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It also “doesn’t deliver the measurable results that make it too important to boycott,” says Joseph Teasdale, head of tech at Enders Analysis. He doesn’t think the MrBeast experiment will change that. “We’ve been unable to figure out Musk’s rewarding of creators, with many saying they’ve been paid vast amounts and others almost nothing.

There’s very little transparency at Twitter. If Musk is smart he will cut a big cheque for this video – something he seems very keen to do.” But if he does, does that solve the transparency problem? “It’s only if the numbers are terrible that you can be sure they’re the real thing.”

“Our only hope is that Facebook reprioritises news.” Which is not much of a hope at all. Douglas McCabe, chief executive of Enders Analysis, calls the focus on social media and search for newspaper revenues a “flawed strategy” – and it’s hard not to agree.

Enders Analysis wrote in a note: “Despite recent reports that News UK wants to make TalkTV less reliant on Piers Morgan, its viewing is noticeably more concentrated around its star man and peak hours than GB News’.”

CVC’s proposition is that such a market also exists for rugby supporters and a broadcaster will be willing to pay a significant premium for exclusivity for a long-term period. According to Francois Godard, a media analyst at Enders Analysis, this will then create a symbiotic relationship between the broadcaster and the sport, in much the same way that Sky Sports has helped to propel the Premier League to its current stratospheric heights. “You need broadcasters to invest in the sport,” Godard said. “If you have a three-year contract then it is like having a three-year flat rental. Are you going to spend money on the apartment? No. If you have a 12-year contract then you are going to take a lot better care of it.”

For Alice Enders, head of research at Enders Analysis, these recent announcements were different to those in previous years.

She said: “The primary reasons for this round of cuts by Big Tech are strategic rather than cost-cutting. Google, for example, is reorienting its operations towards AI tools for advertisers and that requires a specific set of skills in its operations.

“And [it is] reducing or indeed eliminating non-strategic operations, such as resources occupied by the Voice Assistant or AR, which were all the rage a while ago. Amazon also cut its Voice Assistant investment, for example.”

However, Enders stressed it was not “the same driver” for job cuts in the case of every company.

More problematic was how few strings were attached to how the Premiership clubs spent their windfall. This directly influenced CVC’s subsequent moves into La Liga and Ligue 1 in Spain and France, according to Francois Godard, a media analyst at Enders Media.

“The mistake they made was not to control their spending,” Godard said. “They invested in these leagues but they did not have any commitments in contract terms on what the clubs could do with the liquidity. As a result, the clubs spend a lot on players as opposed to investing in their stadium, branding, infrastructure, digital services. As a result, the football clubs in France and Spain are committed to spending around 70 per cent of their liquidity on infrastructure.”