“Brands are rightly advised to give creators breathing space because nobody understands how to engage their audiences better than they do,” said Ben Woods, head of creator economy at Enders Analysis. “But that freedom inevitably comes with some reputational risk when content crosses a line or generates controversy.”
Ben Woods, head of creator economy at Enders Analysis said the size of Perplexity’s planned budget shows the company is serious about creators as a promotional channel. But he said he doesn’t see the move primarily as an attempt to overcome wider concerns about AI safety.
“This is about getting potential users interested in AI’s usefulness and practical benefits,” Woods said. “Especially around why a user should adopt one AI tool over another.
“Most audiences are not afraid to challenge their favourite creators if a partnership feels disingenuous or the messaging becomes too corporate,” Woods said.
“TV can potentially help Vodafone’s broadband appeal to more people and help reduce churn because having a TV product creates a more differentiated experience,” said James Barford, head of telecoms research at Enders Analysis. “Once somebody’s got used to the TV product and enjoys it, they’re less likely to leave purely for price reasons.”
Unlike BT and Virgin Media O2, Vodafone does not own the fixed networks it relies on, instead paying providers including Openreach and CityFibre for access. Average revenue per user also remains low as internet operators compete heavily on price, meaning broadband is “marginally profitable at best, perhaps even slightly lossmaking”, said Barford.
“The TV add-on gives benefits to Vodafone broadband,” said Barford. “But then you may ask, well, what benefit does Vodafone broadband give Vodafone? And maybe strategically, it’s a good defensive move.”
Asked by the session moderator, Enders Analysis' managing director for telecoms, Karen Egan, whether CityFibre can't be considered to have the scale needed, he was unconvinced. While stating CityFibre's network footprint reaches roughly 4.5 million homes, "we would, with that deal, offer three times of that," Schüler said.
“Like all traditional media outlets facing platforms, and despite approximately 40% of its revenue already being generated digitally, Channel 4 is experiencing an advertising climate made all the more difficult by the suffering economy," explains Claire Enders, an industry specialist. “It needs to downsize.”
Enders Analysis published a report in May on Channel 4 titled Time for Reset, which said that a £69m drop in the broadcaster’s cash reserves to £49m at the end of last year marked their lowest level in more than 20 years.
Residents balked at the short notice, the inability to choose their own internet provider and the price. Average entry-level broadband prices in the UK are about £25 a month, according to Enders Analysis.
BT’s annual TV customer growth is now about 4 per cent, while heavily indebted Virgin Media O2’s TV customer base is declining by roughly 4 per cent a year, according to estimates from Enders Analysis. Sky does not publish any TV customer figures.
“These types of packages can appeal to certain types of broadband customers who want the simplicity of bundled services [without paying for] the full Sky bundle,” said James Barford, director of telecoms at Enders Analysis, who cited the growth of BT’s TV business, EE TV, as evidence.
“Reaching a $1bn run rate so quickly is impressive by any measure, and this is with official launches still being very fresh in most top-10 ad markets like Western Europe and Japan,” Jamie McEwan, a senior media analyst at media research service Enders Analysis told The Media Leader.
He noted, however, that the announcement has been received with “mixed reactions” by the advertising industry. While the $1bn figure is a significant demonstration of OpenAI’s rapid scaling of ChatGPT’s ad model and advertiser demand for AI chatbots more generally, it is still a modest figure relative to other tech platforms, and according to McEwan, “it now seems certain that OpenAI will miss its advertising revenue target for 2026 by quite a way, right when Anthropic has been overperforming.”
