James said “If you are telling operators they can’t buy from the biggest telecoms manufacturer in the world, that will impact the price you pay and quality of the equipment you buy."

James said “This is hugely frustrating for the operators. It's a massive problem to have to start replacing that and undoubtedly across the operators, it is going to cause 5G coverage to be lower than it would be otherwise."

Tom said that broadcasters such as BBC, ITV and Channel 4 faced losing viewers unless they could restart production of premium dramas quickly. “The linear television offering is much weaker than this time last year and it’s going to get weaker. People are going to go to a different option.”

Tom said "At the moment, for any major production to get up and running it must have the guarantee of insurance, investment and the ability of producing within the COVID-19 protocols set up in respective territories, without a loss of quality. If one of these pillars falls the others are impossible and the production is untenable. The lack of access to U.S. talent — whether in front of or behind the camera, who wouldn't appear to be essential travelers — would have implications for productions where they are key personnel and on which investment is contingent."

Julian said “The current pandemic puts extra pressure on rights fees, because sports broadcasters have taken a financial hit with the recent freeze. TV audiences for the first matches back have been very high as a result of pent up demand, but this will soon calm down if we continue to return to normal, and, in a year’s time, there probably won’t be much advantage for broadcasters or rights holders."

He added “The next English Premier League auction is still many months away, but we weren’t expecting significant inflation for the domestic TV rights even before the pandemic. Most likely, Sky and BT will be more disciplined for domestic rights, while international growth will continue."

Tom said  “It doesn’t matter how pressing an issue is – as the ramifications and constraints become clear, people will tire of following it.”

“Subscribers will probably just watch something else from the library, none the wiser." As viewers become accustomed to watching streaming services, he added that “This should hand the likes of Netflix the momentum to take a bigger share of the available viewing pie.”

Claire said video was “particularly unsuited to the way that journalists actually look. Some of them did the most ridiculous turns." The experience was unprofitable as well as humiliating: ad revenue was thin on the ground and Facebook changed its algorithm, no longer rewarding video publishers. The heralded “pivot to video” has since become journalistic shorthand for doom.

She added that the purpose of Times Radio was thus “to have a replacement for Radio 4 at the ready when the revolution comes." 

Francois said, in a recent study, the subscriber portfolio of the leader across the Rhine has stagnated at just over 5 million for three years. Today, says the analyst, Sky does not really have any competition in Germany for these rights.

Joseph said "Facebook can weather a boycott by large companies better than any other media organisation out there, as so much of its revenue comes from smaller advertisers who are unlikely to band together to make political demands.However, right now, lots of those small advertisers are under pressure due to Covid-19 drying up their cashflow. So we could be seeing a perfect storm."

He added, "What I expect to see is Facebook trying to walk a tightrope: interpreting its existing guidelines slightly more strictly, erring more on the side of taking down hate speech, but without much in the way of explicit policy changes that could provoke punitive regulations or get Mark Zuckerberg dragged before another Senate Committee."