With Xavier Niel becoming Vodafone’s largest shareholder, the company will be pleased to be able to demonstrate a solid set of Q1 results.

EBITDA upside is coming from Rest of World and appears largely attributable to the consolidation of Safaricom, but is nonetheless reassuring of the prospect of hard-currency growth.

We continue to have reservations about Vodafone’s value over volume strategy, with the upside of price increases often short-lived, and loss of scale a difficult place to come back from.

BT’s revenue and EBITDA growth suffered a dip in Q1, but entirely due to one-off/seasonal factors, with underlying metrics strong across the board.

Ofcom has curtailed Openreach’s ability to compete with altnets, while allowing it to compete with VMO2, a much more established and long-term competitor.

The deconsolidation of International makes the potential for a return to sustainable revenue growth much more apparent, with multiple drags (altnets, voice, price mechanics) now firmly on the wane.

Broadcaster reach has declined at different rates across the nations and regions, with Wales proving the most resilient. 

Older audiences show more consistent SVOD consumption across regions, while younger audiences drive greater regional variation. 

Drama series with a strong regional identity generate the biggest gaps between local and national performance.

As search-driven ambient discovery retreats, the inbox is becoming a top-of-funnel acquisition channel as well as a retention tool. Substack's value to publishers is infrastructure that gets content into inboxes, and email addresses into publisher databases.

The right strategy depends on the business model: paywalled publishers risk cannibalisation and use Substack as a funnel, while ad-funded publishers and broadcasters use it for parallel, personality-led brands.

Audiences attach to voices, be that an individual or a publication that talks like a real person. That attachment makes audiences portable, and that portability gets exercised when the economics justify it

In Q2, Netflix grew revenue 13% YoY (£12.6 billion), while narrowing its whole-year forecast between $51.0 and $51.4 billion. This was accompanied by an 11% lift in operating income ($4.2 billion). Advertising revenue continues to be on track to double this year to $3 billion.

Recent attention around Netflix’s engagement challenges helps to highlight that the streamer faces the same headwinds faced by all providers of long-form video, amplified by a net viewing loss from the push towards advertising.

As a counter to this, Netflix has a number of initiatives now to diversify its offering and increase engagement: some seem likely to stick and augment while others seem peripheral and value-skewing.

AI was the story of Cannes, both growing the market with new formats and cannibalising it. Not all AI increases to production are monetisable, creating disruption though the fundamentals of building engagement and resonance are unchanged.

Major platforms are still the main winners as supply ownership becomes key for differentiation. Agencies, adtechs, and commerce media are converging in function but diverging in approach as AI blurs the value chain.

Creative is at the centre of tensions between AI-led mass-market automation and human-centred bespoke connection. Platforms are defending SME audiences with end-to-end integration as agentic AI poses both opportunity and threat.

Service revenues improved sequentially but remained negative at -0.7%, with all major markets flat to improving.

Backbook price increases have become quite prolific, but there is a mixed picture on new-customer pricing and considerable ARPU pressure in most markets.

Regulatory push for better coverage in return for longer licences continues to gain momentum, with Portugal the latest to move in this direction.

After a significant period of negotiation, Sky’s offer for ITV’s broadcast and streaming operations has been accepted, with consideration between £1.4 and £1.6 billion (the upside being a performance-related earn-out). Most of the payment will be cash, although it will also include Love Productions, makers of Bake Off, valued at £200 million.

From completion, ITV Studios will operate as a standalone business although a Content Supply Agreement with Sky will maintain a consistent flow of content, of around £420 million per year, which is similar to current levels (excl. sport), but with the potential of further upside.

Sky is making firm commitments on ITV's PSB remit and news provision and plurality. The most pressing issue in regulatory clearance will be defining the relevant ads market: a 'broadcaster-only' definition is an anachronism.

Service revenue growth improved to -0.6%, aided by price-increase mechanics, although this will reverse next quarter.

FinTech MVNO launches have been somewhat tentative thus far, and mobile speed-tiering looks set to become the norm.

O2 has stepped up its price aggressiveness in both SIM-only and with-handset unlimited tariffs and is now the price-leading operator brand in this popular segment.

The government has narrowed the options for DTT switch-off to two dates, but copious details remain undecided, with clarity likely to take some time to emerge.

The DTT spectrum could improve rural and deep in-building coverage considerably, with the focus likely to be on the readily-usable 600MHz band which will be freed up in 2035 under either scenario, and is particularly attractive for BT/EE.

The impact on the broadband market is harder to judge given multiple uncertainties, with there being a potential boost to broadband adoption, albeit price control is a threat. However, playing a more active role in TV distribution is an opportunity.