Claire said “He has the money. He has huge amounts of political power. He has it all."

Tom said “Charging people for the licence fee is a lot easier if they think that they’re getting value, and they can only think they’re getting value if they’re watching the programmes. But will it attract the hardest-to-reach viewers? Probably not, because they’re watching a declining amount of linear TV.”

Francois said “We often talk about war in streaming, especially between Netflix and Disney, as if only one was going to remain. They are rivals but we can see that the two manage to grow. It's like TF1 and M6. And there is also room for other groups." 

Joseph said “[Tech companies] weren’t as far ahead as you might think with remote working before. They had that image, but expectations at these companies, particularly in head office, were the same as in other sectors – to be present in the office. The pandemic changed that, and unquestionably companies such as Facebook have embraced the change.”

He added “All the tech companies have gone on a back and forth journey regarding remote working. They are settling on the idea that it has worked better than hoped, but that fully distributed teams on a permanent basis isn’t an optimum situation."

Claire said “Part of the decline is, of course, Covid related . . . but the overall trend has been very well established."

Tom said “The biggest problem Disney has is also its biggest advantage — everyone knows its name and probably has a warm, fuzzy childhood feeling about it. But what are they going to do with American Horror Story? Is Twisty the Clown going to sully your memories of going to Disney World and meeting Mickey Mouse?”

He added “While streaming services like Spotify destroyed the album, streaming services like Netflix just reinforce the idea that what a TV show is, how long it is and the rhythm of it, have been optimised over 60 years. A few years ago Netflix was talking about using data to make TV shows. Now that’s completely turned around. They’ve hired people who know how to make television — the distribution method changed, but the people making it are the same people who always have.”

Alice said “[£10m] looks like a very small amount compared to where JPI came from — unfortunately that’s the value it came to in the end."

She added “All big regional players took a look at the portfolio and decided not to buy it."

Francois points out that the audience of 18 to 49-year-olds for sports channel ESPN fell 35 per cent over the past decade, while per-subscriber fees increased 130 per cent.