Tom called the proposal to privatise Channel 4 “potentially spiteful”, a move that ignored the role the broadcaster played in British public service broadcasting of nurturing new talent. “It is akin to altering an organ, with very little understanding what effect it will have on the rest of the body.”

Francois said “Every time Amazon increases its presence in a related field, it sends back the image of a machine that needs to be stopped, but it’s more of a political issue than a competition one."

He added “It is difficult to say that the development of Amazon Prime Video with sports and TV shows is anti-competitive in itself."

James said Vodafone was “taking quite a conservative approach” by choosing Samsung and NEC, “who are significant players globally but have struggled in Europe, as opposed to newer specialists such as Airspan."

Drahi’s intervention illustrates the issues at BT. The company was traditionally what James Barford, telecoms expert at the media analyst Enders, described as a “steady-as-you-go yield stock."

James said “With the pension fund, the legal documents, the contracts and due diligence you are talking a long period of time.”

James said “It's possible they looked at the UK and at other altnet investments, and came to the conclusion that BT was the one that was going to win.”

Tom said “Opening back up won’t affect the big streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Disney Plus anywhere near as much as smaller services that command lower engagement levels."

“Churn for Netflix will likely be returning to pre-Covid levels but it will still be lower than everyone else, except Amazon, which of course is pretty insulated from any of this due to free shipping. It will be somewhat harder for the likes of Starzplay, Britbox, Discovery+ and HayU to get new subscribers, but they are all still benefiting now from subscribers that wouldn’t have come on board in 2020 but for Covid."

Jamie said “Is there a gap in the market? Yes, a small one. No one has played with impartiality guidelines in TV news before. But in pure commercial terms it’s very tricky. If it hits its very ambitious targets, it will only just make a profit.”

Francois said “Football television rights depend directly on competition from broadcasters. However, we are far from the effervescence of a few years ago when there were new players, such as the arrival of beIN, competition from SFR or more recently Mediapro in France. Certainly, some have high hopes for platforms like Amazon or DAZN. But for now, Amazon has had a cautious strategy with no crazy spending and DAZN, while being aggressive in Italy, has remained on reasonable prices."

He added "However, they cannot necessarily pay more, at least in the short term, given the fact that the market is relatively mature and that they are subject to competition from SVoD. Football can be happy if prices stagnate!"

Francois said "Amazon had never acquired such large batches in other European countries."