“The hope is that agents are able to bring some real utility to users – to actually do things for them rather than just outputting polished text and sounding impressive,” said Niamh Burns, senior media analyst at Enders Analysis.

But Open AI has acknowledged that allowing an AI agent even limited reign over computer systems meant that “with this model there are more risks than with previous models”.

Burns, an independent analyst, said: “It’s easy to say the system will require your approval before making a purchase, but what goes into the process of that system finding the products? Would there be commercial deals where brands pay to be featured by assistants, or cases where they might feature their own products more than competitors?

“These AI companies are under growing pressure to monetise their products, so some version of ads or sponsored placement feels inevitable.”

Funding is always welcome but doesn’t last long as they burn through cash. CityFibre’s raising brings total investment in altnets to around £20bn since 2020, yet last year the sector was still in the red to the tune of more than £1bn, calculates Enders Analysis.

Spending continues even after the infrastructure is in place: customers have to be lured in and then connected. Enders Analysis reckons that altnets need an ebitda margin of 35 per cent or more in order to be cash flow positive, after taking account of outlays that don’t appear on the income statement, such as some customer acquisition costs.

“These figures sound like a very rough estimate of reach, the number of people who watched at least a game for a couple of minutes,” says Francois Godard, senior media analyst at the London-based Enders Analysis.

“But the billion width of (Infantino’s) estimate makes it difficult to take seriously. Anyway, the commercial value of the Club World Cup resides in the professionally and independently measured viewership in the richest markets, starting with the U.S., where advertising airtime is sold at the highest global prices.

“Everybody is equal, but to advertisers, one average U.S. viewer is worth a multiple of an average Latin American viewer.”

“The early indications are relatively positive,” says Godard. “We’re looking at good ratings of Club World Cup games on broadcasters like Mediaset in Spain and Italy and Sat.1 in Germany.

“Owning the browser itself is one way of securing the place of your search product, and all the benefits that go with that (including to your ads business),” said Niamh Burns, senior research analyst at Enders Analysis. “And the data advantages are huge when you have that kind of access to a user’s journey.”

Regarding the potential of such deals mushrooming across Europe, Francois Godard at Enders Analysis predicts that more will follow, especially in Germany where Prime Video already launched linear channels from broadcasters ARD and ZDF several years ago. Godard says Max will likely be the next streamer to form a deal with a local TV group.

As for the U.S., there’s even less chances of pacts between TV groups and streamers, says Godard, because there are “fundamental differences” between those two markerts. “European free-to-air channels are genuinely free and possess substantial audience power, unlike their American counterparts which are typically part of a paid cable package,” says Godard.

Karen Egan, head of telecoms at Enders Analysis said that CityFibre securing new funding was “absolutely central” to the future of the altnet sector.

She added it would give the company “the horsepower that they need to drive consolidation by acquiring smaller players in the sector and continue expanding their footprint”.

Claire Enders, founder of media and telecommunications research company Enders Analysis, said Rose "epitomizes the reasons women have increasingly succeeded to these roles."

"She's a peacemaker, she's very non-confrontational, very thoughtful, and she works very well in very large organizations," Enders added.

Moreover, Enders Analysis’ senior research analyst Claire Holubowskyj said she still believes Google’s promise of a new reporting line showing the impact of AI Max is little better than other black box reporting. 

“While useful to identify an impact, the ‘how’ and ‘why’ have always been the more interesting (and difficult to identify) insights,” she said.

In Holubowskyj’s view, Google is providing the base level of visibility necessary in AI Max to build trust in the system among marketers. “But part of widespread AI adoption will be trusting the outputs and ceding limited control in some areas — the key questions are which areas, and how much oversight is required?,” she continued.

“Consistency is incredibly important to investors and Ofcom has largely been consistent,” says Karen Egan, head of telecoms at Enders Analysis.

Openreach hosted internet service providers including Sky, TalkTalk and BT’s own retail units on its network, which comprised about 80 per cent of the market by 2016, according to Enders Analysis.

Others see it differently. Although the altnet drive had been crucial, the UK’s meteoric rollout is largely owed to Ofcom’s decision to guarantee Openreach its fair bet, argues Egan. 

“I just don’t think that you can [say] to your board and to your shareholders, ‘We’re rolling this out because the government’s kind of really leaning on us to do so,’” Egan says. “I think it was more about the fair bet from Ofcom.”

Tom Harrington, a broadcast expert at the research firm Enders Analysis, says of YouTubing: “You’re completely at the whims of a platform, an algorithm that can change any time. If you do well, you do very, very well. And if you do badly, you do very, very badly, and no one ever sees your content. There’s incredible risk being on that platform and having your entire existence on that platform.”

Harrington thinks that many presenters would prefer the old, risk-free broadcast system, where they would accept payments upfront for commissions, rather than YouTube’s “performance-based” model. He adds: “It’s kind of precarious even for someone like him.”