Cable & Wireless annual results ending 31st March 2006

Although YouTube’s total viewing in the home is flat year on year, it continues to strengthen on the TV set: this is driven more by older users than a transfer of viewing from devices.

YouTube has become a clear destination service on the TV for younger audiences—who are more likely to go directly to the app and stay for longer—while older viewers tend to channel-surf before switching to YouTube.

TV growth appears to be stoking the communality of the service: YouTube’s co-viewing minutes overtake solo during prime time, mirroring traditional viewing behaviour associated with broadcasters and SVODs.

BT is buying TalkTalk as a buyer of last resort, given the chaos that would ensue with a disorderly shut down, and will face a regulatory clearance process that reflects this.

The acquisition will cost BT c.£400 million this financial year, and will be hard to
manage given the ongoing subscriber decline, with limited longer-term upside.
Damage limitation appears to be the main driver.

There is a limited impact on the rest of the market, with some opportunity to pick up
business, limited risk for CityFibre despite it supplying TalkTalk, but less choice for
some types of smaller broadband competitors.

With Paramount Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) closing today, attention will turn to the financial future of the combined entity

Its financial future comes down to three things: how much cash the business generates, what prior claims exist on that cash, and whether what remains can pay debt down faster than linear TV shrinks 

The bull case rests on linear decline attenuating, as $6bn of synergies and greater streaming scale lift earnings; otherwise cash generation alone is unlikely to deliver the headline deleveraging targets