Alice Enders, head of research at Enders Analysis, told the BBC while streaming has become popular, "the physical format never went away, as vinyl truly shows". "In Japan, the CD+DVD is still far ahead of digital because merchandise is a key part of the j-pop live experience and establishing a history at home is the ultimate homage," she said. "HMV is not the only supplier benefitting from this resurgence of the hard copy, also seen in books."

Tom Harrington, head of TV at Enders Analysis, said: “This has been happening for a while – The Inbetweeners and Peaky Blinders both experienced it – but there are more and more shows poking through. Virality plays a factor in the recommendation algorithm, which means total engagement can accelerate very quickly.“Obviously, though, the audience has to want the show. Netflix is definitely getting better at licensing UK programming that’s in line with what its audience desires.” “Almost all the growth of engagement for Netflix in the UK is coming from older viewers, meaning its audience is heading in the direction of broadcast television’s,” said Harrington. “So we can predict even more old broadcast shows will become belated hits on Netflix.”

“Responsible platform operators should gear algorithms towards accuracy and broader perspective rather than sensationalism,” said Jamie MacEwan, senior research analyst at Enders Analysis. “Those standards should also be expected of professional media output. Without these precautions, there is always the risk that platforms and the media themselves become part of the story.”

ITV was said to be charging firms £500,000 for one 30-second slot during half-time of England games, and the cost of the advertising space alone is likely to have set Adidas back more than £5m, before Jude Bellingham, the Beetles and any ad agencies the firm worked with received a single pound. All of which, Gill Hind, director of TV at Enders Analysis, says, means a bumper payday for ITV. “Suffice to say that ITV has had a huge Euro 2024 revenue boost, up by about 25 per cent plus year on year,” she tells City A.M.

For specialists, the situation is very different from that experienced with Mediapro, which withdrew, leaving a lasting trauma in the French football. "Mediapro did not have the track record that DAZN has. In fact, its arrival is rather good news for French football because the LFP did not really have much choice. Creating its channel and starting from scratch was too risky!", judges François Godard. But the whole question is whether the streaming group will remain in the sports world for a long time. "The more countries it has, the more its value increases. I think Len Blavatnik's strategy is to reach a certain scale to sell it at some point: he can now go to Netflix or billionaires in the Middle East, to allow them to be directly a "big" player in the sector," believes François Godard. For the moment, however, no official information points in the direction of a sale. "Its shareholder is fully committed alongside DAZN for its long-term growth.

“It’s positive if CVC steps in here, although I haven’t seen the details,” said Francois Godard, senior media and telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis. “It shows they are committed as an investor.”

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.”