At 30th September 2007 there were approximately 15.1 million fixed broadband subscribers in the UK and residential broadband penetration was approximately 54%. BT remains the country’s largest broadband provider supplying more than 4 million lines, while BSkyB remains the fastest growing ISP

Google has announced that it will be bidding for 700MHz spectrum in the US, after the FCC adopted most of the ‘open access’ provisions for which it lobbied

Google has announced that, alongside other industry partners, it is to create ‘Android’, a new operating system for mobile phones which is designed to facilitate the design and use of 3rd party applications, and which is planned to be in handsets from H2 2008

The pay-TV business is performing well, helped by the ‘halo’ effect from broadband; we view the unexpectedly sharp drop in operating profit as a temporary result of record quarterly take-up of Sky+

On 4th October Ofcom issued its consultation document on Sky’s proposals to provide a broader and more comprehensive range of programming by replacing its three free-to-air channels on Freeview with its Picnic hamper of five pay-TV services, including the Sky Sports 1 and Sky Movies SD1, as part of a flexible digital television, broadband and telephony service

BSkyB’s 17.9% shareholding in ITV is likely to lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the all-TV market, according to the provisional findings of the Competition Commission (CC) investigation announced on 2nd October 2007

Ofcom’s consultation document on Next Generation Access indicates a desire to avoid regulatory impediments to investment, not to force BT to act

The loss of Sky basic channels, strong competition and a maturing broadband market have combined to weaken Virgin Media’s top line results sufficiently to cause cash flow to decline

The release of FY 2007 results on 27th July 2007 confirmed the strong performance of Sky and the success of its multi-product and service strategy over the past year, as reported in its trading update of 11th July

On 27th July the BBC will open access to the iPlayer to UK internet users, en route to a hard launch later this summer. This PC-based application allows the user to download BBC TV content after broadcast to view on the PC for a limited time, and provides a TV-like display on the PC. Delays to the launch will mean the iPlayer enters a field already crowded by other broadcasters, including Channel 4's 4oD service, ITV's broadband portal, Sky Anytime, as well as content aggregators such as Joost and Babelgum (both currently in beta)