Claire described Ms Strong as “the shape of the future” for Sky, and said she had honed a methodical approach over the past three years running Comcast’s residential cable business, which has 33m users.

Francois said “The Olympics may be an opportunity to raise the profile of [Discovery Plus]. But they will need distribution deals with major pay-TV operators and telcos for sustained subscriber growth.”

Francois said “The point of the European super league project is to create a monopolist employer of players. Cost control is where they must take action.”

Douglas said "Mr Lynch’s plans were "perfectly good ideas", but would probably be less profitable than the margins Condé Nast’s magazines commanded in their 1990s heyday. “They’re not going to replace all that revenue by having clever ecommerce widgets or gift boxes" he said. 

"The big challenge for a number of publishers is that they are having to think about a world in which the amount of revenue that can be generated from being an important media brand . . . is probably just fundamentally worth less than it used to be" Douglas added.

Francois said “The Mediapro story tells us that leagues . . . have been greedy, and far too short term."

Francois said “We have reached the peak of sports rights." 

He added “All the leagues have been greedy. But the French league has been a bit more greedy, and a lot less lucky.”