The UK is now entering a period of intense discussion of the regulation and ownership of news outlets. In this context it is revealing to look at a case study of news viewing online

Livestation is an online service which aggregates several dozen TV news channels and makes them available online. Two of the most prominent are Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. These channels experienced explosive growth during the ‘Arab Spring’ events, and this was reflected in the statistics for access to their online streams, which we analyse here

In the course of these events, the live video streams for Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya went from 150,000 and 50,000 monthly uniques to 3.3m and 1.3m. Their audience online switched from a tiny base of largely expatriate viewers outside the Arab world to millions of viewers in the Arab world. Even after the most dramatic events subsided, traffic remains 10 times what it was in late 2010

Jeremy Hunt is pressing ahead with plans to inject television into the local media ecosystem, the latest in a series of attempts by successive governments to promote local news provision

This presents a challenge to local media, threatening to fragment consumption and intensify the competitive environment in perennially difficult times, but in certain areas these pressures will be attenuated

A ‘community’ model may allow local TV services to survive in areas where advertising revenues do not provide a sufficient income stream

Nearly a year after rolling out Google TV in the US, Google has confirmed plans to launch its ‘smart TV’ operating platform in Europe and the UK by early 2012

To date, Google TV in the US has been a disappointment, with little broadcaster support and, until recently, expensive devices, resulting in low adoption

The content issue is likely to dog Google TV, both here and in other European markets; access to key broadcaster TV and video programming will be a major challenge

In this report we present our latest analysis of the UK commercial radio sector. Impressive listening figures for the first half of 2011 should help commercial radio listening to increase by 3.2% in 2011, following a similar improvement last year. The advertising outlook is also promising: despite the retreat of the COI, we expect advertising revenues to grow by 3.0% in 2011, backed by a strong Q3. The shift towards branded networks should reduce operating costs and make it easier for advertisers to invest in radio, building on sales house consolidation in the late 2000s.

Advancing its free-to-air TV project, France’s Canal+ is to buy Bolloré TV’s national channels for €465 million to gain (scarce) licences for FTA terrestrial broadcast

Canal+ plans to leverage its library of original programming to attract upscale audiences, neglected by commercial rivals

However, the Vivendi investment case of a 9% return on capital is built on incompatible assumptions about profit margins and market share – to grow the latter in a mature market, a channel needs to sacrifice the former

This presentation details our assessment of the UK travel market to 2015, covering the package holiday, flight, accommodation and cruise sectors. UK consumer spending on holidays has been hit hard by the recession, but should bounce back as household finances recover, though the macro risk is still on the downside. We project that the internet will account for 60% of bookings by 2015, up from 45% in 2010, with growth fuelled by increased bargain hunting, as well as improving choice and functionality. Suppliers will continue to generate the lion’s share of internet sales, but online travel agents will take share, particularly for accommodation, which remains highly fragmented. New devices such as tablets and smartphones will increasingly be used to book and manage consumer travel, though the potential for incremental sales seems limited.

Whilst UK GDP growth crawls along at a snail’s pace in 2011, (real) private consumption, its principal component, has been in sequential decline since Q4 2010, dragging consumer facing industries down

UK media are not equally affected. The internet continues to grow through search as well as display, but we expect TV NAR to be flat in 2011

Press advertising is worst affected by the downturn due to its exposure to retail advertising on top of the structural shift of classifieds to the internet

The provisional findings of the Competition Commission’s (CC) investigation into pay-TV echoed the conclusions of the Ofcom pay-TV investigation in April 2010, concluding that Sky’s control of pay-TV movie rights was having an adverse effect on competition

The big difference between the CC and Ofcom lies in the choice of remedy, with the CC preferring to explore a range of other options rather than proceed with Wholesale Must Offer, a solution that the CC sees as entrenching Sky’s market power rather than undermining it

The three remedial options that the CC has decided to explore present significant issues and it seems unlikely that a solution will be in place before 2014

In this report we outline the current state and likely development of the war between mobile platforms. We discuss installed bases and activity levels, the key issues facing Apple and Android, including Android fragmentation and Google's acquisition of Motorola, and go on to look at the tablet market and the outlook for RIM, Nokia and Windows Phone.

UK classified advertising in print and digital media fell -9% in 2010 to £2.76 billion, and we expect a further decline of -7% in 2011.

Our annual review and outlook concerns the classified advertising categories of recruitment, property, autos (used) and directories, across all media. We assess the continuing structural shift from print formats to less expensive digital media, in the context of prolonged recessionary pressures on local economies in the UK (bar London), which have reduced annual transaction volumes in 2010 by -28% in recruitment, -45% in property and just -16% in used cars, in relation to the peak in 2007.

A key development in recent quarters has been the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets as emerging platforms for classified advertising by the industries serving them. Consumers are enjoying the additional benefits of on-the-move data (e.g. in the forecourts of auto dealers) and instantaneous updates (e.g. for property rentals), which advertisers are keen to exploit, providing additional revenue opportunities for classified media. B2B classified platforms also monetise integrated brand and listings solutions, plus marketplace tools. New models are evolving that will have implications for other media and in some cases, industry supply chains.