This report examines the proposed acquisition of GCap Media by Global Radio for £375 million which, if successful, will signal the end of a commercial radio giant that, in its brief three-year existence, succeeded in destroying considerable shareholder value and dragging down the rest of the sector. It will also signal the transfer of the most significant portfolio of commercial radio real estate from public to private ownership. Global Radio, which did not even exist a year ago, would become the dominant player in a sector that will have seen three of its largest groups – GCap, Emap Radio and Chrysalis Radio – all change hands from public to private ownership within a year

Broadband market growth continues to fall and was below 20% for the first time in Q4 2007. Household penetration hit 56%. BSkyB dominated net additions, increasing its market share to 7.8% after 18 months of operation

Reported revenue growth among operators in the top 5 European markets continues to be adversely affected by the regulatory ‘triple whammy’ of regulation (termination, roaming and Bersani), with reported growth of 1.3% comparing to underlying growth of 5.6%

Mobile advertising has progressed well in recent months in terms of expanding trials, building experience and case study evidence, and selling the medium to advertisers

UK commercial radio revenues increased by 7.1% in Q4 2007 year-on-year, driven by strong growth from national advertisers, while full-year 2007 revenues increased by 2.8% to £598.2 million

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

BT Retail’s fixed-line telephony packages are now amongst the most attractive in the market following a third price change in two years. Attractive headline prices have been balanced by less obvious price rises elsewhere

Disappointing headline figures showing a 35% drop in pre-tax profits largely reflect exceptional and non-core items, in particular the fallout from the phone-in scandals that occurred in 2007

Early figures from the BBC show promising take-up of iPlayer, its web TV application to deliver BBC TV shows. More than 2 million people watched an average of just over one show per week in January, representing about 1.6% of TV viewing amongst iPlayer users

Growth in ARPU is reinforcing the impact of improving cable subscriber growth, but revenue remains in decline, year-on-year