Jamie said TikTok “has huge usage in America but up until the coronavirus, a much younger demographic and so it wasn't seen as such an established entity, To me, that seems more relevant because ByteDance is actually an enormous entity that people in America and the UK aren't familiar with, they just see TikTok,” says McGowan Stuart. “Actually ByteDance owns Douyin and a suite of other products. There's much more scope for Mayer being involved in a global expansion of those sorts of things.”

He added that "Now it's a case of establishing themselves internationally and moving on from virality into something more sustainable,”

Jamie said “Yes, the coronavirus is a problem for a service whose use case is massively restricted now. It's selling point pre-launch was on-the-go consumption. But at the same time, there are more existential problems with Quibi as a whole.”

He added “The asocial nature of the app as a whole was a problem given the content is only consumable on a mobile device, and mobile is inherently social. If you look at TikTok, so much of its early growth and exposure and awareness of it came from repackaged TikTok videos on other social media platforms. That's very important for the growth of a burgeoning service.”

Douglas said Different titles reach their sustainability threshold at different volumes. Niche publications, especially, can thrive at smaller publishing companies. “It is easier for a tiny company to run a magazine at a small profit than it is within the framework of a corporate enterprise.” The previously independent Rock Sound was bought by the small publishing company Syon Media earlier this year. The only difference it’s made, says brand director Andy Biddulph, “is that there’s no bailout – we live and die by what we create and can monetise."

Tom said “We don’t know when it’s going to recover and we don’t know when people are going to be able to sit next to each other again. It’s not going to be like flicking a switch and people will just go out sit side by side in theatres and cinemas.”

He added “Cinemas are obviously going to take a massive hit from the pandemic but at the same time you’re going to have all these streaming services that are largely unaffected. Amazon is probably better off as a result of the coronavirus, elsewhere Netflix had an amazing quarter last quarter and the next is going to be even better. Basically the only place you can release a film right now is direct to the consumer digitally.”

Alice said “It’s a bleak picture, with news and magazine publishers facing the toughest conditions ever seen. Several years of structural decline have taken place in just a few weeks, and the trend shows no sign of slowing. As a result, all these businesses are at risk, at a bare minimum of being badly damaged, at worst of total collapse.”

Francois said “This is recognition for news publishers that the commercial model doesn’t really make sense. They have to go with a begging bowl. With print ads collapsing, which is probably their last remaining significant revenue stream, they have to make the move from commercial to non-profit.”

He added "Rich people will simply have the opportunity to keep it afloat tax-free,” 

“The reason for this generosity is simple: No government, left or right, wants to see Libération or L’Humanité dying under their watch. That’s why the firehose of subsidies never stopped.” 

Alice said "It's a very bad situation and we're talking about everyone in this ecosystem and those who are the most vulnerable are the local media."

She added that "The risk there is if that revenue collapses and they cannot sustain themselves, we could lose a very large number of journalists in this country."

Francois said “German Sky is the most dependent on soccer in the sense that football subscriptions seem to be much more important than the rest."

James said "This is not likely to be driven by the pursuit of revenue synergies as dis-synergies are more likely if the brands are merged."

"While fairly modest in the context of the companies’ size, this still looks right at the top end of reasonableness, and perhaps includes cost savings, which could have been achieved through cost-efficiency programs individually without the need for a merger. Nonetheless, a deal of the style reported is probably worth pursuing even for a portion of the synergies touted given the challenging fundamentals of the sector — in a very mature market, even tangential synergies are worth pursuing."

Karen said “The current situation we find ourselves in may have hastened the final decision… it makes Telefonica that much more keen to monetise its stake in o2  which it has been looking to do for some time and also shaken out the other would be suitors, such as Sky for o2 and Vodafone for virgin media. They are facing their own issues at the moment, they need to focus on cutting debt so they’re probably off the table."

She added “It’s not going to change the fact that BT’s full fibre network is going to be at least as capable as Virgin Media’s. Virgin Media, having enjoyed real network advantage over the last couple of decades, is really going to have to look to compete on a different basis going forward. What this does is diversify them, it allows them the potential to match some of the more innovative products BT has been able to launch converging fix and mobile.”