Yet viewing figures for last year, highlighted by Enders Analysis, showed that broadcasters’ reach and viewing fell, with average weekly reach on the TV set falling to 77% compared with 90% in 2019. By any standards, this is an alarming rate of decline over such a short period.

“You can see Snap is [now] applying the playbook that has worked so well for the bigger ad platforms [Meta and Google],” said Jamie MacEwan, senior analyst at Enders Analysis. “It is still far behind [the bigger platforms] on revenues and [average revenue per user], so there is room for decent growth in SMB advertiser numbers and revenues if it gets the execution right.”

James Barford, head of telecoms, Enders Analysis, put these results into context. He said, “We think that the highlight of CityFibre’s 2024 full year results announced today was confirmation of the company having broken even in EBITDA terms, the first of the altnets to do this. Most look like they will struggle to ever break even in EBITDA terms as stand-alone entities, let alone earn a decent return on investment, highlighting the need for consolidation.

“CityFibre is well placed to lead this in our view, but it may need to resolve its financing situation and fully onboard Sky as a wholesale customer before it can really get going. In the interim, we expect altnets’ roll-outs to continue to slow, with slowing customer net adds following, improving the environment for the broadband incumbent players.”

Researchers at Enders Analysis believe Starlink could address some 3.5% of the UK broadband market by 2027, equivalent to around 1 million subscribers. That’s not disastrous for the incumbents, but nor is it helpful in an industry with heavy investment requirements, and which has historically struggled to earn returns above its cost of capital. It’s also possible that future improvements in satellite technology could narrow the performance gap with fibre. The fact that Musk has a track record of sustaining heavy losses in search of market dominance should also worry rich-world incumbents.

Media analyst Claire Enders said Trump was “cowing all of corporate America . . . and has made no secret of his planned vendettas against any media reporting unfavourably on him and his policies”. 

“Payments by ABC News in 2024 and [possible payments by] CBS News now show how frightened corporate America is of the powers of this president and of his agenda,” Enders added.

“That is proof there’s room for Canal+ alongside the streamers,” says François Godard, analyst at Enders Analysis. The subscriber base has grown by a third since 2019 to 27mn, with a target to reach anywhere between 50mn and 100mn in the coming years, mainly through further international expansion through M&A. 

“Even without any explicit pressure, the political and moral reasons to avoid X have been lifted by key executives,” said Jamie MacEwan, senior research analyst at Enders Analysis. “X could claw back some of the enormous amount of ground it has lost.”

Douglas McCabe, the chief executive of Enders Analysis, says print media – including magazines, books and newspapers – will be hit hardest if WH Smith does not survive or is radically changed under a new owner.

“It’s easy to forget that for a lot of people, WH Smith is the place where they are going to pick up the one or two books they buy a year. Handing it over to the supermarkets is not ideal. What we see with newspapers and magazines, they are not disappearing entirely [from supermarket shelves] but they are retreating to smaller spaces in not the highest footfall areas.”

McCabe from Enders adds that a revamped WH Smith could play to greater interest in physical media among the younger generations, from books and magazine to CDs and vinyl records. “It is cool, partly as it is not the internet. It is not going to send you alerts, it is a separate space,” he says.

Levy, who has spent over two decades at Sky News in roles across production and journalism, is adamant that the traditional breaking and live product will – to the outside observer at least – remain at the forefront of Sky News’ offering. But, according to Bella Monckon, a research analyst at Enders Analysis, that doesn’t stop the overhaul from being one of the the most ambitious – and progressive – of any major news broadcaster in the UK in recent years.

“It’s really quite an active – as opposed to reactive – move from Sky,” she tells City AM. “There are other companies that have done it [abroad] – CNN in the US for example – but as a UK broadcaster they’re on the front foot.”

Bella Monkcom, at Enders Analysis, says: “People will pay for trusted news sources – they already do for many other organisations – especially if you target it as a premium product, as with much of Sky’s offering. You can really get people on board with that.”