Sky Italia’s strategy of selling low-priced satellite packages and HD set-top boxes has sharply reduced profitability, but helped subscriber growth

Escalating per user costs of football rights in a PAYG model has dissolved the profitability of Mediaset Premium, with no real upside visible

Sky Italia and Mediaset Premium both face the strong headwinds of the long consumer recession in Italy

Enders Analysis co-hosted its annual conference, in conjunction with BNP Paribas and Deloitte, in London on 19 January 2012. The event featured talks by 13 of the most influential figures in media and telecoms, and was chaired by Sir Peter Bazalgette. An edited transcript of notes taken during the speaker presentations follows.

The speakers were Sir Martin Sorrell (CEO, WPP), Glen Moreno (Chairman, Pearson), Martin Morgan (CEO, DMGT), David Levin (CEO, UBM), Dan Cobley (MD, Google UK & Ireland), Mike Pocock (CEO, Yell), Vittorio Colao (CEO, Vodafone), Charles Dunstone (Chairman, Carphone Warehouse, TalkTalk Group), Stephen Carter (President, Alcatel-Lucent EMEA), the Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP (Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport), Neil Berkett (CEO, Virgin Media), Liv Garfield (CEO, Openreach) and Ed Richards (CEO, Ofcom).

Around 125m smartphones and over 20m tablets were sold in Q4 2011. If tablets are included, Apple is now the largest PC manufacturer, while smartphones are now outselling PCs

These devices are the battleground for a war of ecosystems in which Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms are dominant and others are hoping for third place at best. iOS and Android sold around 92m units in Q4 and now have an active base between them of around 515m devices

Samsung now accounts for at least half of Android sales and is in some senses more of a rival to Apple than Android itself

Apple has begun selling interactive textbooks via its iBookstore, a move which is likely to accelerate the digital transition in education

However, the pace of change will be slowed by the cost of devices and the limited number of textbooks that have been designed for tablet computers

By developing educational software and course materials, Apple is trying to position the iPad at the centre of students’ educational lives – a niche that could significantly boost its hardware sales

US album volumes in 2011 rose for the first time since 2004, but lower pricing may continue the revenue decline

UK album volumes declined 5.6% in 2011. HMV’s new-found breathing space removes a key risk for the outlook

US radio royalties to music publishers have been agreed in principle and will see a return to a revenue based payment