Tom said “In terms of advertising, there is a lot of pressure from the online space, so television has to be more flexible. There is an increasing emphasis on sponsorship of programmes, product placement and funding the programme itself. This is content part-funded by an advertiser but the rules will not allow it to look like an ad. They can’t have the screen covered in M&S logos.”

Claire said “Piracy has existed for a long while — digital piracy at least 10 years — and in many forms. [But] there has been a generational decline in legitimate sports subscriptions in the under-35s. That is caused a little bit by piracy but mostly by the attractions of so many other attractive smartphone options.”

Francois said “They want the security of their clubs playing every year."

Francois said “It’s not just that they would make more money in this arrangement, it’s also that it would be much more predictable. Investors like this very much, especially American investors used to American clubs.”

Francois said "For the competition to be interesting for a sufficiently large audience of viewers, there should be teams in at least the five major football countries in Europe."

Julian said the breakaway saga of the last week had thrown "even more uncertainty into the broadcasting landscape."

"The uncertainty generated by the suggestion of the ESL breakaway has caused broadcasters to be a little more concerned about the prospects of a healthy football ecosystem," he told Telegraph Sport. "So for the upcoming Premier League rights auction, in particular, I think the broadcasters are going to be slightly more cautious than they would have been otherwise had this not happened."

That caution, he says, is most likely to manifest in seeking reassurances, rather than in negotiating prices down. "It probably doesn't do too much to further devalue any values so long as they can be sure of what they are getting," 

Tom said  “More people came on board as there was nothing else to do. Churn – people dropping their subscription – is usually between 5-7 per cent but that went way down. People who were on the fence about Netflix came forward, so in effect the new subscribers they would normally expect this year came on board early. Having said that, it doesn’t mean there aren’t risks Netflix faces.”

He added “TV at the upper end is moving in the direction of cinema. There are so many shows people can’t watch them all. Netflix has 200 million subs which means time, say, three people they can push shows to 600 million. But the new Star Wars show… people will seek that out. Disney is launching Star Wars spin offs. Amazon has Lord of the Rings. Netflix needs IP.”

Julian said We don't really think it's a sound strategy to pursue. It's mainly because of the enormous amounts of money that the clubs already get from broadcast partners — logistically, it would be a lot more difficult, because every club would need to have their own streaming service. Live television is an expensive business."

Francois said he could not see the clubs being expelled from domestic leagues because it would “hurt everybody” involved.

He added “We are in a hypothetical scenario of these clubs being expelled – I can’t see this happening because it will hurt everybody. But if this were to happen of course the broadcasters would come and say ‘we will pay less, you changed the product so we want to review the price."

“I don’t see how this new league would increase the pot, so at best you would capture money that’s going to the Champions League and possibly there would be a transfer of spending by broadcasters from a national leagues to this new league.”

Francois said  Several of the Super League’s founders have American owners, who look at the European system and say, “Why this insecurity? In America we don’t have that."