One year on from the launch of the latest generation of gaming consoles Microsoft and Sony remain locked in a high stakes struggle for dominance of the gaming industry, and longer term viability of the console category.

Sony’s PS4, which we estimate outsold Microsoft’s Xbox One 3:1 in Q3, looks certain to win this round in a return to form for Sony following the relative disappointment of the PS3. Microsoft, struggling from missteps early in the Xbox One cycle, may have left it too late to catch up.

The wider games market continues to shift to mobile and online gaming, as developers seek to exploit the vast installed base of connected devices. New console gaming experiences from Steam and Amazon may be the primary growth driver for controller-based gameplay.

The European mobile market had a rare quarter of solid improvement in Q3, with reported service revenue growth improving by over 2ppts to -4.7%, helped by a 1ppt improvement in regulated MTR cuts (which have now dropped to near zero) and a 1ppt improvement in underlying growth

The improvement appears largely driven by improved pricing trends, with the improvement in Italy particularly strong. However we feel that pricing is still in general in a fragile equilibrium, with the potential longer term structural improvements - consolidation and network focus - yet to be made

Consolidation has certainly progressed, but more in-market mobile deals need to be made, and while current levels of investment are encouraging, with accelerating data volume growth also encouraging, they will take some time to have an effect at the consumer level

In 2014 Canal+’s core premium French pay-TV business has continued to lose subscribers and swallowed a VAT increase. But this was offset by growth in FTA ad sales, in ARPU, in overseas subscriptions and by acquisitions. EBITDA has continued the decline which commenced in 2013

Eleven years ago Canal+ in France and Sky in Britain had the same household penetration, but since then a gap has opened up and now Canal+ lags behind at 21% compared to Sky’s 34%. The French platform suffers from its regulated focus on films and its neglect of hardware

A deep revision of Canal+’s model is needed, through building a library of scripted series and a revamp of the consumer proposition to differentiate on quality and user experience. Building on recent initiatives, mediocre IPTV services should be bypassed by OTT bundles on fibre, and the satellite offering upgraded

Underpinned by a legislative regime since the 1970s designed to prevent sex discrimination and unequal pay between men and women, the UK has enjoyed successive and ever bigger waves of young women gaining the education and skills to enter the work force as professionals, now standing at 5 million strong. The UK also boasts 1 million female-led companies and the digital age has greatly expanded the opportunity for entrepreneurship for women to be their own bosses.

The workplace inflicts a stiff ‘motherhood penalty’ that produces a yawning gender pay gap for women in their 40s and 50s as men more readily gain access to managerial and executive positions, radiating from there to board positions, where Lord Davies’ initiative for FTSE companies has led some to endorse the merit of a diversity of directors on boards.

On the whole, however, employers often overlook the potential to optimise talent management practices to accommodate maternity and support the work-life balance of employees, prevent sexism and unequal pay, and offer women an equality of opportunity to accede to top jobs. Companies that do so could be more likely to establish a lasting competitive advantage and the UK economy will gain too from releasing the talent and energy of women at work.

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A merger between BT and EE would create a converged operator directly serving around half of the UK adult population with fixed broadband, mobile or both services

We remain sceptical of the direct benefits of quad play and cross-selling, but we can see the benefits of merging the largest fixed and mobile operators under a single brand, and the long term strategic sense of owning both networks in case converged service offerings do become more important

The implications for other market participants are mixed, with benefits in the short term from the distraction of a large merger, and perhaps some regulatory concessions, but a longer term threat from the enlarged brand, and BT having a much enlarged customer base over which to spread content costs

In 2014 Canal+’s core premium French pay-TV business has continued to lose subscribers and swallowed a VAT increase. But this was offset by growth in FTA ad sales, in ARPU, in overseas subscriptions and by acquisitions. EBITDA has continued the decline which commenced in 2013

Eleven years ago Canal+ in France and Sky in Britain had the same household penetration, but since then a gap has opened up and now Canal+ lags behind at 21% compared to Sky’s 34%. The French platform suffers from its regulated focus on films and its neglect of hardware

A deep revision of Canal+’s model is needed, through building a library of scripted series, and a revamp of the consumer proposition to differentiate on quality and user experience. Building on recent initiatives, mediocre IPTV services should be bypassed by OTT bundles on fibre, and the satellite offering upgraded

The General Election in May 2015 looks to be one of the most unpredictable in living memory. A hung parliament seems the most likely outcome, but the likely government after May is still unclear. Whereas in previous elections there were at most three swings that mattered, between the Lib Dems, Labour and the Conservatives, in this one there are arguably 10 or 11. There has been a huge increase in complexity, which, along with the virtually neck-and-neck polls, is what makes the outcome so much harder to predict.

In this report, we describe the context of this election, analyse the prospects for each party, and illustrate three possible outcomes of the election, detailing what would be necessary for each of them to occur, and what sort of government each of them would lead to.

Ofcom released its third review of public service broadcasting on 15 December, focusing on "Public Service Content in a Connected Society". Enders Analysis assessed how online media services contributed to the provision of public service content over the course of the review period (2008-2013). This report represents a summary and key themes of our findings.

Relevant media content is now available over the internet from a huge number of sources. As well as affecting how media content is distributed and consumed, the internet is changing the nature of content available and funding models.

In a few genres, the internet is now ahead of traditional broadcasting, notably those in which interactivity is a major enhancement, such as music and education. In news and current affairs, online services often match television’s output, arguably providing more breadth and depth, though accuracy and impartiality are less assured.

As part of Ofcom’s third review of public service broadcasting, Enders Analysis produced 12 case studies of online media services, examining how they contribute to the public service objectives. The full report and all case studies are available on the Ofcom website.

Here we present three of those case studies: BuzzFeed, Vice, and the phenomenon of YouTube ‘vloggers’ producing content for young people. These represent sources of innovative content unlike that found in traditional media.

The online services we assess attract younger audiences than traditional media, and also have a more flexible approach to monetising those audiences, relying on sponsorship, creative solutions and even events and book deals to capitalise on their brands.

Sky Italia’s latest strategy presentation to investors focuses on a number of positive revenue-generating and cost-cutting initiatives it is taking in the Italian pay-TV market

Sky Italia is taking a disciplined approach to subscriber recruitment and upsell of optional products as it anchors its brand at the upper end of the Italian entertainment market, supported by proactive development of original content, advertising sales and IPTV distribution

Growing product penetration has helped to reduce churn and support ARPU growth, but Sky Italia’s ability to arrest subscriber erosion and return to growth in fiscal 2015 and beyond also depends on the degree to which the economic climate becomes milder, as expected by forecasters