Meta presented mixed results against low expectations, with its ad business a concern in the age of privacy.

Reels is at the core of the company’s strategy to win users given heightened competition, but its monetisation challenge persists.

Meta spent $3.7 billion on its metaverse gamble in the quarter. A higher-end device will help address strengthening enterprise demand for VR headsets, but the route to profitability remains unclear.

Broadcast TV viewing resumed its downwards trajectory in 2021, following a pandemic-inflated boost in 2020. The effect has been compounded by streaming services retaining much of their lockdown gains, consolidating their place at the heart of people's viewing habits

Within the shrinking pie of broadcast TV viewing—still c.70% of total TV set use—the PSBs have held relatively steady, whilst Channel 5 has increased both its share and absolute volume of viewing

However, further decline seems inevitable, with the largest components of the programming landscape, namely longstanding formats and the soaps suffering badly since the beginning of the pandemic. We await the effect of various new scheduling strategies

The UK mobile operators are increasingly vocal about their concerns regarding the tech giants, namely Apple and Google, encroaching on the mobile connectivity market.

eSIMs enhance the case for the tech giants launching their own MVNOs (such as Google Fi in the US) or, perhaps more realistically and concerningly, becoming gatekeepers to mobile airtime subscriptions.

Many things would need to line up for the tech giants to effect this and the MNOs need to stand as one to ensure that they are not successful. Policy makers should be equally reticent.

Sky’s performance across 2021 significantly improved, driven in Q4 by a nice c.5% growth rate in UK consumer revenues and the advertising rebound, but effects of the pandemic are still being felt with EBITDA down 30% on 2019.

The decline in Group revenue accelerated in Q4 due to the severe shock to the Italian operation from its loss of most premium football coverage, although we see upsides in a possible rights reshuffle.

In 2022, Sky can leverage growth vectors including bigger content bundles, Glass, advertising innovations and broadband. Consolidating SVOD and telecoms markets may be more favourable to price increases.

Apple’s record December quarter closed off a huge year for the company, with little sign that supply chain problems affected the core iPhone business. Services, meanwhile, remain strong, and the company’s status as the world’s biggest subscription provider positions the business for a metaverse future.

Apple’s ability to control platforms like the App Store is under regulatory pressure. Apple is ceding ground where it can, while keeping fees high for the mobile gaming cash cow.

China has returned as a meaningful contributor to growth. US sanctions have toppled China’s Huawei, to the benefit of the American firm.

The Nokia Comes With Music (CWM) service bundles a music-centric handset with an unlimited music downloads service, allowing consumers to easily take advantage of their handsets’ music functionality, and have no need for a separate iPod

The much anticipated iPhone 3G is due to launch in July; it will include 3G and GPS, but will otherwise be quite similar to the old model, and is still a little off-the-pace in feature terms

After a protracted offer period, Scottish Media Group has finally sold its national commercial radio business ‘Virgin Radio’ to Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited for £53.2 million cash. The sale does not include the licence to continue using the brand name from the Virgin Group, so the station will be re-branded and re-launched by its new owner in autumn 2008. This report argues that, although the value of Virgin Radio’s main AM analogue platform is diminishing, the value of the accompanying FM licence in London could be significantly increased by the execution of a successful turnaround strategy. The London licence alone could reflect the price paid for the whole business, if the station’s rock music programming were to be made more relevant to consumers and advertisers in the capital

The recorded music market decline continued without pause in 2007, with global sales down an estimated 11% in value. Physical and internet piracy continue to drive the CD sales decline, along with substitution to downloads, and the bankruptcies of physical retailers in the US and UK. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPod+iTunes music ecosystem continues to be favoured by customers, driving the growth of the digital music market, as ringtones stabilise globally. These recorded music market trends are reducing music publishers’ associated royalty income, although offset by rising royalties from the use of music on broadcast media, film, advertising and the internet

To encourage investors, TF1 announced continued diversification of group revenues from reliance on the flagship TF1 channel, and an increase in group Ebitda from 16% in 2007 to 20% in ‘4-5 years’. Accelerating audience share decline at the TF1 channel indicates that new programming is also urgently required to maintain TF1’s ‘premium’ for advertisers