Project Canvas is the BBC/ITV/BT backed proposal for next generation Freeview and Freesat services that embraces IPTV reception, new EPG, home storage and HDTV applications

Setting up Canvas as a not-for-profit consortium and making it non-exclusive to content providers should avoid the competition issues which killed Kangaroo, but many questions remain and technical and regulatory delays could push back the launch to 2011

We do not expect Canvas to make a major difference to non-linear viewing of audiovisual content – its importance lies much more in future-proofing the ‘Free TV’ viewing experience on the terrestrial and satellite platforms

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has confirmed it is to follow up on Lord Carter's interim Digital Britain report by launching a full consultation on the local and regional media ownership regime, with a call for "views from interested stakeholders" on the key issues for the review of the merger regime to be submitted by 28th February

Although the OFT’s announcement notes the “pressures” on local and regional media, the evidence points to a local media sector in steep decline, a trend which the UK’s recession will only exacerbate

Local media will need to consolidate further in the near future if jobs and the supply of local media to communities are to be preserved in a period of declining revenues, and the merger regime (which applies to all UK specific mergers) is a barrier to this consolidation and places a disproportionate burden on local media

Recent ABC declines in consumer magazines are not indicative of the accelerated declines experienced in the past 12 weeks

All print media is engulfed in a ‘perfect storm’ of falling consumption, collapsing advertising, and some rising costs

Print advertising will fall by as much as 30% for some print sectors in 2009, pushing previously profitable businesses to the edge

As announced in the January trading update, BT’s Q3 results were hit by poor cost control at Global Services and the identification of some ‘toxic’ contracts. Performance elsewhere continued to be reasonable but helped by a spike at Openreach and non-core business

With a further ‘one-off’ charge against GS EBITDA in Q4 a virtual certainty, we continue to expect problems at Global Services to combine with recessionary pressures and stalling broadband growth to constrain performance well into 2010

A large pension deficit at the actuarial valuation in May looks inevitable. The Digital Britain initiative could pave the way for legitimate government and regulatory support

Ofcom has come up with a new 900MHz spectrum refarming/redistribution proposal, in which only 5MHz of spectrum is taken from Vodafone and O2, as opposed to the 15MHz it previously proposed

We still think that disrupting the voice and text services of existing customers in order to extend the availability of little-used 3G data services makes little sense, and that rearranging a small amount of intensively used spectrum when a far larger amount of unused spectrum is about to become available makes even less sense

Should Vodafone and O2 continue to oppose having their spectrum taken away, as appears likely, the delays to new spectrum auctions are likely to continue

In Q4 2008 Iliad added 100,000 subscribers in a slowing French broadband market

A restructured 4th 3G licence call for tender is now expected in March, with a cost of €206 million for a 2x5MHz spectrum block, which Iliad is expected to bid for

We remain sceptical that Iliad will earn a return from this, with the 3G-only business model challenging even with a reduced licence cost and restricted network rollout

KPN noticeably improved the performance of its domestic fixed line business in its full-year 2008 results, with revenues close to stabilising, and positive EBITDA growth of 1% indicating a turning point in the profitability of the Dutch division

Dutch broadband penetration is close to saturation, so KPN’s revenue growth potential will shift from broadband to adoption of next generation access services and subscriber upgrades to higher bandwidth and digital television

KPN, however, is taking a cautious path on NGA. FTTH deployment will depend on local conditions, notably availability of financing from landlords and municipalities, household density and average revenues. FTTC/VDSL is for areas where returns will be lower. ‘Mass market’ deployment will be decided in H2 2009 depending on consumer adoption

BT Retail is putting through another round of residential price changes, trading further aggressive cuts in call plans in return for 12 month contracts, increases in line rental and some volume-related call charges

The £1 line rental increase is in line with our expectations and could trigger a round of increases by other players following Ofcom’s forthcoming statement on Openreach’s wholesale price ceilings

The price changes should help BT Retail to both defend its residential customer base and conserve ARPU. However, some further loss of residential market share looks inevitable

The planned merger of Vodafone and H3G in Australia has raised the question of what consolidation could occur in Europe, although a direct analogy is not appropriate because Vodafone is much weaker in Australia (#3 operator) than it is in the larger European countries, and so would face much more regulatory scrutiny in Europe

The only merger opportunities in the top five markets which would have a similar or lower theoretical impact on competition (and hence would theoretically be as easily approved) in the top five European countries would be T-Mobile and H3G in the UK, Wind and H3G in Italy, and any operator with Yoigo in Spain

There are massive cost savings to be had from in-market consolidation, with network, marketing and general administration costs all fully overlapping between operators. The non-merging players would also enjoy a period of less competitive intensity, which may last indefinitely

The iPhone has inspired all the major Smartphone makers to launch touchscreen models, and dramatically improve the usability of their interfaces. The iPhone itself remains the most easily usable touchscreen handset in our view, although at the cost of speed of use and adaptability

Unfortunately, the characteristics that make these handsets easier to surf the internet with – large screens and/or QWERTY keyboards – are just the characteristics that are unlikely to trickle down into mass market handset models, meaning that the impact on mobile data usage is limited

We continue to believe that web browsing is unlikely to be popular on mass market handsets for the foreseeable future, but usage of web services can be popularised by more of a widget approach, which the cheap but smart INQ1 handset demonstrates well