BT got its financial year off to a strong start in Q1, with Group revenue and EBITDA growth of 4%/5% both well on track to hit guidance of merely 'growth'.

Price rises across broadband, mobile and Openreach all landed well, driving strong ARPU growth of 5%/9%/10% respectively, but subscriber growth was likely weak, mainly reflecting a tough environment.

Growth is set to wane across the year as consumer price rise boosts start to re-contract out, leaving Openreach as the main growth driver for as long as the economic environment remains challenging.

Vodafone's headline revenue growth of +3.7% is actually a small decline once Rest of World exchange depreciation is accounted for. Europe, however, delivered an improving revenue trend to +0.4%, as signalled at Vodafone's FY results announcement.

The mix and operating trends are less positive, with growth driven by low-margin B2B, and subscriber losses accelerating in German fixed. Investors will be weighing up whether these results are green shoots of a recovery or another false dawn.

Although the company may reach its guided EBITDA on assumed exchange rates, it looks set to fall short in euro terms, which has implications for FCF and dividend cover.

Social tariffs have provided relief for some at a time of household income squeeze and otherwise unavoidable high inflation-driven telco price increases.

Adoption has risen but remains very low, limiting their effectiveness, and more widespread adoption would expose their shortcomings, with the risk of penalizing low cost operators and significantly increasing prices for non-adopters (by up to 20%).

A better approach might be to recognize that affordability issues are narrower but deeper than current social tariffs can address, with fuller, centrally funded subsidies targeted more narrowly at those most in need.

The three planks of Netflix's strategy to stoke growth are beginning to pick up pace: pricing optimisation, charging of non-paying users and advertising are returning benefits, if at different rates. For Q2, Netflix announced growth of 5.9 million subscribers (+8% YoY) with revenues growing but at a slower rate ($1.83 billion, +2.7% YoY)

Netflix's advertising tier remains predictably peripheral. However the restructuring of its product offering and an influx of potential new subscribers who find themselves kicked out of other accounts could result in the company beginning to present to advertisers what they really want: viewers that they cannot reach easily elsewhere, if not yet at scale

The published draft Media Bill does not appear to present major issues for Netflix from a compliance standpoint, however, a clearer understanding of what "appropriate prominence" for the PSBs means is needed to calculate the impact on the streamer's access to viewers

Success was never going to be defined by profitability for GB News and TalkTV, at least in the mid-term. So far this has been borne out, with revenues small and viewing confined to niche audiences.

The two recently launched channels have become part of the broadcast news environment while diverging from its traditions. Their emphasis on opinion and commentary over news and analysis has influenced news agendas, political discourse and the TV news landscape more than their viewing figures suggest.

Now that the fairly elastic (and previously untested) boundaries for due impartiality set out in the Broadcasting Code are being stretched, it is only right that Ofcom look at them more closely. Although some change is to be expected, TV news' integrity as a highly trusted medium should be preserved.

Service revenue growth dipped by 0.7ppts to 1.2% this quarter—a slightly disappointing performance given the price rises implemented in some markets.

The impact of price increases has been mixed, with little revenue benefit in France, somewhat better in Spain, and a shift to Iliad in Italy.

Q2 should be stronger, with the UK price rises kicking in, the promise of a turnaround from Vodafone Germany, but a waning of price rise benefits elsewhere.

Market revenue growth turned (slightly) negative in Q1 2023, driven by weak demand and the waning of 2022 price boosts.

Next quarter will benefit from the high 2023 existing customer price increase, but this effect will wane across the year, and go into reverse next year due to lower inflation.

Other factors are mixed, with new-customer pricing tentatively rising, many smaller ISPs struggling, but altnet gains still likely to get worse before they get better.

BT hit all its targets for the 2022/23 financial year, ending the year with a (predicted) consumer service revenue growth slowdown but a surprisingly strong B2B performance fully compensating.

Investors were disappointed in the outlook for cashflow in 2023/24, with tax benefits being absorbed by the cost of faster-than-expected full fibre adoption, ignoring that this is good news rather than bad.

Next quarter the company will get a substantial boost from the price rises, and in the longer term an even more substantial boost from the completion of the full fibre build is looking increasingly secure.

We forecast broadcaster viewing to shrink to below half of total video viewing by 2028 (48%)—down from 64% today—as streaming services gain share of long-form viewing time.

On the key advertising battleground of the TV set, broadcasters will still retain scale with a 63% viewing share by 2028, even as SVOD and YouTube double their impact.

Short-form video will continue to displace long-form as video-first apps (e.g. YouTube, Twitch, TikTok) gain further popularity and others (e.g. Facebook, Instagram) continue a relentless pivot to video. This will expand the amount of video watched and transition habits—even amongst older demographics.

Prime Video is a vital, freestanding component of Amazon’s sticky and fast-growing Prime subscription bundle—but it is also the key cog in the company’s overall video marketplace strategy

With the Prime subscriber base and Fire TV operating system driving scale, Prime Video and the ad-supported Freevee guarantee traffic, foster competition and maintain quality—ensuring leverage to deal with suppliers

However, the entertainment platform market is fiercely competitive and video is different from socks: content can’t be commoditised, meaning that Amazon must allow third-party brand building