James calculated that BT has lost up to £2bn on its foray into sport broadcasting, with annual losses in the region of £400m in the early days. 

Claire said “Should BT get the opportunity to make a profitable exit from a business they entered in 2012 that has absorbed 9 billion pounds ($12.6 billion) of rights costs, they should go for it."

Claire said “Should BT get the opportunity to make a profitable exit from a business they entered in 2012 that has absorbed 9 billion pounds ($12.6 billion) of rights costs, they should go for it. It is a structurally loss-making situation, given the current wholesaling arrangements.”

Joseph said "Some of these technological limitations have stunted how much money is in podcasting," adding podcasting is a platform on which ad tech has traditionally been very "primitive."

He added "That's where this trend of subscribing to podcasts comes from. Even if you have quite a small audience, if they're really engaged with your content, they might be willing to pay, you know, $5 a month to get bonus content and that can add up to real money very quickly."

Alice said “There’s a bit of differentiation between the large players and effectively the long tail of smaller groups or independents who have felt the effects of the pandemic differently. All players, but pretty much every local site bar a small number of exceptions, run digital advertising and so even though traffic went up – and in some cases went up kind of substantially – the flow-through of digital ad revenue was was not as strong as it would have been in pre-pandemic times.”

She added “In the tail it’s likely that there would be a greater reliance on SME advertising and that means that when those businesses were forced to close and when that marketing spend was poor they will have been more affected and less able to restructure costs, which is what the large groups have been able to do."

There were, however “no real winners last year. Every regional house had staff losses and huge costs… It was a pretty bad year for the industry as a whole.”

Tom said “Sky Arts is not quite parking its tanks on the BBC’s lawn, but the Beeb doesn’t want to concede ground on what has been a stronghold area. The Sky Arts move is about securing regulator support for its fight to be highly visible on electronic programme guides — it’s saying it’s better at public service than ITV. Arts programming is going to be one of the flagship genres for proving quality and value. As UK media companies fight off billion-dollar streamers, it is becoming their most valuable weapon.”

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.”