Alice Enders appeared on BBC Radio 4 to discuss the upcoming Sky auction

James Barford appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss roaming after Brexit. He concluded that customers of larger operators travelling to big European countries are unlikely to be affected. There may be issues with smaller European countries if operators there play hardball and offer high wholesale rates to UK operators. In 2017 most of the UK operators made a big deal out of the introduction of free roaming, so customers might feel let down if this is reversed without good reason and the operators will not want to irritate them in this way.

Douglas McCabe was quoted in an article on the Telegraph Media Group’s 32% dip in operating profits which comes in face of declining print advertising. Nick Hugh, TMG’s Chief Executive since summer 2017, plans to reverse this decline by through registration. He aims to have 10m registered users and a target of 3m by the end of the 2018 fiscal year. Douglas stated that “At one level no one wants to embrace a big profit decline, but on the other hand it does reflect a strategic investment in journalism which looks sensible, as does the focus on membership and subscriptions.”

Claire Enders was quoted in an article on Gavin Patterson’s departure from BT. The Group abruptly pushed out Chief Executive Officer Gavin Patterson after the board and investors lost faith in his turnaround plan for the former phone monopoly. Patterson will step down later this year when a successor is in place, likely in the second half, BT said in a statement Friday. Mr Patterson’s position had been in question outside the boardroom since an Italian accounting scandal blew up 18 months ago, with the company then beset by profit warnings and record fines, and amid questions over its investment in sports and ability to deal with an unhappy national regulator. Claire joked that he might make a suitable candidate to replace Richard Scudamore as head of the Premier League given the amount of BT money he had spent on content rights. She said “No one has been more generous to football than Gavin Patterson”.

Douglas McCabe was quoted in an article on Jeff Bezos, whom after his success in taking The Washington Post global is rumoured to be looking at ways to add to his publishing portfolio. Under the Amazon founder’s direction, the Post has been transformed from a local newspaper fixated on Capitol Hill skulduggery to a national heavyweight with more than 1m digital subscribers. If the rumour mill is to be believed, the 54-year-old is eyeing further acquisitions in the publishing sphere. Douglas said “Amazon has a forensic attention to detail on getting the right service for consumers. Bezos has applied the same rationale to The Washington Post”. He added, “this industry spent 20 years teaching everyone in the world that news should be free. The truth is, readers are smarter than that. They know high-quality journalism is expensive to produce and they are willing to pay for it, but you have to ask them”.

Claire Enders was quoted in an article on Walt Disney, who has waded into the years-long dispute over Rupert Murdoch’s influence in UK media by offering to buy Sky News, attempting to ease political and regulatory fears that Fox’s acquisition of the television outlet would deepen the media mogul’s dominance in Britain. Claire said that Fox has presented two very credible options to the CMA. But she added that the regulator or Matt Hancock, the culture secretary, could look to extract a “third option” from the company which would involve Disney also committing to a governance and independence model. She said “It may be that this is not enough and the secretary of state may want to get his pound of flesh as well”.

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”.