Francois said the markets make a bitter observation: consumption on fixed and mobile networks is soaring, but the incomes of operators are hopelessly stagnating, due to the fierce competition that reigns. "It is the consumer who wins."

And nothing seems to help. “Investors were betting on several catalysts: consolidation, 5G, fiber monetization… list Carlos Winzer, senior vice president at Moody's. For the moment, none has produced the desired effects. And the Stock Exchange does not have the patience to wait. The generous dividends paid by some operators to limit the damage are not enough."

Francois said "Soccer is a very solid business in absolute terms, in Europe there is no real competitor for it, and the quality of the spectacle is possibly as good as ever."

He added "Ten years from now there will be millions of fans willing to spend money on football, and there will be video services willing to spend billions to broadcast the games, and advertisers willing to stick their names on their jerseys. I'm not sure you can say the same of many other sectors of the entertainment."

Joseph said there is ample evidence of the financial benefits of charging commissions. In 2019, Google’s parent, Alphabet, drew an estimated 20 per cent of operating profits from Play, even though it was just 10 per cent of revenue. Apple bundles the App Store into “services”, a category that accounts for one-fifth of revenue, one-third of gross profit margin, and almost all margin growth.

Jamie said "YouTube still leads TikTok in overall time spent, including in the UK.YouTube's mass audience means it's getting more demographics that are comparatively light internet users... it's just reaching everyone who's online. The most-invested YouTube users probably "match or surpass" the engagement of TikTokers."

He added But "none of that's to say TikTok isn't a success." 

"TikTok was spending big to attract users, but they were not necessarily hanging around for long compared to other social media. Now we know that in the US and UK, TikTok has overhauled YouTube, and is reeling in Facebook... that's a huge seal of approval."

Alice said “It is a minority making a reasonable amount of money – ones that can command large audiences – and then there’s a very long tail."

She added "It definitely takes a while to build up scale and an audience. I think it probably works better for established writers from media outlets who have already built up a following with the security of having a large organisation as well as the salary before they transition across. It would be much harder to build up organically – it's not impossible, but definitely challenging."

"The journalists that have done well through Substack are really columnists, political journalists and opinion writers. Maybe there's a bit of a risk there that for a news organisation they lose talent – somebody who potentially will be able to leverage higher fees as a result. But media organisations have always competed with one another to retain big names and grow associated audiences. I think it's just another competitor."

Francois said “Springer is as much in search of growing its individual business as it is in search of business models and understanding of the digital economy. They must hope they can draw knowledge from [Politico] that they can draw to other parts of their business group.”

Soccer fans will be converted into online shopping enthusiasts, as is the case with all things Amazon. Amazon demonstrated savvy in getting the rights on the cheap, according to Francois Godard, an analyst at Enders Analysis, but it still needs to show it can exploit them to considerably expand its e-commerce business footprint.

Alice said “There is a lesson to be learned by Future’s success: there is still significant revenue to be driven by publishers."

“It is the death of the print magazine in that structurally there has been a consumption shift, but it is not the death of what a magazine is at its core, that’s content. The future is a diversified model and revenue mix, that is what Future has done strongly.”

Francois said “Amazon proved agile in buying the rights on the cheap, but it still has to demonstrate it can leverage them to significantly increase its e-commerce business footprint.”

Julian said it also showed how Sky, which has traditionally focused on sport, was pivoting its strategy to becoming an “aggregator”, offering viewers content from a range of sources.