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.

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."