ITV reported strong year-on-year growth in profits in H1 2011, enabling a substantial reduction of net debt and putting the company in a stronger position to invest in growth as it pursues its five year transformation plan

Important to longer term success, ITV Family share of viewing has held up, and ITV looks well placed to expand its market share of TV NAR (Net Advertising Revenue) over the next two years, albeit in an uncertain and challenging economic environment

Early signs of creative revival at ITV Studios are most encouraging, while online poses the toughest challenges, yet remains important because of the fundamental interactive synergies between online and broadcast television

Fiscal 2011 was a vintage year for Sky, which reported a 23% growth in operating profit and 51% increase in free cash flow as it started to reap the full benefits of its investment in multi-product growth

Q4 2011 showed signs that tougher economic conditions are starting to bite, although the sharp fall in TV product additions was balanced by a fourth consecutive bumper quarter in home communications, in which Sky outperformed the rest of the market

Strong focus on operating efficiencies and product innovation combined with big investment in UK originated content should position the company well as competitive pressures build in the medium- to long-term, at the same time as allowing continuing strong profit growth

This presentation details our assessment of the UK prospects for video-on-demand advertising through to 2015, covering through-the-middle and over-the-top services

While video-on-demand consumption is set to grow strongly, particularly to the TV, linear broadcast services, supported by PVR timeshift, will continue to account for over 90% of viewing to the TV and PC/ tablet over the next five years. As a result, we forecast that VOD advertising will equate to 7% of TV NAR by 2015, with current high prices for in-stream video ads falling as it becomes more integrated with TV airtime sales

VMed’s Q2 results were respectable, but quirky, with resilient underlying revenue and strong cash flow, but exceptionally weak cable volumes

Virgin Mobile is performing better than ever, but steam continues to seep from the cable cash flow boiler

A TiVo push and further progress at Virgin Media Business are still to come, but we expect a trend of gradual decline in fundamental cash flow growth

Trinity Mirror, Northern & Shell and DMGT helped the market more or less offset the absence of the News of the World, though impressive volumes have come at a price

More generally, newspaper circulations have a temporary reprieve, as strong newsflow but also discounts and marketing techniques have been deployed to attract readers

What happens next at News International, and also competitor responses, could soon change market dynamics again

Our first report on UK consumer e-commerce covers the largest e-tailing market in Europe. Although the share of e-commerce in UK retail sales is just below 10%, the influence of online is much wider, including reducing shop trips (along with superstore and mall development), which rising fuel costs are bound to intensify as a trend. In the context of the consumer recession that started in Q4 2010, bargain-hunting online has again become a more important driver of consumer interest in consumer e-commerce. Retail sales value and volume data reveal that online retailers are delivering low prices to consumers, in contrast to offline retailing, where consumers face price inflation. As e-commerce grows its share of mind in a converged internet experience, the pressure on offline retailing will intensify, driving out weaker retailers; we think superstore and mall retailing will fare better than the high street, as consistent with a single trip to access a larger choice of goods/outlets (London being the exception). In electricals, the leading online category in the UK (ahead of food and clothing), specialist retailers are suffering the most from the consumer recession and the pressure of online on prices and margins.

The uncovering of criminal behaviour at one newspaper (so far) has led to a much broader review of how the press is regulated, seeking to put a stop to dishonest and unethical behaviour, legal or illegal, and touching on ownership, ethics and on the freedom of the press in general

However, much of investigative journalism relies on activities that are certainly dishonest and arguably open to prosecution: any new code and enforcement will need to rely on judgement and selectivity, not prescription

Statutory, compulsory, enforceable regulation of the press will risk running into the sand in a world in which casual chat between friends is viewable by millions on social networks and celebrity gossip is sent to pixel in Los Angeles or São Paulo, not Wapping

BT’s plans to deploy next generation access, combined with state-aided rural broadband projects, look set to give almost three quarters of UK households access to high speed broadband by 2016

New wireless technology is a feasible substitute for wireline for some low-end users and in specific areas, but we do not expect it to have a major impact on high speed broadband deployment

BT Retail and Virgin Media will in effect move significant numbers of their customers onto high speed broadband, but without significant price reductions we believe that, even by 2016, consumers’ reluctance to pay more will result in two-thirds of households remaining on lower speed options

There is currently no international consensus on what constitutes plurality, how it might be achieved, or how it can be empirically measured

It has become critical for the interested parties in the UK to make the concept of media plurality operational. We believe that a solid methodology is required

The US, Italy and Germany offer lessons for the UK in terms of the quantification of media plurality

Google’s UK revenues rose to £597 million in Q2 2011, up 19% year-on-year, taking H1 2011 revenue to £1,037 million, up 16% year-on-year, surpassing our April forecast on better than expected growth in spend by small advertisers

Google’s global revenues were up 32% year-on-year, and CEO Larry Page impressed with his focus on key opportunities and threats; Google+, the company’s newly launched set of social applications, is off to a strong start

Our 2011 growth forecast for Google’s UK revenue is raised to 15% year-on-year, lifting this year’s UK internet ad spend forecast to £4,520 million, up 12% year-on-year