[jfman]

Consolidation is merely the concession over how few of them have business models.

There’s a reason the pay-tv model in almost every developed market coalesced around competing satellite and cable platforms. In the analogue satellite days people could, should they wished, launch their own channels with separate viewing cards and decoders.

Similarly under Sky Digital they are required to make available the Videoguard service to any two bob operator that wants to launch a channel. What do we see? A plethora of soft-porn, Premier Sports, DAZN and a graveyard of former sports channels. U-Direct, Setanta, ESPN. Deep pockets venture capital dried up when the business (also known as customers) weren’t there.