Virgin Media had a very solid quarter, with cable households returning to growth, cable revenue up 4%, underlying group revenue up 2%, and underlying OCF up 3% despite extra content costs weighing

Subscriber net adds were not as strong as last year, when DSL competitors were weakened by supply constraints, but there is little sign of a substantial impact from BT Sport or TalkTalk and BT’s YouView-based TV offerings

BT’s foray into sport has however had an effect on profitability, as it has with BT itself and Sky, with Virgin Media’s premium content costs rising from both BT and Sky

BT’s subscriber and revenue results continued to show strong progress, with its consumer business gathering momentum even excluding the direct impact of BT Sport

BT Sport had a discernible impact, but this was modest given the spend levels involved. However, the negative impact will only improve from this point, with BT sounding cautious about bidding for new rights

Fibre growth has at last started to accelerate at BT’s competitors, with the potential wholesale revenue from this truly game-changing for BT

2014 will be a tough year for Sky as it strives to improve the connectivity across its base while facing the challenge of BT in premium sports. 2014 has started well in terms of product growth and BT Sport has had no discernible impact on Sky broadband take-up and little, if any, impact on acquisition and retention discounts offered to new and existing Sky customers. With eyes focused on the impending auction of European Champions League pay-TV rights, we think BT has every incentive to push the price up, but not actually to win them.

For the BBC’s DG Tony Hall, “Where next?” primarily means more digital, expanding its iPlayer internet TV and radio application and offering greater personalisation

These moves form part of a wider strategy to ensure BBC services and programming can be delivered seamlessly across devices in the most relevant form, whilst maintaining access and appeal to all age groups

Reaction from commercial rivals and commentators has been muted, likely saving powder for the soon-to-begin battle over the BBC’s scope and funding from 2017, when the current Royal Charter expires

The advertising market appears more confident than at any time since the downturn of 2008/9 and we expect positive economic conditions to last until the next general election due in 2015

This encouraging outlook for the UK economy underpins our advertising expenditure forecast of CAGR 4.2% for 2013-2015

Internet advertising will increasingly dominate while television (CAGR 2%) and other media will see modest growth with the exception of print, still in sharp decline though less severely than feared a few months ago

Although it is early days, BARB audience data already supply useful insights into the potential impact of BT Sport on the acquisition and retention of BT broadband customers and take-up of BT Infinity

Now entering its third month the very heavily publicised BT Sport has made a relatively good start in Sky households compared with its predecessors Setanta and ESPN, but less of a difference in DTT households, where getting BT Sport on BT TV is not straightforward

However, BT is still very much the junior player in a duopolistic mature market for premium sport, which we do not expect to grow significantly even if the premium sport is being given away

Virgin Media and Netflix have agreed on a ground breaking trial that blurs the traditional distinction between pay-TV platforms and OTT services by permitting TiVo customers direct access to Netflix via their set-top boxes The deal promises to benefit both parties as Netflix enhances the Virgin Media content offer to its TiVo customers with minimal risks of cord-shaving, while availability on Virgin Media TiVo offers Netflix the prospect of incremental subscription growth The question is whether other pay-TV platforms will follow suit, including Sky with its competitive interests in film rights acquisition, but where the Netflix value to UK viewers is increasingly seen to lie in its TV content

Multichannel Networks (MCNs) operating on YouTube (YT) have seen a surge of interest from financial and strategic investors over the last year, mirroring their rapid growth on the platform and popularity among YT’s core demographic of 13-35 year olds.

As an extension of YT’s partner programme, MCNs provide production, traffic, monetisation and rights management services to content creators and brands, thus closing a gap in YT’s ecosystem by offering trusted environments with higher quality and monetisation standards.

MCNs are a key element in the professionalisation of YT and hence attractive vehicles for third parties to gain exposure to YT’s reach and potential. Looking ahead, for YT to continue its evolution and reach new levels of monetisation and content quality, structural and control issues need to be addressed that currently cap the upside.

Netflix H2 2013 results show continuing steady expansion in its domestic US and international streaming businesses, mostly towards the upper end of company guidance Netflix has always posed as a disruptor, yet there is nothing revolutionary in its business model or content origination strategy, while confidence in the future owes much to growing acceptance of Netflix as another channel outlet by incumbent content owners Although Netflix releases no international streaming data by country, there is some evidence to suggest it is edging towards two million in the UK; but is still on a tightrope as it races to add subscribers and revenues to cover its fast growing and somewhat shrouded content obligations

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