Alice said “The group has a systemic and intense business approach set to music by Zillah Byng-Thorne, a woman with a strong personality.  All avenues are explored, from e-commerce to advertising, including events, content syndication and the traditional activity of selling magazines."

Claire said Crozier would bring a great deal of experience to the BT boardroom. “He is an excellent strategist through challenges and change and a deft hand with regulators, government stakeholders and pension fund trustees."

Claire believes that Crozier and Jansen are cut from a similar cloth and should make a strong team.

“I think their management and personality styles are actually very similar and are along the same lines. They are very smooth, calm, process-driven. With only three years’ age difference I think they will get on very well. Adam has dealt with a panoply of stakeholders similar to BT – Ofcom, government, pension fund trustees – he has a lot of familiarity with complexity and is seasoned in terms of crises.”

James said "The traditional analogue landline signal is carried over copper - that's what it is. And so if you go to fibre, you have to do something else and [voice over internet protocol (VOIP)] is the obvious thing."

He added that customers should not notice a drop in quality compared with the PSTN system, "They should be at least as good, possibly better."

Douglas said booming ecommerce during the pandemic had spurred digital advertising, while revenue from print newspapers “has fallen dramatically over 10 years, so there’s not so much left to fall off”. “Investors are starting to think maybe there is something there . . . and you could not say that two years ago."

Joseph said the chasing pack had attracted new users during the pandemic, but he did not foresee Facebook “losing significant market share” any time soon. “Other businesses will have an element that is better than Facebook: TikTok has a killer young audience and Twitter’s ads are cheaper, but Facebook is an irresistible force and an immovable object has yet to appear in its path.”

Francois believes those savings are limited. He points out that in Spain, DAZN content is also available via "traditional linear channels".

"Look at the price of satellite channels today, it's no big savings, and online video is expensive because you need servers everywhere," he says.

This is a particular issue for sport because it is live and "everybody's watching at the same time", which increases the demand on the servers that are essential to relaying the live pictures into people's homes.

Francois assures that the Argentine star's departure "will not help" Barça and will help PSG, but believes that "the impact on the popularity of the leagues will be very small." Thus, he added that "marginally it can increase the interest by the Ligue 1, but the number one problem of this one is the lack of interesting competitors for the PSG."

 Finally, the French analyst appreciates a positive effect on Messi's departure, "this departure may force LaLiga to analyze its own collective problems, especially the weakness of the 18 youngest."

Karen described Vodafone’s decision as “inevitable”. She said the likely expectation was that rival operator Virgin Media O2, plus virtual network providers such as Tesco Mobile and Sky, would now follow suit on re-introducing roaming charges.