“Increased regulatory pressure could be behind this new publisher push,” said Niamh Burns, senior research analyst in tech and media at Enders Analysis. “From TikTok’s perspective, it helps to have fact-checked, informative news publisher content on TikTok to counter any narrative around disinformation or platform bias.”

But as she pointed out, publishers don’t make money on TikTok, at least not yet. “Until this improves it’ll remain an arms-length relationship for a lot of publishers,” Burns added. “TikTok isn’t a referral channel, and publishers need to balance getting their brand in front of young people with the risk of getting lost in the content mix.”

This was mainly driven by rising interest costs, which account for more than 100pc of alt-nets’ turnover on average, according to figures from Enders Analysis.

Enders said the tie-up could help CityFibre win market share from BT and Virgin Media O2 but warned there were limited wholesale prospects for smaller alt-nets.

The amount of money raised so far this year is barely enough to cover losses and interest charges – let alone to fund continued network expansion, Enders said.

“There is the question about how much publishers are using these tools themselves,” said Niamh Burns, senior research analyst at Enders Analysis. “I think the amount of deployment is low, there is a lot of experimenting out there, but I could see a world where publishers will use some of these tools a lot. However, publishers must be realistic about the scale of efficiencies and revenue generation opportunities.”

Burns said that so far the willingness of publishers to use AI tools that directly impact or create editorial content related to how commercially pressured the media environment was for that operator.

“I do think that those media companies that are most commercially at risk in the near term are also at risk of overdoing it,” said Burns.

“A lot of that is to do with commercial models. If you rely on advertising from lots of traffic on social platforms and all you need is scale, not necessarily quality, then AI could be seen to really help.

“Their track record of creating programming that cuts through has been underwhelming. They have spent a lot of money and made a lot of shows that haven’t really entered the public consciousness,” says Tom Harrington, head of TV at the Enders Analysis consultancy. “And they have a big subscriber base, a lot of people who have access to it, but you can count on one hand the shows which have really cut through.”

“No one knows what Max is, no one really understands the HBO brand,” says Harrington. “They kind of like the shows when they’re on Sky, but they’re not enormous shows outside Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon.”

Tom Harrington, head of television at Enders Analysis, says there would be “obvious advantages” for consumers.

“If you add all the tech spend of the PSBs together, it’s still insignificant compared with Netflix or Amazon, who set the perception of what a streaming service should be,” he says.

“Divided up and doing their own thing it’s going to be even worse, so combined they could pull together something half-decent that would work.”

“I think print will outlast me and you,” she says. “If you look at your Enders Analysis or whatever they’ll tell you the same thing.”

Advertising revenue is expected to stabilise in 2024, which an Enders Analysis report said will provide a more stable planning base.

“Recent volatility has tested the broadcaster’s flexibility and proactiveness, above its competitors who are more insulated,” wrote analysts at Enders.

Enders pointed out other issues for Channel 4, including a “quantifiable drop” in the relative success of programming compared to pre-Covid-19 and a continued loss of broadcast viewing share among 16-34-year-olds.

“The worry for Character.ai is the things it is doing can easily be replicated by big tech firms with financial firepower and huge global reach,” said Jamie MacEwan, an analyst at Enders Analysis. “Those star founders were its biggest selling point in the industry, I’m not sure if without them it can pretend to hold on to a technological edge.”

“The DPC’s decision when announced could heap political pressure on TikTok,” said Jamie MacEwan, a senior research analyst at Enders Analysis, a London-based research firm.

Measures could include requiring further commitments from TikTok to open European data centers for storing its user data locally.

Still, “unless there are any truly explosive revelations, tensions will be resolved along technical lines rather than through calls for a ban,” he said.

“The volume of true crime surely asks for that,” says Tom Harrington, Head of Television at Enders Analysis. “With the coming of the streamers, every crime that’s happened has a documentary now and it’s sort of like… I guess you have to stand out.”