The ITV Interim 2013 results show a very strong start to the year to yield an 11% rise in EBITA, reflecting primarily strong growth in content production revenues and reductions in both schedule and other costs The weak spot was the -3% fall in NAR in a market that was estimated to be down -1% in H1 2013, although this was owing to seasonal sports factors and ITV anticipated ITV NAR to be broadly flat across the first three quarters of 2013 The overall outlook for H2 2013 and 2014 looks very positive, as ITV continues to build its content and online, pay & interactive revenues, but we also anticipate strong NAR growth in H2 2013 to continue in 2014 and for ITV to return to growing share of total TV NAR

Reports of the death of the PC have been greatly exaggerated, but rapid adoption of mobile devices is changing how, when, where and why consumers access the internet.

Over the next few years, we forecast that PC user growth will be limited to population growth, smartphone penetration will rise from two thirds currently to over 80% by 2020, and tablet users will converge to the same level as the PC audience.

In addition, we project that overall internet consumption will nearly double by 2020, with PC-based usage declining before levelling out, and smartphone and tablet use increasing threefold.

Of the traditional media sectors, we expect print media to be the most negatively affected by the rise of the mobile internet, with less impact on radio and TV viewing and advertising likely to be relatively resilient.

Virgin Media’s subscriber figures were slightly soft in Q2, even accounting for seasonality, with transaction distractions and reduced marketing spend likely contributing

RGU ARPU growth however remains strong at well over 2%, and increased marketing activity around high speed broadband by competitors will give the company the ongoing capability to keep pricing firm

The company management has had a number of changes, but Liberty Global’s overall strategy – profitable growth, not subscriber chasing – would indicate that any changes in approach will not be radical

A cheaper iPhone has been discussed almost since the original launch in 2007, but we believe costs have fallen and the market developed to the point that it now makes sense for Apple to offer a $200-$300 (unsubsidised) model.

We see a positive but fairly small financial impact on Apple. The key benefit would be defensive: by extending the ecosystem and preserving iOS as developers’ first choice, Apple would secure the whole portfolio.

We believe a well-executed and distributed $200-$300 iPhone would sell double-digit millions of units – a significant challenge to Android OEMs and Google. However, the US market’s pricing structure might limit the impact there.

Regional and local newspaper circulation decline continues to accelerate as consumer demand erodes, especially among daily titles in large towns and cities where readers are younger

Publishers are successfully mitigating circulation revenue decline through aggressive cover price rises but are unable to push up advertising yields in a market where print is considered to be grossly overvalued – especially by national advertisers

The promise of a truly digital future remains unfulfilled. The digital classifieds market has largely been won by internet specialists and the local advertising market is becoming hotly contested, not least by Facebook, as mobile traffic rises

TalkTalk’s broadband net adds held up well in the June quarter despite weak seasonality and an aggressive competitive push by BT

ARPU growth was steady, which allowed rising subscriber growth to drive consumer revenue growth up to just over 2%, and growth at the group level rose to just under 2%

With the BT Sport impact appearing slight, and regulatory outcomes looking reasonably benign, the outlook is much less uncertain than before

Magazine consumption and advertising will be more affected by the explosion in mobile device ownership than they were by the desktop internet - classic magazine 'time' is being eroded

In addition to the ubiquity of free digital content, publishers are also challenged by the myriad of digital services that disrupt the extensive role magazines have long had in the discovery to transaction funnel

Opportunities exist for publishers and brands in the new ecosystem and their biggest challenges will be in harnessing the right skill sets and structuring operations for effective execution

FY 2013 produced strong growth as revenues increased by 6.5% and costs by only 6.1% as a large £188 million rise in programming spend was more than balanced by the achievement of efficiencies in operating service costs The big surprise was the announcement of a £60-70 million impact on EBIT in 2014 as Sky seeks to accelerate the uptake of connected TV across its base The big threat in 2014 is the possible loss of European Champions League rights to BT Sport from the 2015/16 season, while the main challenge is how to maximise connected TV revenues, where clear communication of the benefits and enhancements will play a vital role

BT’s underlying revenue growth of -1% in the June quarter was a slight dip from the March quarter, but remains very impressive compared to historic trends and international peers

BT Sport gained over 500k sign-ups, a pretty respectable figure in context, but so far it is looking mostly defensive, with any impact on broadband trends in the quarter indiscernible

Regulated cuts to copper pricing look like they will drop out completely from 2014/15, and BT’s DSL competitors are starting to push fibre more aggressively, both of which will give BT a very solid boost from 2014

Vodafone Europe’s reported organic service revenue growth improved in the June quarter for the first time in over a year, albeit to the still-somewhat-unimpressive figure of -7.2%

This was however helped by slightly improving MTR cuts and the previous quarter being hit by the leap year effect; on an underlying basis growth declined again

Contract net adds continue to be weak, ARPU continues to suffer from the dilutive Vodafone Red tariffs, and the company continues to invest heavily in fixed line and lightly in mobile, the wrong way around in our view