In our bonus lunchtime session on Day 1, Lydia and I recorded a live edition of Riffs, looking at Evaluating Valuations.

Sure, it’s only an industry podcast / webcast but in this final episode of Season 1, Lydia and I discuss some genuine cliffhangers:

• An update on the Netflix / Paramount Skydance bids for Warner Bros Discovery
• The future of the BBC licence fee following the publication of a new consultation document which …
  

In this episode, Lydia and I discuss the Netflix bid for Warner Bros Discovery which, in the Netflix comms that followed, made it sound like a done deal.

I think it’s fair to say that whereas Lydia was quite bullish about the acquisition, I was (and still am) sceptical. Why? Regulatory …

When the news broke that Comcast had bid £1.6bn for ITV, Lydia and I thought, hands down, it would be the biggest story of the week. But then Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC resigned. Cue hasty updates to this episode where we discuss both developments. 

On the BBC, we …

Lydia and I were on a break last week (not in the Ross and Rachel in Friends kinda way!) so we didn’t get a chance to comment on Netflix’s Q3 financials. That’s easily fixed – we discuss them in this episode where we particularly focus on what Netflix spends on …

On last week’s Riffs episode, Lydia and I talked about the BBC and potential changes to the licence. This week, and to share the love, we focused on Channel 4 and ITV, who have both made a number of announcements lately.

Channel 4

Channel 4 …

At the Labour Party conference last week, Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, said that she was looking at a mixed funding format for the BBC to help protect it from future government interference. Options included a “mixture of licence fee, commercial funding …

On this week’s Riffs episode, Lydia and I discuss a range of topics including Sora 2 – OpenAI’s latest generative video AI model, Tilly Norwood – a new AI actor taking Hollywood by storm (or at least exercising human actors like Emily Blunt and trade unions like SAG-AFTRA), and the …

In our third Riffs episode, Lydia reviews the RTS Convention – an event for the great and the good from the TV and, to a point, OTT industries – which she attended in Cambridge last week (18/19 Sept. 2025). She tells me about:

• The PSB roundtable (featuring …
  

In our second Riffs episode, Lydia and I discuss reports that Paramount Skydance is preparing a takeover offer for Warner Bros Discovery. We talk about the particulars of any potential deal, how it could be funded and which bits of WBD the buyer might get. Lydia – who …