The TV advertising sector is haemorrhaging in the economic downturn, but troubles could also be brewing in the pay-TV sector. Sky still looks secure, but Setanta appears more exposed in its role of ancillary pay-TV provider in the high stakes and high risk world of premium sports

Ofcom has linked Sky's plans for a pay service on DTT (Picnic) to its wider investigation into the UK market for pay-TV, announcing on 13th May that it will issue its next statement on both issues simultaneously by the end of the summer. This is the first time the regulator has indicated that it is merging its consideration of Picnic with that of the wider pay-TV market

The BBC-ITV Freesat venture, launched on 6th May, is the public service response to Sky’s free satellite service. Once fully up and running in 2009, Freesat aims to match Sky with 200 digital TV channels in standard definition (SD), and surpass Sky with extra channels in High Definition (HD), plus the facility to offer iPlayer and Kangaroo

Sky Q3 FY 2008 results confirm the strength of the core pay-TV business, where the marketing strategy is now focused on subscriber quality rather than pure numbers. Sky+ boxes continue to fly off the shelves, while weak HD and Sky Multiroom sales call for attention in fiscal 2009

The Digital Dividend resulting from analogue switch-off and digital switchover (DSO) is shaping up into Ofcom’s spectrum sale of the century. It comes at a time when the TV broadcasting industry is coming to see the progress from standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD) as fundamental a step change in broadcast picture quality as was many years ago the shift from black and white into colour. This report examines the Ofcom proposals, the financial costs to the commercial PSBs and the implications of Sky’s Picnic proposals for the successful achievement of Ofcom’s plan

Broadband market growth continues to fall and was below 20% for the first time in Q4 2007. Household penetration hit 56%. BSkyB dominated net additions, increasing its market share to 7.8% after 18 months of operation

This report examines whether Sky has grounds to appeal the decision by the Competition Commission requiring Sky to partly divest its ITV stake. The deadline for Sky's decision on appeal is 25th February. Bearing in mind that the CC has a good track record on fighting appeals, this report identifies two potential grounds for appeal that could prove fruitful for Sky to appeal. If Sky does appeal, and we suspect it will, the uncertainty weighing on ITV's share price will continue for some time yet

Sky's Q2 results show continuing strong growth across all parts of its multi-product business, with bumper product sales, up by almost a third year-on-year

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

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+