Facebook’s announcement of Graph Search, the company’s first move into socially-powered search which now in beta trial in the US, leaves many details unanswered including full launch and monetisation plans. Reliance on user-generated content from Facebook friends limits the usefulness of Graph Search as a conventional search engine and hence its impact on Google and other web search businesses in the near term. In the longer term, Graph Search could become a powerful recommendation engine for certain categories like travel, but its dependence on user data and privacy restrictions are likely to limit its wider utility and revenue potential.

Press advertising performed worse than we expected in 2012, with double digit declines both last year and this year now a very real possibility.

Previously resilient areas of the press have weakened. Popular national titles have seen sharp advertising declines, while faltering circulation in celebrity magazines exposes an underlying decline in demand.

Retail and services advertisers continue to pull spend from print, largely in favour of online, though TV is also very resilient. Industry efforts to offset these structural shifts include the development of trading platforms, further consolidation and a number of commercial editorial tactics.

YouTube continues to evolve away from user-generated content with the expansion of its native Original Channels initiative in the US, Europe and Japan

Professional and semi-professional content is key to increasing YouTube’s sellable video inventory, raising advertising yield and attracting brand advertisers

Whilst YouTube is the leading global distribution platform for professional short-form video, it poses little immediate threat to TV viewing or revenues

On 29 November, the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press finally issued its report. Its verdicts on the conduct of the press, politicians and police were less severe than expected.

The three main political parties have accepted most of the report’s recommendations, but have disagreed over the use of statute. As expected, the Conservatives are against, while Labour and the Lib Dems are in favour.

Subsequent cross-party talks and negotiations between editors have so far failed to produce agreement, with the process only becoming more opaque as time goes on. The shape of the future regulatory system remains uncertain.

Smartphones and tablets running iOS and Android will outsell PCs by more than 2:1 in 2012. There will be 1bn of these devices in use by the end of the year, compared to around 1.5-1.6bn

PCs The hardware business continues to polarise, with Samsung and Apple dominating revenue and revenue growth and most other branded manufactures looking distinctly sub-scale. Samsung and Apple are using their scale to cement their position

Though Apple and Android now dominate the smart devices market, it remains subject to massive uncertainty at every level, with almost all sectors and companies facing major, often existential challenges in the next year

This report explores and quantifies expenditure in the local media landscape. Flat disposable income and the rise in e-commerce continue to force many retailers from the high street, though we argue first-rate small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have the opportunity to grow share of the local market, despite these pressures

Technology has radically disrupted the way local businesses reach out to consumers. Not only has advertising expenditure moved online, but SME spend is dissipating into other activities, including distribution and platform developments, PR, social and sponsorship activities and live events

The rise of smartphones has created the tantalising prospect of a perfect local media solution. We assess the level of opportunity for Google, Facebook, Hibu, local newspapers, local radio, local TV and hyperlocal organisations

2012 has been a year of two halves, with TV NAR up by 2-3% in H1, plus the feel good factor of the Diamond Jubilee and London Olympics, but down by 1-1.5% across the full year as economic conditions have worsened in H2 2013 and 2014 promise to be especially taxing times with significant downside risks due to weakness in the economy, the squeeze on consumer disposable income and beginnings of real fiscal austerity On the upside, we expect negative structural pressures, caused by increases in CI delivery and online growth, to subside and conditions to improve from 2015

Q1 2013 was a solid quarter, notable for low seasonal churn, uplift in television gross additions and good growth in home communications, although the rate is slowing The low quarterly ARPU increase of £2 was the weak point in light of the September price increases in television, testifying to the toughness of the economic headwinds rather than to competition from OTT services like Netflix and Lovefilm With NOW TV in its teething stages, the main impact of connected TV on Sky will only start to emerge in the second half of next year; while the most immediate issue is the entry of BT into the sports content market and the concomitant risk of sports rights inflation

BT Group revenue growth disappointed at the reported level, dropping from -6% to -9%, but adjusting for a series of one-offs underlying growth only dropped from -3.2% to -3.6%, easily made up for by another quarter of strong cost reductions Broadband net adds were again a little weak, with weather-related repairs slowing new line installations, but BT’s share held up well, at least against its fellow DSL operators Fibre-based connections continued to grow and BT further accelerated its build-out plans, with this (and not TV) holding the key to stabilising ARPU and increasing wholesale revenue in the years ahead

Music publishing has demonstrated its resilience in the past decade as revenues have remained largely intact despite first the collapse of the recorded music industry and second the worst global economic crisis in a generation in 2008-09. Music publisher revenues are estimated to have risen by 0.4% in 2011 to $5.6 billion on a constant currency basis, just 3.4% below its 2008 level (not taking into account inflation), and we forecast moderate growth to 2016. Emerging markets represent an opportunity for growth, although from a low base, notably in Brazil and Russia, with China and India more problematic.