this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. netflix's subcriber success — the streaming service's billion—dollar bet on original content is paying off after nearly 7 million new users joined the site. canada's cannabis countdown ends — marajuana is now legal and growers are looking to get high on the potential profits. and on the markets: well, a very different picture in japan. the markets are higher, thanks to the stronger earnings coming out the night before in the us. so, let's get stuck in. the streaming giant netflix has surprised investors with stellar subscription numbers in the third quarter. the share prices soared nearly 14% in after hours trading.

over the past three months the entertainment firm added nearly 7 million users around the world — around 1 million of those were in the us. that brings the total subscribers to 137 million. and that's largely down to the popularity of original shows like orange is the new black, which means that the company's $8 billion gamble to invest in its own programmes this year is paying off. netflix's stock has dipped somewhat over the last three months, but if we look further back it's one of the strongest performing us technology stocks — its share price has more than trippled in value over the past two years. and that's because in

the us, netflix leads in the living room. it's the most popular platform for watching tv, even ahead of cable and traditional broadcasters, but other streaming services are hot on its heals. rory cellan—jones asked netflix's chief executive about just that last year. and there youtube red, a subscription service, amazon, as you mentioned, potentially apple doing original shows, there is a lot of competition, great for the consumer, challenging for netflix, and a lot of room to grow. every year we have groomed. —— groan. are there warriors? absolutely. there is also excitement about what we can do. the boss of netflix admitting he can't rest on his laurels. richard broughton, research director at ampere analysis, joins me now. good morning. good morning. so, were

you surprised to see how well they are doing? i think netflix couldn't really afford to miss another target, so i suspect they threw everything into ensuring that they we re everything into ensuring that they were going to... managing expectations? i think so, they would have been cautious with the projection competitor last time and they would have wanted the market to react favourably to another performance. is it about the investment in original content paying off, what else are they doing thatis paying off, what else are they doing that is working? two things they are doing, one is huge volumes of original content in the us and internationally, and increases in marketing spend, so while it hasn't quite doubled year—on—year it has substantially gone up competitive thousand and i7. substantially gone up competitive thousand and 17. in particular it has had a marketing push in the us and we can see that has worked —— gone up compared to 2017. when will it be no longer that cheap on a monthly basis for subscribers? in

the uk for many of us who have netflix, compared to other options, it is much cheaper. one of the key markets to look out for is when the growth begins to dip, because this model is predicated on growth, it has a huge cash burn and it needs subscriber growth to fuel that, and as soon as it starts to dip we can expect netflix to bring up its prices so it can close some of the hole in that. while this is going on, while netflix seems to be growing and going from strength to strength, others in the media industry are positioning themselves, we have seen the commcast move in the uk, we have seen a lot of change in the media industry because they are trying to compete effectively with netflix? yes, some of the big studio groups, disney fox, time warner. they have plans to launch their own services individually from netflix. it is not much of a concern because it is small amounts of content from any individual studio.

collectively the fact that the whole industry is pushing towards competing platforms, it means netflix has to redouble efforts under this strategy. and when you say redouble the efforts under the original strategy that is fantastic for the independent sector, those who are making these productions that netflix and the others are gobbling up at the moment. yes, there is certainly a content boom at there is certainly a content boom at the moment but one note of caution i would sound is netflix is making a large number of investments into its own production facilities which means some of that spend won't be going towards the independent producers. so what could be a fly in the ointment for netflix? one thing that came up in the financial results was the eu content quotas coming infor results was the eu content quotas coming in for europe, requiring 30% of their content to be european works and netflix has downplayed this, but we suspect they are going to have to add hundreds if not

thousands of titles to meet the quotas. we shall watch this space, thank you so much for coming in. very interesting. now, let's have a look at today. wednesday marks an historic day for pot producers. cannabis will be legal in canada, making it the largest country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana. so it's not surprising that it's become a multibillion dollar industry there, and canada is positioning itself as the global marketplace for cannabis. samira hussain reports from ontario, canada. doob, weed, bud, call it what you want, the cannabis industry is coming into bloom in canada. this is no ordinary grow, a high—tech operation produces a staggering amount of legal marijuana. we are like a tech company that produces cannabis and it had to be done properly and was probably more of

about tech than it was about cush. inside this vault is where they keep the stuff that is ready to ship. security is tight and surprising, considering —— unsurprisingly considering —— unsurprisingly considering the half a billion dollars worth of outline the shelves, and those numbers have so many people getting high on the prospects for pot. this is bay street, toronto, and it is beginning to dominate the industry, says investor paul rosen. this is the hub of the industry, toronto is specifically where most of the global cannabis companies come to raise capital, most of the well—known us companies are coming to canada to list on the canadian securities exchange was they can't list on the nasdaq. even educators like bill mcdonald are cashing in on cannabis. there are licensed producers coming to me and saying we

need professionals and we can't find enough trained people for this. so it was only natural he started canada's first ever commercial cannabis programme. there were 300 applicants for only 2a spots. in this classroom, students are learning to cultivate marijuana on an industrial scale. the goal is to get them into cannabis companies fast to start running their production operations. there is also the added benefit of giving some of these students more legitimate, or legal, experience. it hasn't been a professional industry so the technologies have stayed minimal in order to keep it under the radar. does it mean you have illegitimate experience? yes, i do - ish, should i tell you my name? canada is the first country in the 620 to legalise recreational marijuana. whatever happens here will be closely watched by people around the world, both for the risks and for the potential

rewards. now, i know many of you watch this programme in canada because i hear from you quite often with messages et cetera so tell me what you think of that story if you're in canada, what do you make of this historic day? now let's brief you on some other business stories. us president donald trump has escalated his war of words against america's central bank, calling the federal reserve his biggest threat. the remarks were made during an interview with us media outlet fox business and renew the president's repeated criticism of the fed for its decision to raise interest rates. the international monetary fund says its managing director christine lagarde has deferred a planned trip to the middle east, skipping a major investment conference in saudi arabia. several senior executives from european and american banks and corporations have also withdrawn from the conference since the disapperance is journalist jamal khashoggi. ibm's turnaround plans are slow to bear fruit. the company reported worse

than expected revenue in the third quarter of nearly $19 billion, mostly as a result of slowing software sales. ibm has been trying to refocus on cloud computing and analytic services as demand for hardware declines. the united states tops the list of most competitive countries. it's the first time in ten years that america has come first in the highly regarded world economic forum global survey. the us edged out switzerland and singapore because of its vibrant entrepreneurial culture and strong labour market and financial system. let's look at financial markets — and different mood in asia today. you can see hong kong up slightly. japan seeing a much stronger session. a lot of this is because of

the earnings we have had out of the us. we have mentioned netflix. other earnings are rolling in as we go through the next quarter's set of results and so far they have been positive. and of course a close on wall street does help the sentiment on asia today as well. that is the business briefing. up next: newsbriefing. we'll take you through ther stories making headlines in the global news media today. a man has gone on trialfor the second time charged with the murder of 29—year—old girls 32 years ago. rushall bishop, 52, is accused of killing nicola fellows and karen holloway, who were found dead in woods near brighton in october 19 86. from the old bailey, daniela

ralph reports. more than 30 years ago the families came to court for the first murder trial. today they returned. at times in tears as they again sat through the evidence. karen was described as a sensible girl who knew right from wrong. nicola was said to be the stronger of the two. she was outgoing and would speak her mind. the girls were neighbours. their bodies were found on october ten, 1986. they had both been strangled and sexually assaulted. they were discovered together in wild park in brighton. just half a mile from their homes. they had both disappeared after going out to play. back then, russell bishop was arrested and tried for their murders, but he was acquitted and released. three years later, he assaulted and attempted to kill a seven—year—old girl. she survived and identified him. he was found

guilty at trial. today he was back in court again accused for the murder of karen holloway and nicola fellows. jurors were told there was new evidence, much of it dna —based. the prosecution told the jury that the bodies were discovered in undergrowth in wild park and that russell bishop told the police details of out the scene that only the killer himself could have known. this is a key location that the jury will see for themselves. all 12 jurors will be brought here from london to view and number of areas that are significant in this case. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: theresa may is set to make her case to eu leaders attending a crunch summit on brexit. but few expect the meeting in brussels to bring any breakthrough. us secretary of state mike pompeo is en route to turkey to continue discussions

about the disappearance of journalist jamal khashoggi. on tuesday, he met members of the saudi leadership. the prestigious publishing prize the man booker has been won by anna burns for her third novel, milkman. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the independent and the president of the european council donald tusk who has warned that there are "no grounds for optimism" ahead of a crunch brexit summit in brussels later today. meanwhile the sun says uk prime minister theresa may has told brussels there won't be a brexit deal unless they end plans to carve off northern ireland from the rest of the uk. speaking in the house of commons, the pm said britain and the eu are now "not far apart" on the key question of the irish border. the guardian leads with a warning from the eu that europe's security

is being put at risk by so—called "golden passport" schemes that have allowed some states to sell citizenship or residency to potentially "dangerous individuals". business website thestreet reports on netflix who have added nearly seven million new customers bringing its total to more than 137 million members worldwide. the growth was stronger than expected, prompting the firm's shares to jump more than 10% in after—hours trade. and finally the new york times asks "how high can canada get?" as the nation is poised to legalize marijuana today and embark on a cultural revolution as well as a dramatic social experiment.