NYTNow, a new iPhone-only app offering a selection of New York Times journalism at a lower price, is the latest, pretty well executed manifestation of the company’s gradual change into a digital news business

A year after its unveiling, we review the progress of the company’s digital growth strategy, and point to some areas of concern, especially around video advertising

The biggest challenge the Times faces is to reengineer its journalism to appeal to a much broader digital audience, and to do so before others seize the opportunity its caution to date has opened up

Improving volume trends and ARPU drove Virgin Media’s cable revenue growth to improve from 3.0% to 3.6%, helped by a firm price increase implemented during the quarter

Underlying OCF growth improved more dramatically, from -1% to +6%, with synergy benefits, lower marketing costs and lower premium channel cost growth some of the main drivers

While volume growth is still modest, solid ARPU growth and cost control should allow continued strong OCF growth through the rest of the year

The referendum on Scotland’s independence from the UK, which will take place on 18 September 2014, has seismic implications for businesses trading there, especially financial service providers, but little impact for businesses in rUK

Although the No vote remains ahead, the Yes vote has gained significant ground and the likely outcome is now too close to call. If the Yes vote prevails, Scotland will constitute a new and separate market of 5.3 million individuals, compared to the UK’s single market of 63 million today

As for the economy, Scotland’s Future, the White Paper issued by the Scottish Government on behalf of the SNP, details key assumptions such as currency union, expedited EU membership on UK terms and resilient fiscal revenues from oil and gas, which look to be under pressure, while key policies on individual, company and product taxation and regulation are in the hands of the next Scottish Parliament elected in May 2016

At its f8 developer conference, under the slogan “Build, Grow, Monetise”, Facebook rolled out a slew of new policies and initiatives designed to boost its appeal amongst users, app developers and advertisers

In its drive to encourage developers to build more apps that support the social network, Facebook is attempting to position itself as a “cross-platform platform” with 1 billion+ users that sits on top of iOS, Android and other mobile operating systems

Key announcements included App Links, an open source solution enabling linking across apps, which may drive additional usage, and Facebook Audience Network, an app ad network rolling out this year, which should drive additional margin and could challenge Google AdSense

Q3 2014 saw adjusted revenues up by 7% across the first nine months of fiscal 2014, helping to offset the large cost increases due to the new Premier League contract and investment in accelerating take-up and usage of connected services

In line with strengthening the online offer, retail subscription revenues were well up in the quarter, which saw further strong growth in NOW TV and Sky Go Extra subscriptions, while bad weather and losses due to the final integration of O2 customers temporarily subdued broadband growth

Continuing expansion of the total paid for multi-product subscription base and launch of new transactional and adjacent revenue streams appear the key drivers of future revenue and profit growth, while the next and looming Premier League auction remains the joker in the pack

Northern & Shell has concluded the sale of the Channel 5 Group for the price of £450 million, a little over midway between the £103 million spent on acquiring Channel 5 from RTL in 2010 and the quoted target price of £700 million at the beginning of the year

Channel 5’s fourth place in the strong and buoyant UK advertising market, its PSB privileges and current audience and operating performance make it a rare and attractive opportunity for US groups like Viacom seeking to expand their international footprint

Among the challenges facing Viacom are the integration of the free-to-air Channel 5 Group reaching a broad audience with its own largely pay-TV channels aimed at the younger age groups. In the process, we expect Viacom to deepen its ties with Sky, including advertising sales, where further consolidation appears likely

Facebook has successfully transitioned its business to mobile, with the number of mobile users now exceeding those on PC, and mobile newsfeed ads accounting for nearly all revenue growth and over half of total revenue, now on a $10 billion annual run-rate

North America and Europe continue to account for the vast majority of revenue and revenue growth, despite flat audience penetration in both regions, as increasing mobile consumption and advertiser take-up have driven sharp increases in ARPU, particularly in the US

Despite tougher comparables and declining desktop revenue going forward, the rapid ramp up in mobile ad revenue, plus initiatives such as video ads, ads on Instagram and planned mobile ad network, should deliver strong growth through 2014 and into 2015

The boom in mobile device sales accelerated in 2013, with more than four times as many smartphones and tablets as PCs shipped in the UK: smartphones accounted for three quarters of mobile phone sales, and shipments of tablets surpassed PC sales, which fell sharply

By 2020, we forecast that smartphone penetration will rise from two thirds of the population to over 80%, and the number of tablet users will exceed 60%, outstripping the PC internet audience, which we expect to shrink. We now predict that the majority of internet usage will go to mobile devices this year and three quarters by 2020

Mobile is well on its way to becoming the predominant access platform in the UK, as in the US, and most, if not all, future growth in commercial internet revenues will be driven by mobile devices

Netflix is making steady progress with the global expansion of its streaming business, which now makes up 20% of total revenues, but is still far short of its long term vision of 70-80% share

Building a large presence in Europe is vital to long term success. The signs are that Netflix is steadily growing its UK and Ireland base, and performing even more strongly in the Nordics and possibly also in the Netherlands

We are reaching the most critical point of Netflix’s European journey, as it contemplates entry into the key markets of France and Germany. Germany looks the more obvious first choice, with rumours of a September launch, but ideally Netflix will want an autumn launch in France too, if it can handle the extra strain on budgets

US recorded music retail sales fell 5% in 2013 to $5.5 billion on a bruising 17% decline in physical sales and a sharp slow-down in digital growth

DTO retail sales slipped for the first time in 2013, a trend that continued in Q1 2014. On a brighter note, the leap from 3.4 to 6.1 million subscribers makes the US the top market for the format

At the wholesale level, the fall in revenues from B2C sales was entirely offset by the rise in B2B revenues from ad-supported music where usage is booming – in 2013, B2B contributed 16% of wholesale revenues of $4.5 billion