Given Brittin’s CV, Claire Enders, the founder of Enders Analysis, said it was a coup for the BBC and he would have the respect of government.

“It’s quite extraordinary to have someone of that stature who has no necessity whatsoever for status,” she said. “He’s a very thoughtful and calm person who would never have applied if he hadn’t considered this deeply. I think there is an element of real public-spiritedness.

“It is very brave for someone to step into that kind of 24/7 position.”

“I think we are extraordinarily fortunate to have attracted a person of that calibre to what is a national and global institution of enormous importance in a world at war,” says Claire Enders, the founder of research company Enders Analysis. “Success for him will not be about growth, but about strategy and strength, and making a difference by shaping the news available to all for the better, here and elsewhere; that is a very big task, particularly with the financial burdens of the BBC.”

The injection of commercial and tech sensibility would be timely for the BBC, according to Claire Enders, founder of research firm Enders Analysis and a British media veteran.

“He is level-headed and will choose his battles wisely,” she said. “Someone new will be more respected by the board than someone they’ve been kicking around for ages.”

Enders, the media analyst, sees Brittin’s tech wealth as a good thing for the BBC. “He’s also a businessman who doesn’t need to do this for the money. He’s doing it for the public good of our country,” she said. “It’s not a job for which people are going to thank you.”

“They have a history of disrupting high-price markets with a low-cost model, but they are barking up the wrong tree if they think that the UK broadband market is one of those high-price models,” said Karen Egan, head of telecoms at Enders Analysis. 

Egan added that even if Digi managed to acquire some of the — various — distressed fibre assets in the UK market for free, it would “struggle to make money in this environment.” 

If you look at Springer’s English-language portfolio, the properties sit at very different points on the spectrum of platform dependency, noted head of publishing at Enders Analysis Abi Watson. Business Insider depends on search and social for most of its traffic, and paywalls haven’t exactly helped (though it has built a strong subscriptions foundation): when visits dropped, so did revenue. Morning Brew is a direct hit, but mostly at the top of the funnel. Politico Pro serves a tiny slice of paying professionals, though it’s extremely valuable. Combined, the English-language portfolio is ad-dependent and double-exposed — to both traffic shifts and advertising swings, stressed Watson.

Here’s what Enders Analysis said in February after 2025 earnings were released: “VMO2 ended 2025 on a slowing note, with broadband still being hit by altnets and mobile impacted by negative publicity surrounding an October pricing change [see below].

Guidance for 2026 at 3-5% declines for proforma service revenue and EBITDA looks bleak, driven by current momentum and various built-in technical factors, including wholesale payments to nexfibre.

We are not convinced that the agreed nexfibre /Netomnia deal is in any sense a panacea for VMO2’s issues, but there are other green shoots that could help the company back to growth beyond 2026.”

While it is not clear how the Telegraph deal was funded, the media analyst firm Enders said that the split with KKR had left it with “cash to burn”.

“The media business was valued at €3.5 billion, debt-free, and with reportedly single-digit billions in cash,” ­Enders added.

Döpfner took cues on publishing from his surrogate father, the late George Weidenfeld, whom he described as “the opposite of cancel culture”. On the pages of his new venture, it seems likely that he will embrace a range of voices. Abi Watson, an analyst at Enders, noted the “trophy asset multiple” paid by Axel Springer: 14.7x the Telegraph’s EBITDA in 2024 – almost exactly the same as the Nikkei multiple. “The price reflects the fact that RedBird IMI overpaid in the first place, setting a floor that subsequent bidders have had to match.”

Still, eyebrows were raised at the price tag. Abi Watson and Laura Darcey of Enders Analysis described £575 million as a “trophy-asset multiple” for The Telegraph, which reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £39 million last year.