Apple’s hardware-driven strategy for music recently passed two major milestones, with 10 billion paid track downloads and 250 million iPods sold

In 2009, Apple ‘returned’ to record labels and publishers roughly $1.9 billion, while generating gross profits in the region of $3.2 billion from the sale of iPods and music

Of wider significance to Apple is the music strategy’s contribution to building a mass market brand and expanding its customer base, helping to drive adoption of their computers and, more recently, the iPhone

VMed’s Q4 results were again strong; the May 2009 price increases continued to lift revenue and operating cash flow, as expected

There are continuing grounds for optimism, including further price hikes, cost reduction and modest turnarounds at Mobile and Business

There was no news regarding content M&A, but a sale some time this year appears likely and should have a significant positive impact on the company’s financial position

The switchover to digital television is well advanced in Europe – it is already completed in The Netherlands, Sweden and Germany (but not on cable) and will be over in all other large markets by 2012

This report presents a cross-country comparative assessment of TV platforms switching over and the emergence and adoption of new digital platforms, such as DTT, IPTV and free digital satellite

Trinity Mirror (TM) has acquired Guardian Media Group’s (GMG) regional media business for £7.4 million cash, also releasing GMG from a £37.4 million liability print contract

The deal is the first significant consolidation play since the cyclical downturn that started in 2008 helped reduce local newspaper advertising by about 35% or £1 billion. TM is understood to have beaten private equity to the deal, signalling that consolidation activity in local media may be starting to warm up

While the price tag appears small for a business that generated £94.5 million in FY 2009, its operating profit had fallen to £0.5 million, and TM should be able to realise measurable local synergies and cost savings

Recent news flow – including Google UK’s Q4 2009 results and reports of facebook’s rapid revenue growth – points to a better than expected recovery in internet advertising. On a like-for-like basis, we estimate that online ad spend grew 2.2% last year to £3,425 million or 23.5% share of total advertising

We have raised our 2010 UK forecasts and now predict that Google’s UK gross revenue will grow 12.5% YoY, helping to drive online advertising spend up 7.6% to £3,685 million (excluding sites currently not reported by IABUK/PwC)

The economy remains an issue, with the potential impact of tax rises and cuts in Government spending in H2 threatening the already anaemic recovery. In our view, the balance of risk is still on the downside

Large parts of print media face existential problems from the structural decline of consumption and core advertising businesses, and the growth of an internet model of free content and large-scale disaggregation

Employment trends in US media underline the depth of the decline in sales of print media (no similar data is available for the UK), across newspapers, periodicals and books

Publishers are being forced to search for business models that align with new patterns of consumer behaviour –and which make money

Sky fiscal H1 2010 results show continued resilience in the face of weak economic conditions, delivering strong net subscriber growth, a big lift in ARPU, and a record lift in HD subscriptions, almost 200,000 up on any previous quarter and only just short of the half a million mark

Sky+ HD is now manifestly the centre point of a three-pronged operational strategy that focuses on driving customer growth, selling more products into the customer base and seeking efficiencies in fixed costs

Sky 3D, due for residential launch in H2 2010, fits in well with the core Sky+ HD proposition and the satellite operator looks well placed to combat growing retail competition from other platforms, assuming Ofcom implements its wholesale pay-TV proposals for Sky premium subscription films and sports some time in spring 2010

France Télécom’s forthcoming Chief Executive Officer, Stéphane Richard, is considering a radical shake up and potential U-turn of Orange’s TV ‘content’ strategy, initiated and driven by CEO Didier Lombard

Orange could withdraw entirely from supplying premium pay-TV channels (sports and film) and distribute only third party content, as has been the focus of other broadband suppliers

A retreat of Orange from TV content would enable a more active cooperation with the Canal+ Group, benefiting both partners, who have largely overlapping subscriber bases

Spotify is among the leading providers of legal online music streaming services in major European markets such as the UK, France and Spain. Entry to the US is rumoured and would make sense to establish the brand as a global one

As this report details, the commercial viability of the ad-supported ‘free’ service in a market that is five times the size of the UK will depend crucially on the royalty structures agreed by licensors, including recorded music companies and publishers

The Court of Appeal’s (CA) dismissal of Sky’s second attempt to overturn the Competition Commission’s (CC) decision that it must reduce its 17.9% shareholding in ITV to below 7.5% makes it increasingly probable that Sky will comply with the CC ruling at some point during 2010/2011

Although the CA’s dismissal of Sky’s appeal has always seemed the likely, even if never certain, outcome, the extra time consumed has so far benefited Sky greatly as the ITV share price has recovered from a low of below 20p in March 2009 to around 60p in January 2010

Sky’s share purchase was seen by ITV and others as unwanted interference in ITV’s affairs, but there was no suggestion of interference during the whole period of review by the competition and judicial authorities, while the outcome suggests that any future interest shown by other leading UK TV media players will probably also raise tough competition issues