Douglas McCabe was quoted in an article on Trinity Mirror, which plans to change its name to Reach after its acquisition of the Express and Star newspapers, also revealed that Simon Fox, its chief executive, received a 19 per cent increase in his total remuneration package last year to £893,000. This was despite a 19 per cent drop in the company’s share price in the past 12 months. Like many print media companies, Trinity Mirror is struggling to find a workable business model at a time when print circulation is declining and advertising revenues are gravitating online. However, Mr Fox said that the company had delivered structural cost savings of £20 million in the year, £5 million ahead of the initial £15 million target set for the year. For 2018, it has targeted a further £15 million. Douglas said that the company’s profits had been resilient. He said “Consolidation is the best game in town in these circumstances. With revenue going to Google and Facebook, the greater scale you can bring to the marketplace, the better”, adding that Mr Fox had “a great track of pushing savings through”.

Claire Enders was quoted in an article on Sky, the group founded by Rupert Murdoch, that is now at the centre of a flurry of deals by companies trying to keep up with Netflix and Amazon. Sky has grown from a risky bet that nearly went bust in its first year of operation into a pan-European media powerhouse at the centre of a bidding war and of an industry facing an identity crisis. Claire said “Sky is an extraordinary success story”, pointing to its record of increasing revenue at 5 per cent a quarter. She added that the company has withstood competitors: the likes of ITV Digital, BT and, more recently, Netflix have all threatened to damage Sky, but have not yet dented its growth. She said “in the years since Netflix launched its streaming in 2012 Sky’s record in terms of revenue growth is unbroken”.

James Barford was quoted in an article on the Premier League’s British broadcasting revenue which is set to fall after a huge jump for the previous rights deal. With five of seven packages sold for £4.46 billion, down from a total bill of £5.14 billion in 2015, the rivalry between the bidders Sky and BT has calmed. This year’s auction took place as the companies faced other crucial issues, with Sky preparing for a takeover and BT recovering from an accounting scandal while grappling with a £14 billion pensions deficit. For BT, the stakes were equally high. The company is so far paying about 8 per cent less for all its matches this time round, but could yet spend more by winning the remaining packages. The outcome of the auction for BT received a mixed response among analysts. James said “It’s a small saving [overall] but they’ve only got one package. They might end up paying a bit more”.

Claire Enders was quoted in an article on the Sky-Fox deal. The Competition and Markets Authority, the UK regulator scrutinising the latest deal, provisionally ruled on Tuesday that the offer by Mr Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox for shares it does not own in Sky would give him too much influence in the UK media market. Analysts, however, still expect the deal to be approved. This is because of the remedies outlined by the CMA, which include the sale or divestiture of Sky News and “firewall” remedies that would keep management and control of Sky News separate from the Murdoch family. Claire agrees, and said “the CMA has fashioned something that can easily be removed. It’s a flexible set of proposals”.

Claire Enders was quoted in an article on 21st Century Fox’ takeover of Sky, which will proceed as planned despite Disney’s bid. 21st Century Fox owns 39 per cent of Sky and has bid £11.7 billion for the remainder. The Competition and Markets Authority is scrutinising how the offer would affect media plurality and broadcasting standards. Opponents have argued that sexual harassment scandals at Fox News rendered the group unfit to own Sky. However, Claire said “the minister is no longer facing a whipped-up parliament making claims that the Murdochs will ‘Foxify’ Sky News”. Sky has warned that it could shut down its loss-making news channel if the watchdog blocked the takeover. Concerns have been raised about Disney’s long-term commitment to subsidising a loss-making news network given the US group’s prime focus on profit-making family entertainment. Claire added “Disney does not run vanity businesses. We can clearly see from the announcement that Disney is planning to take several billion dollars out of the combined costs. I presume one of the cost savings they will seek to effect over time is the elimination of the losses at Sky News and Sky Sports. I would have thought that in two years’ time, Sky News will be subject to pressure to reduce losses and cut its costs”.

Claire Enders was quoted in an article on BT, which is heading into a critical auction of UK Premier League rights. The British telecoms group’s chief executive Gavin Patterson, is already raising the prospect of losing BT’s rights to Premier League games. He said the group’s ambition was to retain its position as a “strong number two” behind Sky in pay-TV sports. Claire said “These two companies have bid to kill and — if not that — fatally wound each other, and this behaviour has been visible in every major auction since 2012 and continues to this day”.

Francois Godard was quoted in an article on Altice’s shares, which have almost halved in the past few weeks after poor third-quarter results were compounded by worries over its high levels of debt. In 2014, Altice acquired SFR, which still accounts for almost half of its revenues. This deal making has left Altice saddled with about €51bn of debt, much larger than the company’s €15bn market capitalisation and more than five times its earnings before interest, taxes, amortisation and depreciation. Investors want to see that Altice can manage the businesses that it has expensively assembled — particularly in France, its largest market. Francois said “besides sustaining network deployments, to turn around SFR, Altice needs to abandon short-term fixes, invest in its workforce and customer service and differentiate through valuable innovation — in other words the opposite of the model followed so far”.

Enders Analysis was quoted in an article on the expensive competition for entertainment content. In the past 12 months, Netflix has spent $8.5 billion on programming for its subscription video-on-demand service. With consumers increasingly watching movies and television via on-demand streaming, the Netflix subscription model is gaining on traditional models of advertising-funded viewing. As a result, Netflix and other streaming services have proved themselves nimbler and more willing to take risks than Hollywood studios. They also have several advantages over traditional television incumbents, not least the fact that in the UK they are not bound by regulations such as the 9pm watershed (only a quarter of Netflix’s original content would be allowed before the UK watershed). They also have such deep pockets that the team at Enders Analysis believes it is doubtful whether in a decade’s time Britain’s public service broadcasters will still be able to compete.

Claire Enders was quoted in an article on the change of viewing habits, as the increasing appeal of programmes available from streaming services is shaking up the world of television. For decades, the bosses at Hollywood studio giants, including Disney, had controlled the biggest stars and had signed the fattest pay cheques in the global entertainment business. Suddenly, it was upstarts such as Netflix and Amazon that seemed to be in charge, hiring the best talent, drawing hundreds of millions of subscribers to their booming internet streaming services and making the industry dance to their tune. With consumers increasingly choosing to watch movies and television shows via on-demand streaming, often on smartphone or tablet, traditional models of advertising-funded viewing are being hit hard, forcing the industry to come up with new strategies to compete. Claire believes that Netflix is trying to cut out the studios and that this is forcing many to consider defensive mergers and acquisitions. Everybody, she said, “is thinking about how to circle the wagons”.

Claire Enders was quoted in an article on the prospect of Mr Murdoch and his sons to sale 21st Century Fox prime film and television assets to Walt Disney. Claire said “you will not find the Murdochs selling a damn thing unless they are forced to — or humiliated politically. They’ve never been sellers and don’t need the money”. She added that James Murdoch was particularly personally invested in acquiring Sky, saying “he has spent 10 years trying to buy it. [James] has always been a one-track guy”. Six years ago, the family’s reputation took a knock from the phone-hacking scandal, which led to Rupert Murdoch apologising to MPs and the eventual withdrawal of its first Sky bid. Claire said “there are huge reputational advantages to James and the Murdochs of this [latest] deal clearing”.