Using a little understood provision of the merger rules, the government has asked Ofcom to take a look at the Sky stake in ITV, just in case the OFT did not come up with the right answer the first time round. As a result of the intervention, Ofcom will decide whether the share purchase reduced the number of separately managed broadcasters in the UK. Since this is almost exactly what the OFT is already doing, it is impossible to see how Ofcom could reach a different conclusion to the OFT. In this sense, the intervention has little point

With 84,000 net pay-TV additions in 2006, Sogecable resumed subscriber growth, but we expect this pace to decline in 2007 unless Sogecable re-positions on basic and expands distribution from satellite to cable and DSL

Set for launch in May/June, the BBC’s iPlayer is a PC-based application offering live and on-demand access to around 3,500 hours of BBC programmes per week via the internet, using peer-to-peer (P2P) and multi-cast technology to overcome cost and bandwidth issues

Virgin Media’s Q4 results were again mixed – increasing competition is continuing to have a significant effect on net additions but, as yet, most higher ARPU customers are staying put, permitting modest revenue growth

Commercial radio trade association launches new R.A.D.I.O. plan to achieve 20% revenue growth, increased share of listening and migration to digital platforms by 2011

Mobile WiMAX is still being heavily hyped as the future of mobile broadband, with Sprint in the US, with its $3 billion network rollout, being lauded as the pioneer

Vodafone and Orange are planning to share their 3G networks in the UK, and are looking at potentially sharing their 2G networks in due course

Hostilities between Sky and Virgin have intensified during the course of cable’s re-launch, Sky’s announcement of its pay-DTT plans, and bilateral negotiations over channel carriage fee payments on the satellite and cable platforms

Group revenue growth was strong but helped by a one-off price change and LLU supply issues at Openreach

This report sets out the technological, regulatory and consumer demand issues relating to the provision of mobile TV services in the UK. In summary, technology is uncertain, spectrum is scarce and demand is weak but, nonetheless, we expect industry enthusiasm to drive full multi-channel broadcast services before the end of the decade