Some market-watchers are not convinced Paramount+ has a D2C future outside the U.S. “Internationally, Paramount+ does not have necessary scale to grow profitably, and the merger with Skydance does not change that,” said Enders Analysis’ Senior Media and Telecoms Analyst, Francois Godard. “The new owners need to think hard about the only viable option: going back to a wholesale model under which they sell their content to third party platforms and give up retailing directly to consumers.”

Some, like consultant François Godard of Enders Analysis, doubt it. "Paramount can certainly do better on the technological front, but that's not the heart of the problem," he believes. "The real problem is that too many players have started to do distribution by launching their streaming platform, while only two or three can survive." According to him, David Ellison will have to "get rid of distribution" and sell. Or find alliances for Paramount+. "The streaming part can perhaps work, but not alone, it will be necessary to merge the service with another or at worst include it in bundled offers," he concedes. Jeff Shell has precisely indicated to the "FT" that Paramount+ would consider partnerships with other streaming services and potential "bundles" (grouped offers) to reduce costs and unsubscribers.

Enders analysis’ Francois Godard, meanwhile, says that while socialists are way more “receptive” to the importance of cultural institutions and policies than the far right, the current economic standing of France requires some savings which may impact culture. “Just like the German coalition announced it would reduce its spendings, the leftist bloc in France will not be spared from having to make similar efforts” says the analyst, adding that the perspectives for culture “could have been much worse” with the National Rally which would have attempted to slash budgets allocated to culture to bolster their profile among far right voters. Godard says the political turmoils and fragmented national assembly may grip foreign investments in France. “There’s nothing worst than uncertainty for investors, so it will be more difficult for those who want to borrow money and enter the stock market,” he says.

Claire Holubowskyj of Enders Analysis calls Amazon’s response “highly defensive” and says its rivals’ performances have shown that the basis of the company’s success – offering fast shipping and peace of mind – may be fragile. “Their entire retail business is built on Prime [being] the best way to get something to you. And what Temu and Shein have proved is that, actually, people will buy the cheapest things from a site that they don’t necessarily, initially at least, trust very much. They don’t mind if it takes two weeks to arrive. But they’re still going to buy it because of that price. That will be the threatening aspect because of where it could go. “Amazon’s model for so long has been ‘if you want something we are the first place to come and the best place to come’. And that’s being put under a bit of pressure by people wanting to go elsewhere for the really cheap goods.”

Tom Harrington, the head of television at Enders Analysis, however, is sceptical about this argument. “No one is truly underserved by the UK market. Streaming means that almost everything that has ever been made is already available somewhere.” He says the catalogues of some free, ad-supported services have to compete with public service broadcasters such as ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC, who make content specifically for UK viewers. The UK broadcaster content is “original, more sought after and more relevant for the UK audience”, he adds.

François Godard, the senior media expert at Enders Analysis, said Arcom had “literally hundreds” of people checking how many minutes each politician was accorded. However, he said, the regulator was “less well equipped to come to a macro view on whether the whole ideological coverage, and the pluralism of a channel, is balanced.”

“Investors don’t like uncertainty, and even if the far right doesn’t win the majority, it will be a weak coalition government,” French media analyst Francois Godard tells Variety. In the near future, probably very little. Echoing how it has approached most areas of policymaking (quite possibly so the Conservatives can implode by themselves without risking putting their necks on the line), the Labour Pary, led by Keir Starmer, has said very little about its plans. As Claire Enders of Enders Analysis notes, “we currently don’t know” who might be taking over as secretary of state for culture, media and sport, with current shadow minister Thangam Debbonaire not certain to win her seat in the city of Bristol thanks to a surge in support for the local left-wing Green Party candidate. “Ideas of privatization are from the right-wing playbook, so you can see them cropping up in France, in the Netherlands and everywhere where there’s an extreme right-wing politician,” says Enders.

"While BT's current 32% of spectrum won't change and is reasonable in a three-player market, they might argue that they are short of lower-band spectrum (important for coverage) and 5G spectrum (important for capacity)," said Karen Egan, the head of telecoms for Enders Analysis, in a LinkedIn post today.

Dugmore’s prognosis is one with which Abi Watson, senior media analyst at Enders Analysis, agrees. “Resonating with young people is not about having this patronising view that Gen Z and young millennials want their news to be overly simple and dumbed down in order for it to appeal to them,” she tells City A.M. “Far more important is that it is in the format and tone that works well on the platforms it’s posted.” “It’s obviously not just young people that get a lot of their news from videos social media, but they are always the first adaptors of new technology,” says Enders’s Watson. “Outlets’ reach is gained from platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which helps build awareness of the brand, and that can help inculcate a more committed following and native browsing.”

“Disney’s parks, cruises, theatre shows and merchandise is 30-40 per cent of revenue and a big majority of profits,” says Tom Harrington of industry experts Enders Analysis. Although Netflix is some way behind them, Disney, he says, “is the obvious North Star when it comes to creating entire worlds around IP creations and characters”. “In the US the company’s growth is now driven by getting existing subscribers to pay more – or getting freeloading users to pay for the first time – which will inevitably reach a ceiling,” explains Harrington. “Netflix needs to start building complementary businesses if it wants to keep an upward trajectory. These include gaming and advertising but also growing merchandising and experiences which if executed should only intensify fandom of its bigger brands and increase engagement.”