1 Netflix subscriptions boom globally (Gulf News) Netflix
added over 50 per cent more subscribers than expected in the third quarter as
original shows such as “Stranger Things” drew new international viewers and
kept US customers despite a price hike, sending its shares soaring 20 per cent
in late trade.
The company’s performance represented a turnaround
from the previous quarter of disappointing subscription growth. Netflix, which
has spent heavily to expand outside its home market, also said that it was on
track to start harvesting “material global profits” next year, even as it
raised spending on original programming.
Netflix added about 3.20 million subscribers
internationally in the third quarter, higher than the 2.01 million average
analyst estimate. In the US, Netflix added 370,000 subscriptions, compared with
analysts’ estimate of 309,000, according to research firm FactSet
StreetAccount.
Netflix has expanded into more than 130 markets
worldwide, including most major countries, except China. It said it was
dropping plans to launch a service in China in the near term, opting instead to
licence its shows for “modest” revenue. The company said it still hopes to
launch service in China “eventually.”
2 UK inflation near 1% (Phillip Inman, Sarah Butler
& Larry Elliott in The Guardian) Britain’s biggest supermarket has warned
that dearer food prices triggered by the plunge in the value of the pound will
have a lethal impact on poor families worst affected by the expected jump in
inflation over the next two years.
Although a price war among the leading food
retailers has so far blunted the impact of more expensive imports on grocery
bills, Tesco’s UK chief executive, Matt Davies, said rising prices would be
“toxic” for consumers if stores found that they had to pass on extra costs.
Official figures from the Office for National
Statistics showed the annual inflation rate rising from 0.6% to 1% in
September, its highest for almost two years. The ONS said the cost of living
had yet to be much affected by the drop in the value of the pound seen since
the EU referendum, but the Bank of England, the International Monetary Fund and
City economists believe that inflation will rise above the government’s 2%
target in early 2017 and will reach at least 3% by the end of the year.
3 Avocado toast and Aussie generation divide (BBC) Millennials
- give up your smashing avocado toast brunches and buy a house instead. That's
the message coming from Australia this week, leaving young people on social
media outraged, and those who are a little more seasoned in years scratching
their heads.
A column at the weekend for The Australian newspaper
by "baby boomer" columnist Bernard Salt contained one paragraph
asking why young people today spend their cash on fancy breakfast rather than
saving for a property.
"I can afford to eat this for lunch because I
am middle-aged and have raised my family. But how can young people afford to
eat like this? Shouldn't they be economising by eating at home? How often are
they eating out? Twenty-two dollars several times a week could go towards a
deposit on a house."
Mockery erupted on social media over the
mathematics, which suggest you could stop a weekly brunch for well over a
century and still not quite reach your savings goal. Comedian Deirdre Fidge,
writing for SBS, decided to share her "life story", titled "I
Stopped Eating Smashed Avocado And Now I Own A Castle".
But the comic reaction masked a concern by some that
young people simply can't access the housing market no matter how much they
save - so are spending their cash on enjoying life instead. "What do you
do when you can't afford to buy somewhere to live? Well, you decide to
live," Bridget Delaney wrote in The Guardian.
Australian foodie magazine Broadsheet - which is
naturally at the centre of the smashed avocado circle - argued that cafes have
become a social hub for millennials, whose friends are spread far and wide. But
they've gone one step further - collaborating with some of their favourite
cafes to launch "home savers" specials to several menus this week -
at about A$11 each.
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