helm, this, is the ! i'm sally bundock. a fan-£2»; 1-45 5&2; isiff 557— 91254552; and competition mounts? plus, the markets. asian shares rising on hopes of an easing of trade tensions, after press reports that the us treasury secretary is pushing to lift tariffs on chinese goods, despite the treasury appearing to deny this. hello. we are going to start with the streaming giant, netflix. but it seems that those numbers weren't quite good enough

for wall street, because shares fell sharply in after hours trade. and netflix could be facing tougher times over the coming years. let's take a look at some numbers. netflix ended the year with 139 million subscribers. just under 8.9 million people signed up as paying customers in the three months to the end of december. more than 7 million of them were actually outside of the united states. the company made revenues of almost $4.2 billion in the period — more than 27% more than the same period last year. but that was not as much as wall street was expecting. and that sent shares down in after hours trade. netflix is spending vast amounts on new programmes. it had a budget of $8 billion last year — $1 billion more than 2017. great news for actors, writers, directors, but investors want to see that paying off in terms of revenues. well, expectations are high. the shares have had quite a rollercoaster ride and they're up around 75% since the start

of last year — making it one of the best performing of the tech giants. but there's growing competition. the likes of disney, amazon, facebook and warner media are all trying to take it on with their own original content, as are local players in countries such as india. that's forcing the company to up its game. to fend off competition, netflix has been pumping in money to expand its portfolio of original content across different languages and strengthen its international presence. now, the company's its international presence. now, the compa ny‘s earnings report its international presence. now, the company's earnings report comes as it announced earlier this week it would be increasing the monthly fee in the us by $1 a month. —— in the us by $1—$2 a month. guy bisson is research director at ampere analysis. it is quite interesting netflix is defining the competition these days because it seems like it is really coming from all angles. yes, they say that really the traditional tv

channels and not the competition, other things like youtube, other platforms and especially young people are watching, are their main competition. i was really interested in the main comments they made in that letter, saying that actually they got more subscribers than a bit ofa they got more subscribers than a bit of a peak in the mad when youtube and down on people not able to look at clips of a game called fortnite. —— youtube went down. at clips of a game called fortnite. -- youtube went down. absolutely, we tend to think of it as being about a certain demographic, the so—called millenials, but that is increasingly becoming the standard way of watching tv across all age groups. in fact, a key growth market for netflix is the older generation, who also adopting behaviours. this is it, it is the changing habits right across the world one area where they have not quite penetrated in terms of subscriber base is low income households. they are not going to be to happy with the idea of price hikes, which is what we are expecting to see rolled out across the world, no? qualcomm is quite

interesting. a segment of their customers are price sensitive, so those others low income households. what we tend to see with those customers is a substitution of another kind of atv, so while wealthier household will take both pay—tv and netflix, a low income family will take the decision to ditch and once they ditch, they might takea ditch and once they ditch, they might take a second or third streaming service, amazon, hulu, or something else. hugh chalmers of people joining something else. hugh chalmers of peoplejoining the something else. hugh chalmers of people joining the service but they have got themselves in is quite difficult hamster wheel, they need increased subscribers in order to get the debt to fund the content. —— huge numbers. how sustainable is that model? so we put our report couple of months ago that said actually, think of netflix as a tv

thatis actually, think of netflix as a tv that is run like an internet company. you all familiar with internet companies worrying about profit down the line, what that will allow them to do is to begin to wipe out that free cash flow deficit, which is funding the content. once that starts to happen, i think we will see a very different reaction to their balance sheet. watch this space. thank you very much, have a good weekend. thank you. staying with the united states, where this sunday it's exactly two years since president trump took office. since then, the us economy has continued to grow, but businesses have also been faced with considerable uncertainty, especially when it comes to trade policy. michelle fleury reports from michigan. machines whirring, sparks flying, the business of a small manufacturing company is booming. this man credits donald trump or the positive change here seen at his own

shop. tariffs on imported steel and made it easier to convince customers to buy locally. what resonated with me on the economy is the promise of the donald trump gave us that he wa nted the donald trump gave us that he wanted to bring jobs back to the united states and back to america and help american families, and i believe that is exactly what he is following through on those promises. donald trump can't claim full credit for the strength of the us economy, it started under his predecessor, barack obama. but to understand his popularity here in the industrial midwest, you need look no further than business confidence. especially among small business owners. this chart shows how optimistic small—business owners in the us have been over the last ten years, and this bike coincides with the moment donald trump was elected. the strongest economy i have seen in my lifetime. this man runs on economic development partnership. he says the president's tough talk on trade is

popularly and a tariff pause in china are creating uncertainty. we have a number of companies in this cou nty have a number of companies in this county that do importing and exporting, and there is no question it has made an impact their bottom line. is it enough to change local businesses's minds when it comes to trump. at this point, it really isn't. at the local coffee shop, opinions were divided. isn't. at the local coffee shop, opinions were dividedlj isn't. at the local coffee shop, opinions were divided. i think trump has benefited from that, and i think a lot of what he claims he has been responsible for was already in motion. how do you think donald trump is doing on trade? there have been upside down with all of our international trade agreements for years, he is trying to correct that situation. changing allegiances in america's industrial heartland helped donald trump win the white house. he has promised —— is promised to bring back manufacturing jobs resonated in 2016, a message that still has power to hit two yea rs that still has power to hit two years later. —— that still has power

to hear. —— that still has power here. let's stay with president trump's policies, because markets have been getting a boost on reports his treasury secretary steven mnuchin is pushing to roll back import tariffs on chinese goods when the two sides meet at the end of the month. the us treasury though seems to be playing down the idea. rico hizon is following this for us in singapore. victoria. hello, happy friday. take it away and. well, you mentioned about the us treasury playing down the idea and this is certainly not having any impact whatsoever on asian investors's sentiment, victoria. most markets are currently rising today as many believe there is real progress in this ongoing us china trade talks, and everyone knows much first is the end of trade truce deadline, so traders see a resolution much sooner than expected, so you had the likes of hong kong, china, japan, south korea

and most of south east asia currently in positive territory. when you speak to analysts, they say that china seems to be running low on options, while the us would also wa nt to on options, while the us would also want to avoid a prolonged conflict given the negative consequences on its market and economy. 0k, thank you very much, have a lovely weekend. see you later. now let's brief you on some other business stories. president donald trump has cancelled his entire delegation‘s trip to the world economic forum in davos, switzerland next week because of the partial government shutdown. the president himself pulled out last week, but treasury secretary steven mnuchin and the secretary of state, mike pompeo, were expected to lead the us delegation in his place. a federal grand jury in detroit has indicted four managers at audi as part of the us government's investigation into diesel emissions cheating by the parent company, volkswagen. vw admitted in september 2015 to secretly installing software in nearly 500,000 us vehicles to cheat exhaust emissions tests, and pleaded guilty in 2017 to felony charges.

let's have a loot at what is trending in the business news this morning. cnbc has worked out what you'd have made if you invested $1000 in netflix in 2007. the answer: $90,000. and bloomberg is looking ahead to china's key economic growth figures on monday. it sees the impact of the trade war, but also whether the population could start to shrink if birth rates continue to go down. plenty more, including the markets. i will see you soon. pharmacists say that they are struggling to obtain some medicines, including common treatments for depression and high blood

pressure, and are paying vastly increased prices for them. stockpiling for brexit appears to be a significant factor. the department of health and social care says that the vast majority of drugs are not in short supply. our health correspondent catherine burns reports. this is partly a question of supply and demand. would supply goes down, demand goes up and prices can increase too. when this happens to vital medicines, the government agrees to pay a premium . them. agrees to pay a premium for them. the list of - prices is % every month in the bbc has published every month in the bbc has analysed that data over the last three years. in england, there has been increase in the been a sixfold increase in the number of medicines on a monthly list. in january 2015, number of medicines on a monthly list. injanuary 2015, there were 12 on it. the numbers started to climb in 2017 when it peaked at over 90. at the end of last year, there was a surge from 45 to 80. another worry is that many of these drugs are very

common, everything from anti—inflammatories and epilepsy drugs to blood pressure medication and antidepressants. for patients, obviously it is concerning is the medicine is not available, and certainly we would advise patients to order the medicines in advance that they can do so in case there are any problems, it gives the pharmacist more time to deal with that. there are many possible factors explaining this, from an increased global demand the problems with raw materials. the national farm is pharmacy association says brexit appears to be a significant factor because of what it calls unconscious stockpiling, everyone along the chain holding onto extra medicines in case of an ideal brexit. —— national pharmacy association. more than 2 million items are association. more than 2 million items a re successfully association. more than 2 million items are successfully dispensed in england every day. for that story and more, breakfast will be coming up at 6am with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. they'll have all the day's news. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines:

prince philip, the queen's husband, is recovering after a car he was driving collided with another vehicle and overturned. he was said to be shaken but unharmed. thousands take to the streets of the sudanese capital, khartoum, demanding the resignation of president omar al—bashir. now it is time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the news media across the world. we start here in the uk, where one topic is dominating the front covers of most of the papers, and that is the car crash involving the duke of edinburgh. the daily mail has an image of his land rover on its side. the paper asks, how did he walk away? next we cross the atlantic and examine a story from the wall streetjournal. it says us officials have considered lifting or rolling back sanctions on china, which have caused some turbulence on the markets. more potential problems on the front of the financial times, which has a story on the b—word — that's brexit to you and me.

the ft says an internal whitehall memorandum says britain is struggling to replace important trade deals before the uk is due to leave the eu. next up is bloomberg, which reports on four officials with the car firm audi. they have been indicted for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to defraud customers by cheating on emissions tests. finally, we turn to business insider, which reports on netflix‘s latest results. the online streaming service says it has nearly 140 million subscribers, but its value dropped slightly after itjust failed to achieve expected revenues for the fourth quarter. with me is bev shah, co—founder and chief executive of city hive. thank you very much. shall we start

with this story here? the duke of edinburgh, the daily mail saying how did he walk away? it seems extraordinary, looking at this image. this is a 2.5 ton car. yes, and he is a 97—year—old man who is extremely frail, from what we have heard about his health reports. i was actually shocked that he still drove himself, i know a few years ago he famously drove the obama is somewhere but i always thought that was a slight publicity stunt and it was a slight publicity stunt and it was a slight publicity stunt and it was a local drive, not a kind of long—distance journey that he was doing —— obamas. i think this obviously brings up issues to do