EE’s 4G adoption continued to surge, with 1.4m net adds, over 80% of new contract sales taking 4G and just under 40% of contract base having adopted it

Mobile service revenue growth however slowed to -2.4% from -1.1% the previous quarter, with an extra regulatory hit from the EU’s ‘Consumer Rights Directive’ doing some of the damage, as well as some underlying weakness

Operating revenue growth (i.e. including fixed and revenue from MVNOs) was much healthier, helped by the fast growing fixed broadband business, but growth in mobile is crucial to driving profitability given the operating leverage involved

Q1 2015 results show steady underlying revenue growth in retail subscription and increases in other segments, along with the continuing extraction of cost efficiencies, resulting in an 11% year-on-year increase in Q1 operating profits

Quarter-on-quarter, Q1 2015 retail subscription revenues and ARPU were flat in spite of the strong uptake and growing use of connected products. Main causes appeared temporary - a mixture of seasonal factors and the launch of Sky Sports 5 with its two-year free broadband offer - while underlying growth remains firmly positive

Meanwhile, Sky’s accelerated investment in connectivity during 2014 is bearing fruit. Eyes may be focused on the formation of the “new Sky” (on schedule for November) and the long awaited Premier League auction, yet other developments such as Sky Store and Sky AdSmart also deserve full attention

ITV and Channel 4 have asked the regulatory authorities to review the case for legislation that would for the first time allow the commercial PSBs to charge carriage fees for their main free-to-air channels on the pay-TV platforms

To this end, ITV has presented a detailed analysis showing the great contribution to the US creative economy due to the introduction of Retransmission Consent Compensation for free-to-air broadcasters in the US, but without setting this against the very different market structure in the UK, where the commercial PSBs enjoy significant privileges

Any change to UK rules will require primary legislation and is not expected until after the May 2015 General Election. Should action be taken, the choice appears to lie between regulation (adding “must carry” rules) and deregulation of commercial PSB privileges, where the end result might not be what the PSBs wished

EE has launched a new TV service featuring an advanced set-top box with a snazzy interface offered for free to its broadband/mobile customers

The lack of premium content means that the service is of little threat to the established pay TV operators Sky and Virgin Media, and the lack of integration with mobile or steep quad play discount makes it non-threatening to the mobile market

It does however reposition EE Broadband as a differentiated service, making it more competitive without lowering its headline price, with triple play the focus of this move in our view

Virgin Media’s request for Ofcom to open a formal investigation into the auction mechanism of live televised Premier League rights is a timely reminder of the need to consider the consumer as the auction draws ever closer with all eyes focused on the battle of BT versus Sky

When the EC last intervened before the 2006 auction, its remedy focused on the need for more than one winner for the sake of a more competitive downstream market, but without considering other variables affecting the outcome, to which Virgin Media has drawn attention

As the European country with much the highest rights fees per game, much the fewest televised top league games, highest package prices and by far the biggest outlay on player wages, the current PL auction mechanism gives the UK consumer little cause for cheer

UK consumers have embraced data-hungry services like Facebook and Google, but many also have concerns about privacy online; young people have a more positive view of the trade-off and know how to avoid targeted advertising

Businesses that are conscientious about consumers’ data gain their trust, and the gap between trusted brands and the market as a whole may grow substantially in the future

Despite Edward Snowden’s revelations on ‘Big brother snooping’, the UK Government has secured vast access to communications data without serious challenge to date

European mobile service revenue growth improved by 0.5ppts to -7.2% in Q2 2014, but all of this and more was driven by a reduced regulatory impact; underlying growth has been stuck at around 6% for the last four quarters, with progress in some areas consistently being countered by further pricing pressure

Industry consolidation has progressed to some extent, but would have had little impact in the quarter. Further in-country mobile/mobile mergers are more than likely but uncertainty driven by the changing European Commission may be delaying decisions to move forward

The UK example shows that consolidation is not necessary for market repair, but in the present environment the smaller operators in continental Europe have every incentive to be as disruptive as possible to encourage their acquisition, so further mergers cannot come soon enough

UK mobile service revenue growth finally returned to positive territory in Q2 2014 after three years of decline, largely driven by the MTR impact dropping out, but also helped by a 0.6ppt improvement in underlying growth

Data volumes accelerated markedly during the quarter, with 4G and improved 3G speeds encouraging more video/media activity, which is far more bandwidth intensive (as well as having less of a substitution effect) than text communications activity. As consumers move to higher data bundles, smartphone usage may actually start to enhance ARPU through tariff upgrades as opposed to damage ARPUs through lower out-of-bundle voice and text usage

The outlook remains positive, with headline pricing stable, contract ARPUs stabilising and the competitive environment relatively benign

Market revenue growth in the UK residential communications sector continued to be robust in Q2 2014 at 5.4%, a slight increase on the previous quarter, with continued volume growth and firm pricing countering weak call volumes and the negative impact of a VAT legislation change hitting Virgin Media and TalkTalk

BT was the fastest growing out of the ‘big four’ in revenue terms in Q2 even after the direct revenue impact of BT Sport is excluded, a remarkable turnaround after being in last place a year ago, driven by both volume and ARPU growth continuing to accelerate, with fibre helping both

Since the end of Q2, promotional activity has already intensified, particularly from BT and Sky around the start of the new football season, and churn is likely to be under more pressure at all of the operators, although the disruption is likely to be less severe than that experienced around the launch of BT Sport last year, and we expect all of the major players to continue to grow in net terms

EE reported impressive operating figures, with 4G net adds accelerating sharply from an already impressive base and mobile contract net adds leading the UK market

Service revenue growth was respectable, but did not improve on the previous quarter despite the surge in premium 4G customers, although profitability did continue to improve as further synergies were realised

EE will maintain a 4G coverage lead over the other operators into 2015, and the base is likely to continue to migrate to 4G in large numbers, but it remains to be seen if it can convert this into improvements on the top line