UK consumers have embraced data-hungry services like Facebook and Google, but many also have concerns about privacy online; young people have a more positive view of the trade-off and know how to avoid targeted advertising

Businesses that are conscientious about consumers’ data gain their trust, and the gap between trusted brands and the market as a whole may grow substantially in the future

Despite Edward Snowden’s revelations on ‘Big brother snooping’, the UK Government has secured vast access to communications data without serious challenge to date

BSkyB’s Sky Europe project has added a new layer of interest in results of its Continental sister platforms. Sky Italia is almost profitable but with meagre growth prospects, while Sky Deutschland is loss-making but with significant expansion potential

In Germany Sky’s underlying subscriber growth trend is improving while churn is at a historical low. But ARPU growth has stalled, leading us to expect slower revenue growth in fiscal 2015. The latter would be consistent with Sky’s guidance for subscribers and EBITDA

Despite a double dip recession and erosion of its subscriber base, Sky Italia has improved profitability in fiscal 2014. Lower churn points to a possible return to growth – if the economy stabilises

2014 saw a fall in profits as BSkyB absorbed the £217 million step-up in the annual cost of PL rights and invested £60-70 million in accelerating growth in its connected offerings, but with strong underlying revenue growth pointing to a resurgence of profits in 2015

The annual results release was over-shadowed by the news of BSkyB’s proposal to create Sky Europe through the acquisition of 21C’s shares in Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia, where it sees great opportunities for revenue growth and cost synergies

Taking on a large increase in debt to finance the acquisitions when the next PL auction is about to strike sends out the message that BSkyB management is confident about the state of its business, has a clear view about the value of PL rights, and will not be side-tracked from the pursuit of its broader strategic objectives

After a three-week long “messy and opaque” high drama auction Sky retained its broadcast rights for all Italy’s Serie A games for 2015-18 with a negligible 1% price increase.

Its rival Mediaset managed to keep hold of the top fixtures, but its coverage shrinks by 18% whilst paying 35% more. A deal earlier this year for the Champions’ League rights will add considerably to Mediaset’s total costs.

In the stagnating Italian economy, Sky may manage a return to more comfortable profitability. Mediaset’s pay-TV business model looks much more challenging, even if a new investor were to be lured in.

At its f8 developer conference, under the slogan “Build, Grow, Monetise”, Facebook rolled out a slew of new policies and initiatives designed to boost its appeal amongst users, app developers and advertisers

In its drive to encourage developers to build more apps that support the social network, Facebook is attempting to position itself as a “cross-platform platform” with 1 billion+ users that sits on top of iOS, Android and other mobile operating systems

Key announcements included App Links, an open source solution enabling linking across apps, which may drive additional usage, and Facebook Audience Network, an app ad network rolling out this year, which should drive additional margin and could challenge Google AdSense

Facebook has successfully transitioned its business to mobile, with the number of mobile users now exceeding those on PC, and mobile newsfeed ads accounting for nearly all revenue growth and over half of total revenue, now on a $10 billion annual run-rate

North America and Europe continue to account for the vast majority of revenue and revenue growth, despite flat audience penetration in both regions, as increasing mobile consumption and advertiser take-up have driven sharp increases in ARPU, particularly in the US

Despite tougher comparables and declining desktop revenue going forward, the rapid ramp up in mobile ad revenue, plus initiatives such as video ads, ads on Instagram and planned mobile ad network, should deliver strong growth through 2014 and into 2015

Enders Analysis co-hosted its annual conference, in conjunction with BNP Paribas and Deloitte, in London on 4 March 2014. The event featured talks by 13 of the most influential figures in media and telecoms, and was chaired by Sir Peter Bazalgette.

This report provides edited transcripts of the talks given by seven of those speakers: James Purnell, BBC; Dido Harding, TalkTalk; Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook; John Paton, Digital First Media; Mike Darcey, News UK; Ashley Highfield, Johnston Press; Michael Comish, Tesco

In an audacious move to minimise the risk of mobile social disruption, Facebook is to acquire leading messaging app Whatsapp for up to $19 billion, or $42 per user, or 11% of Facebook’s current market cap

Messaging platforms are becoming the new social media, particularly for younger demographics, and while Facebook/WhatsApp will be huge in mobile, other services could still side-step into Facebook’s territory

The price for WhatsApp may be justifiable to counter the threat, but Facebook has only bought one of many, and paying a full price may encourage the others; expensively buying every competitor does not feel like a long-term strategy

Explosive growth in take-up of smartphones and tablets means that the effective size of the internet will increase by several multiples within the next few years. This transformation in scale comes with a major change in character and operating dynamics, creating new opportunities and revenue streams.

Twitter is unique amongst social apps: it gives new users a blank canvas in which they can (and must) create their own social network reflecting their own interests, hence building an ‘Interest Graph’, but onboarding new users remains a challenge.

Revenue at Twitter is now on a $600 million annual run-rate, scaling rapidly since the introduction of ‘native ads’, and seems set for further growth: the key question is whether it can achieve breakout user growth and mass market scale.

The stress on 21st Century Fox’s Italian pay-TV platform is easing as the worst recession of any G8 country is expected to end in 2014, and competitive pressure from Mediaset is weakening

Sky is sticking to a long term strategy, investing in the (unrivalled) quality of its offering and sustaining high recruitment costs. The subscriber base seems to have levelled off, revenues are stable, but profits have collapsed. Management plans cost cuts to raise profitability by 2016

The upcoming auction for the 2015-18 football rights could see Sky gaining more exclusivity at a higher cost, which it would have to recoup mostly by rising prices. The key potential upside resides in an Italian economic upturn – which is only conceivable in a few years