertisers in January/February 2014 after beta trials involving some 50 advertisers in the second half of 2013 AdSmart is all about addressable and low waste targeted segmentation on the Sky pay-TV satellite platform, which for the first time in UK TV history allows national channels to offer highly localised, targeted advertising AdSmart promises to grow significantly the TV advertising ecosystem, though success in realising the full revenue potential of AdSmart, possibly in the order of several hundred million pounds per annum, will depend on Sky’s ability to handle various challenges on the way, with regional press and direct mail most at risk

TalkTalk maintained recent momentum despite increased competition in the quarter, delivering 5k broadband net adds and 167k pay TV net adds, although increased churn required higher marketing spend to achieve this

TalkTalk restructured its pricing towards the end of the quarter, increasing certain prices, introducing a lower cost broadband option and bringing pay TV to its (now) mid-tier plan; the net impact appears as if it will be positive

TalkTalk is fairly well insulated from the ongoing BT/Sky battle, with little enthusiasm for sports content within its base, and pricing that is already very competitive, but extra marketing costs may still weigh going forward

Vodafone Europe’s revenue growth declined again, as it underperformed a weak market, with pricing pressures still suppressing growth despite recovering macroeconomic conditions

Project Spring is a limited step in the right direction, with European mobile network investment only £3bn out of the £7bn total, but the potential network outcome – 4G coverage better than 2G is now – is impressive

Improving regulatory and economic conditions will give a limited boost in the short term, and the network investment will take years not months to pay off, leaving a long wait before sustainable improvement is seen

Following its return to revenue growth, France’s sole cable operator has merged with its B2B sister Completel and was floated on the Paris Bourse on 8 November

Numericable wants to cling to the momentum behind the European cable sector – but, due to its limited scale in a mature market, it has lower growth potential than its peers

Guidance given to investors for modest revenue and profit increases is credible, but Numericable faces the strategic challenge of Orange’s fibre upgrade which, in our view, calls for a partnership with a bigger altnet

The Vivendi empire is shrinking in revenues, cash flow and also in debt: Activision Blizzard and Maroc Télécom were sold in 2013, SFR will be spun off

We expect SFR’s topline revenue decline to halt in H1 2014, ending the pain from the disruptive launch of Free Mobile in 2012. With SFR and Bouygues Telecom intending to conclude a network-sharing agreement outside urban areas by the end of 2013, SFR should have a more positive story to tell investors when it comes to the Paris stock market in late 2014

With SFR spun off, Vivendi 3.0 will own just Canal+, Universal Music Group (UMG) and GVT (telecoms operator in Brazil), three companies without visible synergies. The end point appears to be the full dissolution of the Vivendi conglomerate

BT has doubled the price of the live ECL/EEL rights to £900m in order to outbid Sky and ITV and become the sole owner from 2015/16 to 2017/18 BT can easily absorb these extra costs through cost savings in other parts of its business, but the direct revenue returns through subscription charges and advertising on BT Sport are expected to fall far below the annual rights payments of £300m BT’s Euro victory is not a game changer in itself, but eyes are now firmly fixed on the next auction in about 18 months time of live PL rights, which could prove to be an inflationary bloodbath for all market participants