In 2013 Sky focused on recruiting ‘quality’ subscribers: net additions fell but ARPU growth accelerated and most new customers have signed up to two-year contracts, which will lead to a reduction in churn

Now Sky is moving its focus back to subscriber growth. It aims at 400-450,000 net adds this year, including the migration of wholesale DTAG customers – a target we find realistic. The €70-90 million EBITDA guidance may be conservative

Without any direct competitor, Sky is rightly enhancing its all-in-one premium appeal. This supports ARPU growth and increases its distinctiveness compared to other providers, including the expected Netflix launch in Germany

Non-subscribers can download this report in full - alongside all our other coverage of the BBC during the Charter Review process - from the 'BBC Charter Review' page of our site.

The Charter Review of the BBC officially opened with the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s inquiry into the Future of the BBC asking the question “What should the BBC be for and what should be the purpose of public service broadcasting?” The only obvious answer is that the BBC and public service broadcasting should be for the people of Britain, and the BBC rates highly on different measures of public and audience engagement. The BBC plays an irreplaceable role in the supply of PSB programming that UK audiences appreciate, most importantly news, where the BBC accounts for 70% of TV news time and for 22% of online news time in 2013.

Further consolidation could lie ahead for the UK commercial radio sector. EMAP is expected to offer its radio assets for sale and Scottish Media Group plans to divest Virgin Radio. The battleground is competition for listeners drawn by the BBC's increasingly popular national radio networks. This report however examines past consolidation, which produced substantial cost savings, without noticeably improving the commercial sector's fortunes. In our view, for consolidation to succeed in this regard, much greater attention will need to be paid to improving content

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)

The three most listened to radio stations in London all belong to the BBC, for the first time since commercial radio started in 1973

DMGT’s recent upbeat trading update showed improvements on the hefty declines in advertising of 2005 and 2006. At least part of the lift is thanks to DMGT’s national titles gaining share from other mid market and quality titles, and we are discounting a general print advertising recovery

Set for launch in May/June, the BBC’s iPlayer is a PC-based application offering live and on-demand access to around 3,500 hours of BBC programmes per week via the internet, using peer-to-peer (P2P) and multi-cast technology to overcome cost and bandwidth issues