When the announcement of HBO Max’s UK launch finally came this week, many observers expected a follow-up from Sky confirming that the service would be available to existing subscribers, along with a reference to Sky Atlantic somewhere in the 9th paragraph.

Instead, it was Sky’s announcement that Disney+ will join the group of services offered under its umbrella that attracted the headlines. Disney+ will sit alongside Netflix, Paramount+ and Discovery+, as well as HBO Max. This means that four out of the five most popular streaming services will have preferential distribution arrangements with the Comcast-owned platform. The sixth service is Apple TV+, while Hayu – also announced today – does not feature prominently in BARB’s most recent Establishment Survey.

The notable exception is Amazon Prime Video, whose business model emphasises value through bundled benefits and a feature set that includes regular visits to your neighbour to collect parcels.

Each partnership operates differently. Netflix, as in many markets, was the first to be integrated. Paramount+ is not available to basic subscribers but only to those who subscribe to Sky Cinema, while the new Disney-branded movie channel is positioned to surface titles that might otherwise be overlooked within the streaming service itself. Across these offerings, subscribers typically have the option to upgrade to an ad-free tier.

Both Sky and the streamers have undergone significant change. After Sky launched Sky Multichannels more than 30 years ago, it became a leading aggregator and a stable distribution environment for what were then relatively new linear channels. It is now performing a similar role for streaming platforms, although its strategic need appears greater the second time around. As Sky demonstrated last week by consolidating Sky Showcase and Sky Max into a revived Sky One, the number and prominence of linear channels are declining.

Streaming services, which initially positioned themselves as ad-free, have increasingly introduced advertising to expand their addressable markets. Sky can help protect these services from volatility in subscriber numbers, particularly where audiences may subscribe temporarily for a flagship series like The White Lotus, but show less sustained interest in subsequent franchise extensions.

Unlike in the era dominated by linear channels, all streaming services will still be available direct to consumers. Nevertheless, bundling within Sky’s ecosystem offers a degree of stability by smoothing fluctuations in subscriber demand. Safety in numbers also means less churn for those under the umbrella.

GB News is to say the least, having a little local difficulty. The catalyst was the misogynistic comments made by actor turned political activist Laurence Fox against journalist Ava Evans.

Fox, who eventually apologised, was shown the door, as was Dan Wooton who was suspended, as was Calvin Robinson who voiced his supported for the suspended presenter.

Twitter is alight with comments from both sides of the argument, including the usual selection of people who seem to think it’s all the fault of the BBC.

When GB News launched we were sort of expecting a UK version of Fox News, except that Ofcom rules mean that on matters of political controversy at least GB News is required to be ‘Fair and Balanced’, which incidentally is a slogan once used by Fox News.

A right-wing news channel should be free to demand the restoration of the death penalty, but not make comments about a female journalist in the manner that would feel out of place in a sixth form common room.

Channel boss Angelos Frangopoulos says he was “appalled” by what happened and has personally apologised to Ms Evans.

But should we be surprised that it happened in the first place? Twitter/X can be a nasty place and when you set yourself up to replicate the arguments that live there on television, it isn’t going to end well.

Frangopoulos, who once ran Sky News Australia, says GB News is a different kind of channel and while he respects Ofcom GB News doesn’t fit under the same rules as News at Ten. His comments are a response to Ofcom’s investigation into how two GB News presenters, who also manage to find time to be Conservative MPs, should be allowed to interview a Conservative Chancellor a week before the budget.

If it’s not news it’s what we used to call current affairs, where Ofcom’s rules are just as applicable.

Maybe another problem for GB News is that it’s presenters just aren’t used to being presenters. It’s not like the launch of Sky News for example, where there was a trawal of the country’s regional newsrooms, and a few ‘overlooked’ presenters from network bulletin. Many, not all, have been picked for their political standpoint, not their experience of live TV.

If GB News is not a news channel, it probably doesn’t need the word in its title.

It hasn’t been a good week for streaming services; Netflix lost 40% of its market value after admitting that it may lose up to 2 million subscribers. CNN+ would be happy with half of those, a quarter, given the poor start for its new streaming service that has already been put out of its misery by the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery.

Netflix lost 200,000, that’s 50,000 more than CNN+ gained in its short news cycle, but it will be the 2 million that the pioneering streamer is expecting to shred over the next quarter that is worrying accountants.

The problems facing Netflix are varied but boil down to how will it acquire new subscribers and hold onto those it already has.

This week’s revamp of its categories menu underlines one issue on Netflix; how to find the content. Mrs Clover and I have worked our way through The Crown and quite a bit of Bridgerton, but we like a good detective drama. Trouble is we’ve either watched most of what’s on offer or decided they’re not for us. That doesn’t stop the Netflix algorithm showing us the same shows.

Friends tell me they’ve watched some excellent documentaries and reality shows on Netflix, but this isn’t what is presented to us.

Two ‘Netflix’ shows we are enjoying are Big Bang Theory and Chicago Med. Except that they belong to two US networks that have their own streaming services, so will be heading for Paramount and Peacock at some point in the future.

Other shows have already been clawed back by those who have watched the growth of Netflix with envious eyes. ITV’s Downton Abbey, which seems to be everywhere anyway, is next to go.

The Crown and Bridgeton, and new release Anatomy of a Scandal, show that Netflix is more than capable of creating its own content, but without the familiarity of another Star Trek spin off or Fresh Prince reboot. This seems a much greater problem, but one that it is looking to solve through star deals with the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Idris Elba and Will Smith. OK, not so much Will Smith these days.

As a self-confessed news junkie, I’m disappointed I’ll never see CNN+ make it in Europe. The last stand of WarnerMedia went for the familiar, but of course the same familiar that viewers were already getting elsewhere. It’s demise after just a month in office suggests that no one is too big to fail and there’s a reasonable chance that we’ll see a few more as broadcasters look to make their way and consumers count the pennies amid an economic shift.

The same could be said for the streaming services run by the UK’s public broadcasters. While the BBC iPlayer has been a constant since its launch on Christmas Day 2007, other brands have come and gone, remember 4oD? And how about ITV Player?

This week, ITV announced it was dropping the ITV Hub brand it had used since 2015 in favour of ITV-X. The new moniker is designed to supercharge ITV’s streaming services and was inevitably greeted with the collection of ‘Netflix-killer’ headlines that normally appear anytime a company of size launches any streaming service whatsoever. Smaller launches get described as ‘The Netflix of Knitting’.

ITV-X is what management think the broadcasting landscape will look like in future years. From today’s standpoint they’re probably right. And with a brand as powerful as ITV the proposition of an advertising-supported basic tier leading to a paid-for service without the commercials is attractive.

We’ve seen similar offers from the US streamers such as NBC’s Peacock and we learn Disney+.

Over Christmas, ITV dropped episodes of its popular soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale and assorted other festive treats onto ITV Hub at the start of each day. So the intriguing piece from ITV’s proposals is the idea that major dramas could premier on ITV-X sometimes several months before their linear transmission. ITV will have done its sums, but would you really want to do that with a show that could attract, even now, considerable advertiser interest.

Into the fold comes Britbox, I confess to be pleasantly surprised to see numbers in excess of 700,000 – and remember it’s only on Sky via Amazon. But ITV knows that despite the trend towards subscription stacking it doesn’t want consumers choosing between its two children.

The ITV family of channels also includes ITV; ITV2; ITV3; ITV4; CITV and ITVBe. It’s a reasonable supposition that the +1 channels might be leaving the dinner table first. Who needs to watch something an hour later when it’s available at any time?

Every autumn, celebrities slap on the fake tan and head out on the dancefloor with a professional partner to compete in the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. Viewers have two things on their minds, who will lift the glitterball trophy, and will any of the celebrities fall for the sparkling sequins of their professional partner? It is, at least according to the gossip columns, the ‘Curse of Strictly’.

Sky Sports has held the rights to the Premier League since its inception in 1992, but since 2007 it has shared the rights with a string of other broadcasters, sparked by the intervention of the European Commission on competition grounds. Giving viewers a choice also meant more money for the Premier League and an early example of subscription stacking.

First on the dancefloor was Setanta Sports, who secured two of the available six packages from 2007 to 2010, giving it 46 live matches a season to Sky’s 92. But by 2009 Setanta’s UK operations were in trouble, having already defaulted on payments to the Scottish Premier League, the English Premier League terminated its contract.

For the 2009/10 season, Setanta’s 92 matches were picked up by ESPN, which had been building its presence in the UK and Europe. But four years in, ESPN began to get cold feet, its Classic Sports channel was folded up and it was BT Sport that picked up rights.

BT Sport was set up as a means to draw people to BT and its broadband packages – I was recently called to see if I would be interested in such a package but on my street in Central Cambridge just 3.5 Mbps was possible. Over time BT has begun to charge for its sports and a portfolio that also includes Premiership Rugby and International Cricket, and has signed deals with Sky that allow subscribers to both companies to see each other’s channels.

But a change of management from the flamboyant Gavin Patterson to Philip Jansen signalled a change of direction. BT’s financial statements put the emphasis back onto its core business, in particular broadband, and started to leave TV behind.

The emergence last year of BT’s plans to sell or find a partner for BT Sport wasn’t a surprise. However, there were two names on its dancecard, DAZN and Discovery, and it was with the US giant with which BT has chosen to tango.

The deal is far from done, but will keep interest for the major sports rights holders when the first post-Covid renewals approach. Both packaging and branding will be areas to watch. Will Eurosport stay in basic pay for UK audiences with BT Sport being a premium brand, or will the BT Sports channels and its enhanced viewing apps find themselves as part of the discovery+ offer?

And does Discovery have the staying power to break the curse that has seen off previous holders of that second set of Premier League rights? It certainly has deep pockets to its flared trousers.

And so it was when I switched on to Amazon’s coverage of the US Open. Previously the event had been split between Sky and Eurosport, with the Discovery-owned channel taking last year’s event exclusively.

Immediately my commentators on Andy Murray’s second round match against Fernando Verdasco were familiar from previous years. Mark Petchey was sat alongside Greg Rusedski. We had a new excellent anchor in Catherine Whitaker, who has previously worked for Eurosport, beIN Sport and IMG Media, but as far as the production was concerned business as usual.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing. When I first navigated on my Apple TV box to the Amazon app I was confronted with a wall of Amazon-US Open logos. Which one do I choose? The description referring to individual courts and commentary from “our tennis experts”. If was Rusedski’s agent I’d be having a word.

The picture quality was questionable. This wasn’t the HD I had watched on Sky and Eurosport and seemed to be missing a frame from time to time. Other broadcast channels, such as BT, don’t have these issues when streaming.

And when the commentators told me I could see what was happening on other courts I was of course tempted. But I then lost the coverage for 30 seconds while I navigated from one to another.

Online criticism has been overblown, pausing the action for your own “comfort break” is fine, but there are no highlights or the text screens we’ve come to expect.

And of course when I fancied an early night Amazon Prime wasn’t available on my bedroom TV.

Amazon clearly has work to do before it begins its coverage of the Premier League next year.

Watching via an app, be it on the TV or a mobile device, is always going to be a different experience. But remember we’re told this is the future of our industry.

In switching from vinyl to .mp3s we’ve swapped quality for convenience. But as we know, sales of vinyl are increasing.

In any other week the announcement that Netflix was to be added to the Sky Q box and included as part of a new Entertainment package would have dominated the week’s news.

It didn’t too badly, but we also heard the music streaming service Spotify would also have a presence in Sky Q homes, and yet further improvements to the platform itself. And that’s without mentioning Comcast’s interest in the company as a whole.

When it comes to Netflix, Sky is late to the party, Virgin Media, BT TV and Freesat all have the app in their boxes, only EE has seemingly overlooked the popularity of the service.

But Sky has pulled off a masterstroke. On any other operator in you go to the Netflix app and you’re there with The Crown, Orange is the New Black and Star Trek Discovery. On Sky Q, Netflix content will be there with the rest of the Sky inventory, so Sky Originals such as Tin Star, Riviera, or Manchester United v Liverpool will be given equal billing. Smart.

And on the subject of billing the Netflix ‘membership’ is effectively added to the Sky subscription.

And don’t forget that in December Sky has also signed an agreement that will Sky subscribers to buy BT Sport.

But there’s more to just Netflix appearing on Sky Q. Sky is reclaiming the ground that once meant you had no reason to leave the Sky arena. It’s only movie service is arguably better than Netflix, it’s just that you end up paying more for fresher titles, and its original productions can also be the match of Netflix.

Previously Sky subscribers will have needed a separate app, perhaps on their smart TV, a streaming stick, or a Roku or Apple TV box.

There’s been no confirmation, but Sky’s long list of improvements to Sky Q included this line: The reach and accessibility of Sky Q will also be extended with the ability to stream content to more devices at the same time, plus a Sky Q app will become available on Smart TVs and third party devices.

To me that reads that we’ll start to see Sky Q extend beyond Sky’s own set-tops, side by side with Netflix (surprise), the catch-up services, and all sorts of TV content large and small. Now TV, Sky’s low-cost streaming service can already be found on many of these.

If the set-top box does eventually fade into history, Sky intends to hang around.

With two packages yet to be declared, BT Sport must also be reasonably cheerful, even if Saturday lunchtime isn’t quite as good a timeslot as the Saturday teatime one it holds now. At £295 million for 32 games it almost has a bargain, at least if you consider the fate of the previous rights holders Setanta and ESPN.

Between them the two broadcasters have committed £4.464 billion over three years.

The £1.3 million a season paid for the old first division in 1983 (source: S&P Global Market Intelligence) wouldn’t even make the down payment on a new player.

“The outcome so far of the auction will be relief for the incumbents Sky and BT. The rights are the keystone of their pay TV businesses, and a loss would certainly have met with a negative reaction from the UK stock market tomorrow morning. They have also seen off the prospect of a challenge from a newcomer like Amazon or Google – even though this prospect was more a case of hype than expectation,” said Tim Westcott, director – research and analysis, programming, IHS Markit.

Indeed, the whole presence, or lack of it, of Amazon or Google suggests they’re playing the long game in the extreme. Based on BT’s £9 million a game that’s a lot of extra parcels that would need to be shipped.

Richard Amos of Ostmodern, which works with broadcasters and sports brands alike thinks an entrance from the tech guys is still a possibility. “Arguably, if the rumours are true it’s a smart tactic from the Football League looking to test the water by trialling Amazon’s ability to add value to the live sports experience, as the latter have with the NFL. It’s certainly interesting to see how this will play out,” he says.

In Germany, Amazon have audio rights to the Bundesliga, which reminds me in part of how Sky began coverage of overseas Test Cricket, before persuading the ECB that it should drop out of the list of protected sports events.

The football fan has never been so lucky as to see the Premier League on free-TV in the first place.

Legislation has finally caught up with the modern world, though it seems unlikely the BBC and the TV Licensing agency will actively pursue those who don’t get a licence, at least not immediately.

Tabloid stories that detector vans would patrol the streets checking on what’s passing over the nation’s Wi-Fi seem far-fetched to say the least and were soon stamped on.

That said, it’s still illegal and is accompanied by a £1,000 fine, which makes the £145.50 of the licence suddenly sound attractive.

The simplest of ideas would be to require viewers to enter their Licence Fee number before being allowed to view. After all there’s the BBC iD to log in and get your favourite iPlayer shows or even Facebook to make sure you get the weather forecast relevant to where you live.

As of Thursday viewers are presented with a simple question. Do you have a TV Licence? Well of course I do.

To complicate matters the not everything on the iPlayer requires a licence. If you’re a Welsh speaker you can continue to watch Pobol y cwm on S4C without fear of prosecution. The same goes for the separate services from ITV, Channel 4 or indeed Sky Go, though of course you need a Sky subscription for that.

But in the same way the BBC never wanted a smart card integrated into the early Freeview boxes, popping in your licence fee, assuming you could find it, would take the corporation to close to its commercial rival Netflix, and away from the universal service of a public service broadcaster.

This year’s IBC was a little like that, for circling above the halls of Amsterdam RAI centre were a number of technologies all waiting to land, the exception being 3D which had long since been diverted to Stansted.

The themes were obvious, 4K, The Cloud (whatever it really means) and Multiscreen. 4K had the advantage of being of interest both to the production sector that makes up half of the event and the distribution sector that takes up the other.

Samsung’s curved 4K screen in Hall 1 causing one wag to suggest that its refined edges would help get it through the door. Sony, which must be hoping for a camera pay day had three 4K screens joined together, software ensuring that you couldn’t see the join. It may have been the lighting, because Sony’s giant 12K x 2K screen using three 4K projectors above me made the ‘standard’ 4K set nearby look decidedly inferior.

Despite the fanfare I didn’t actually see much if any World Cup 4K footage, which the show organisers must have been hoping for when they gave governing body FIFA the show’s best of breed award, though there was some French Open Tennis on the Intelsat stand. Most of the other 4K screens were showing things like rolling rivers or snow-capped mountain tops, sort of Britain’s got Pixels. All this suggests that some parts of the industry may be keener than others to get 4K going in a consumer environment.

On arrival in Amsterdam I was whisked away to the Ericsson media facility in Hilversum where the company was making good on its purchase of Microsoft Mediaroom. A two-pronged strategy to breathe life into Microsoft’s prodical son came alongside a commitment to the TV industry – as if the string of purchases made over the last few years wasn’t enough to demonstrate their seriousness to the sector.

The new Mediaroom, to be precise MediaFirst, puts the platform on a par and maybe ahead of its peers. It remains dependent on operator decisions, but the upgrade path will make the decision easier for some.

In the conference I thought it was unlikely that after Will.i.am, the commitee would be able to find another speaker with a Top 10 hit to his name. Step forward Professor Brian Cox, the keyboard player with D:ream, now hailed by Sir David Attenborough as the new David Attenborough. The scientist is a born communicator and his passion both for his subject and learning through broadcasting was evident. There remains a feeling that the IBC Conference is principally about the US and the UK. I was able to chat with the international press, but it felt at times as if the 4th Estate was being overrun by our analyst friends.

My flight back into Cambridge International Airport ended up being one into Norwich. At least I wasn’t in a holding pattern.