this is business live from bbc news with ben thompson and sally bundock. full stream ahead: netflix piles on the viewers and the profits as the competition for subscribers hots up. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday 17th april. the company is spending billions to try to keep ahead of its rivals. we'll find out how the competition plans to fight back. also in the programme... going for growth. china's economy picks up speed — we'll be live in beijing to find out why.

and that boosted markets in asia — here's how europe opened. it isa it is a mixed start. we get the latest inflation figures for the uk in an hourfrom now. thinking the unthinkable — we'll be finding out why so few of us are prepared for funeral costs. although it is an inevitability for us although it is an inevitability for us all. and we are talking about robots that have been launched to tidy up the toys in your children's bedrooms. we want to know if you would get a robot to tidy your kids rooms or should they do it themselves? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. there is a lot to get through as always. we start with netflix. the market for on—demand streaming services is getting crowded. the latest player — disney — is entering the fray

alongside netflix, amazon, hulu, youtube, apple and an array of others all vying for our subscription money. so, the latest figures from the biggest, netflix, are all the more impressive. it's still signing up more users, and managing to turn a small profit. so, what do the figures show? one of the most keenly watched numbers is how many new subscribers joined netflix at the beginning of this year. in the first three months it says it added 9.6 million paying subscribers — that's up 16%. all together, they helped the company bring in just over $4.5 billion, but profit was just $3“; million because the company spends so much on making the shows to attract audiences. it's expected to spend $15 billion on original content this year. great news for actors, writers and directors, but investors want to see that paying off in terms of revenues.

and expectations are high — neflix shares are worth around 75% more than they were at the start of last year, making it one of the best performing of the tech giants. but there's growing competition. the likes of apple, disney, amazon, facebook and warner media are among those trying to take it on with their own content as are local players in countries such as india. tommy stadlen is a tech entrepreneur from firstminute capital. good morning. what did you make of the netflix numbers? their strongest ever quarter, adding more subscribers than analysts thought. their price writers, which people we re their price writers, which people were worried about, did not have much impact on growth so a strong quarter but what wall street is worried about is their next court and that guidance for subscriber growth is a little lower. do you think they are managing expectations? the quick answer is

no. wall street thought they would add closer to 6 million subscribers in the next quarter and netflix said it was closer to 5 million so that is likely to affect the stock price later when trading opens. the broader picture is one that their growth in subscribers has been phenomenal, now almost 150 million worldwide and price increases, which will improve profitability, have not had a negative impact. looking ahead, big players are coming into the market with big ambitions. apple is one of them, recently launching its streaming tv service. and they have huge pots of cash to make original content so how will netflix stay ahead ? original content so how will netflix stay ahead? we have apple, disney, but the big one is apple which has a lot of money and also 900 million iphones around the world to distribute content to and we have seen with apple music competing

against spotify, that base can be a platform to hurt incumbents. having said that, there is room in the market for a whole bunch of players because i don't think disney or apple will mean you don't have netflix, i think consumers will have to pay up for more services. for netflix itself, it means it will have to invest more and more in the future to stay, not in the game, that's over exaggerating but you know what i mean. so how does it do that and keep shareholders happy? you are right, they are already outbidding hollywood for content and when you add disney's balance sheet and that and apple's, the cost of content will rise and when you look at profitability and cash burn for netflix, that is what investors will worry about. is the business model sustainable? and that is why the price increases have been so important and they give netflix investors some comfort. thank you for your thoughts and analysis. please tell us yours as well. i imagine many of you are netflix

users so imagine many of you are netflix users so tell us what you think. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. experts have decided that pilots won't need additional simulator training once boeing releases software updates to its grounded 737 max aircraft. the pilot panel was appointed by the federal aviation authority and the decision is seen as an important step in getting the 737 max in the air again after two fatal accidents. asian sales at the cosmetics giant l'0real overtook western europe for the first time last quarter. it seems cosmetics are immune to the general slowdown in the chinese economy. ten years ago, l'0real‘s sales in asia was only a third of those in its home market. a surprise court ruling in london has revived the possibility of a $18.3 billion lawsuit against the credit card firm mastercard. the court of appeal has ruled a tribunal must reconsider the class action against the firm which was dismissed two years ago. the claim alleges 46 million people paid higher prices in shops than they should have,

due to high card fees. let's focus on the world's second economy, china. china's economy grew 6.4% in the first quarter from a year earlier. that was higher than expected and steady from the previous quarter, helped by a boost in factory output. let's head to beijing, where stephen mcdonell has the details. as we said, this was a closely watched figure, one that all the markets were looking at and came in better than expected ? markets were looking at and came in better than expected? yes, the chinese growth figures, if they are to be believed, and plenty of a nalysts say to be believed, and plenty of analysts say that statistics here are not so reliable, but if we say that the trend has some validity, that the trend has some validity, that would seem to show that the chinese economy is holding up better than many had expected. gdp growth for this court that has been the same as the last quarter and has not dropped off as was predicted. this

is asa dropped off as was predicted. this is as a result of government stimulus in the form of increased bank lending, in the form of infrastructure projects being rolled out. retail spending is up, steel production is up, and the government would say that this shows that its policy of gradually tapering off growth here to a more sustainable level is going to work. they don't wa nt level is going to work. they don't want it to crash too quickly. although they do have big headaches with debt which is what happens every time you have this kind of stimulus via bank lending. as always, good to see you, thank you very much. that really helped boost some of the numbers not just that. that really helped boost some of the numbers notjust that. there was progress overnight in the japan— us trade talks which helped boost markets but the upbeat chinese economic data gave a boost to all the corporate stocks. the nikkei ended up 0.3%, at its highest closing level since early december. us markets also closed higher,

with earnings reports coming in somewhat better than expected. markets in europe edging higher this week, maybe in the absence of any brexit news. that is a big maybe! the latest unemployment and earnings data yesterday helped reinforce views that the uk economy remains resilient. today we get the inflation figures, expected to show that cpi might nudge higher than the 2% target over the next few months. more on that shortly, but first let's get a check on wall street. michelle has the details. the parade us bank earnings continues the day after bank of america's consumer business lifted its profits, morgan stanley are set to turn in its report card. trading revenue and investment management fees are expected to offset a decline in investment banking fees.

investors were disappointed earlier this week by results from goldman sachs. and another day, another texture listing, this time it is the turn of online scrapbook country —— company pinterest. and the latest us trade figures are unlikely to please the president. a commerce department report is expected to show that the us trade deficit widened to $53.5 billion in february. that is michelle in new york. joining us is richard dunbar, investment director at aberdeen standard investments. are really busy time at the moment with a lot of big companies reporting this week and lots of economic news from china, the uk, so what are you watching? we have an inflation figure from the uk expected to be in line with a target that the monetary policy committee set by the government at 2% so that should be in line. interesting to see what they say, every brexit

related and inflation has been dependent wet sterling has been trading. —— where sterling. with brexit postponed, interesting to see how the bank of england sees that and if it has any impact on their deliberations. and what is so interesting about all of this data, it is so interconnected. it is so evident, what the actions of the fed is doing, what the european central bank to —— keep inflation in check and with china in the picture with those better figures, and with china in the picture with those betterfigures, where does it end up? there are lots of pieces of pieces of the jigsaw. we have heard about the chinese stimulus in their economy, we have had the same thing from the federal reserve, eight co res from the federal reserve, eight cores in interest rates from them as a stimulus to the us economy and the same from the european central bank. mario draghi and his colleagues. all the big central banks have been doing it, trying to push the accelerator on the global economy. the numbers from china and some from the us would suggest that the

stimulus is starting to have some effect. is your glass half empty or half full at the moment? it is generally right to be half full, but fairto generally right to be half full, but fair to say that the chinese market is up 35% this year, other global markets are up between ten and 15% so there is a lot of good news in the price and the numbers from china and the better numbers from the us are and the better numbers from the us a re exactly and the better numbers from the us are exactly what markets are anticipating. had they been worse than that, that would have been a problem rather than what we have seen problem rather than what we have seen today. richard, thank you for now. which will be coming back later to talk about other business stories. —— richard will be back. still to come... tackling the costs of funerals. we'll hear from one woman working to ease the emotional and financial price of saying goodbye to a loved one. a new report shows british workers are putting in the longest hours at work in the eu.

it may not come as a surprise to many of you! according to the tuc, full—time employees in britain worked an average of 42 hours a week in 2018. that's nearly two hours more than the eu average and equivalent to an extra two and a half weeks a year. let's speak to paul sellers, a policy expert at the tuc. two and a half weeks extra year we are working and one would assume we don't get paid for that? some people are paid for that and some of it is unpaid overtime work by salaried workers. just to say, this is a very significant failure that we have these long hours and we also have no labour —— low labour productivity. germany works two hours shorter than we do and their productivity is 14% higher. this is not a winning strategy for business. sorry to interrupt but why is our productivity not as good as germany? i think employers are using ours as a sticking plaster solution. we are

not very good at doing training and investment —— using hours. that is reflected in using extra hours to cover off the work that needs to be done and this needs to change. we get told to work smarter and not harder i suppose that works for longer, but there is a culture of being present, being seen to be the one that works later and that needs to stop? there is some of that. when we survey people and ask them why they work extra, longer hours, they tend to say because they have a lot of work to do. so there is present he is but over and heavy workloads are also a problem. a couple of things need to happen. we need to bear down on ours, start cutting standard hours and we need to enforce the rules on working time we do have because they are very weak, and we need to get together and talk about productivity with business and government on a sectoral basis. about productivity with business and

government on a sectoral basism is fascinating. thank you, good to see you. yesterday we told you about some donations towards the rebuilding of notre dame and so far huge sums have been raised. 0ver notre dame and so far huge sums have been raised. over 800 million euros so far to help rebuild the cathedral. president macron is saying they hope to do that within the next five years. you're watching business live. our top story — netflix adds almost 10 million new subscribers in the first three months of the year despite increased competition from rivals like amazon and hulu. disney and apple are also entering the on—demand market. a quick look at how the markets are faring. you can see a bit of a flat mix to the beginning of the day, some

stories we have mentioned really helping to boost sentiment, particularly news about growth in china. it's not something we often give much thought to, but aside from the huge emotional burden, funerals can be financially costly. so much so, last year, the uk's competition watchdog launched an investigation into how much funeral firms charge. according to recent research, 4 million people in the uk faced financial hardship after the death of a friend or relative. across the uk, 81% of people haven't saved anything towards a funeral. 0ne company, founded in 2012, is poppy's funerals. it was launched after its founder contracted typhoid in ghana. poppy mardall, the founder of poppy's funerals, joins us now. tell us more about the story, what happened? i went on a fun trip, and i had had my injections and everything but i got typhoid and was sick for about eight months on my

return. i came back, found i had typhoid and like a lot of families, my family is no different, we have had illness and it was my turn, but idid not had illness and it was my turn, but i did not think i was going to die. idid not i did not think i was going to die. i did not think i was going to die. i did not think of setting up a funeral directors but it gave me a lot of time to think about how i was spending my time and what i wanted to do with my life and it coincided with a series of exposes on television about poor practice in the sector. about overcharging, aggressive year on year inflation of prices by funeral directors, and also some very poor practice happening behind—the—scenes in the mortuary, and it set off a fire in my belly to do something about that. and in 2012i my belly to do something about that. and in 20121 set up poppy's funerals, and we provide meaningful funerals. we have a very choice led approach, exceptional personal service, it is about treating the living and the dead is the unique people they are. all of those things are things you might see on the brochures for any funeral director, that they put you first and it is

all about care and respect, but how do you make sure you get that right and do it differently?” do you make sure you get that right and do it differently? i think it is and do it differently? i think it is a very difficult thing to do on a mass scale. i think making sure you grow with integrity as a business, making sure the values at the centre of what you do stay at the centre so for us that is about providing family with one point of contact so the person you meet will be the funeral director throughout and is there for you afterwards as well. it is about treating the dead people in our care as individuals, we call them by their name, they are not the anonymous deceased. we don't put them through a series of unnecessary invasive processes. in a way we are doing it the old—fashioned way. it is just about treating people personally. i must confess, i did not have a chance to tell you before icame on not have a chance to tell you before i came on air, but i'm a widow and i had to organise my husband's funeral. he was very ill and it was not a shock but it was something we

did no planning for, we had no finance for, and i went to my local funeral director i was a bit of a zombie at the time as i'm sure you will be aware of, i walked in and went to the local shop and i was astounded at the cost of i went for everything absolute basic, not because... we just went for the basic but i couldn't believe it, it was thousands and thousands of pounds i had to borrow from a family member to pay for it. it seems so expensive and yet you feel you have no choice in that situation.|j expensive and yet you feel you have no choice in that situation. i think the position you were in something that many, many people, most people, would relate to. people call it a distress purchase. people are not prepared for the costs, for the conversation. it is a sales process taking place and a huge part of our mission is about educating people about their choices so when the time

comes. . . about their choices so when the time comes... if you don't have the information, how can you make good choices? you can't. but you are right, the average cost of a funeral in the uk is over £11000, close to £6,000 in london. it doesn't have to be that way. what more can be done to try to make it more affordable? i was able to make it happen but i can imagine those who find it extremely difficult, who want to fulfil the wishes of the disease, but they find it financially unviable? the competition and markets authority investigation is really positive. i think it will improve the sector and increase competition. i think funeral directors will have to improve and compete and that will bring prices down it will bring the range of services much broader. but there was a huge education thing that needs to happen. if we go into death completely and educated, we will not be able to have the best choices, we will not be able to get

the best deal —— completely uneducated. there are a lot of myths, as well as a lack of transparency about what things cost, about what you are supposed to do and what the rules are other big pa rt and what the rules are other big part of your business dispelling those so talk us through the most common. the place to start is to say we are blessed to live in a country where there are almost no rules about what you can or can't do. you must register the death, you must do something with the body, which is cremation or burial but apart from that you can do what you want. if you want to bury your mum in your back garden, you absolutely can and we did that for a family in suburban london. if you want... i would advise pulling apart the funeral, think about what are the responsible teas that need to happen and what do you want —— responsibilitys. all of the things that funeral directors sell, flowers, their bearers, people to carry the coffin, limousines, if you want that stuff it will be

pricey and that is fine, but i think it is asking yourself, is it necessary and is it what we need? interesting and so much more to talk about but thank you for coming in and good luck. third baby on the way. and final! founder and ceo of a company is welcome a lot on your plate, well done. now to something entirely different. tech giants apple and oualcomm have agreed to settle their long running dispute, over the cost of processors that phones use to connect to mobile networks. the settlement includes a payment from apple to qualcomm, but the firms did not reveal how much. dave lee has more. moments after the settlement was made public, intel, the rival chip maker, said it it's no longer making 5g modems for smartphones. that decision leaves oualcomm as the only realistic

supplier to apple, at least until the iphone maker can make its own 5g modems — an achievement, analysts say, is still years away. what we don't know yet is who will blink first? did apple know that intel was backing out and was therefore forced to settle with oualcomm or risk falling well behind in the all—important 5g era? or, did the settlement make it clear to intel it could no longer compete, forcing it to give up and focus on other areas? we might hear more when the companies reveal their quarterly earnings at the end of this month. more detail on that story on our website. richard is back as promised and staying with technology, nokia, which some of us may remember, many of us all had their phones! they are looking to topple huawei. they are

reinventing itself again, it was a wood company in 1960, now a supply of telecoms technology from 5g in essence, this is probably looking to be in quite a good position and the questions on intellectual property between the china and the us, they look ina between the china and the us, they look in a good position if 5g is to be the next thing which i suspect it is. nokia are one of the leaders in the market. they can sit between the us and china and probably have good prospects. interesting to keep an eye on it because nokia was so dominant in the smartphone market, the mobile phone market i should call it. interesting that we see that everyone has one of these things and you think no one could possibly topple apple but we thought the same thing with nokia in the 90s and it happened. and who would have thought, potential saviour for nokia could be a big backlash against a chinese firm. they could gain market

sharejust chinese firm. they could gain market share just because of the default other option. i suppose the complication and the advantage for huawei is they are pretty good at what they do, at 5g and every country needs that technology. that is the next thing in both these companies are good at it. we have got a special video for you, i have a look at this. this is the robot that can tidy up a bedroom! it is a bit slow and might be struggling to pick up bits of lego gossip the makers are based in tokyo. we ask you if you could get a robot to tidy up you if you could get a robot to tidy up your kids bedroom? quite a big response. if you want to look at all of these, you can do with the business life has stuck. chris dean she's a strong believer in teaching children children responsibly and assigning tasks. thank you so much, richard. we will see you soon.

goodbye. hello, temperatures on their way up over the next few days and it will warm up with temperatures widely in the high teens or low 20s and we could see 2a or 25 degrees in a few places by saturday. plenty of sunshine to come with that as well. after a murky start this morning, plenty of dry and fine weather this afternoon with good spells of sunshine. the risk of a couple of showers in east anglia, the midlands, southern parts of northern england. temperatures up on yesterday, widely in the mid to high teens and locally we could see 20 degrees. also, be aware that we have tight pollen levels for much of england and wales and also part of

we courtesy of this warm air mass we are dragging in from the continent and you can see the —— yellow and orange colours on the map. mist and fog tomorrow first thing, low cloud as well but that will clear we will see good spells of sunshine, patchy cloud will stop temperatures a little up on what we have seen today with a maximum of around 21 degrees. moving on to good friday, there could be some missed around first thing but not a great deal to see on the map because we have a try and fine day with plenty of sunshine. temperatures again one or 2 degrees, a high of 22 or 23 degrees.

temperatures creeping up on the north sea coast as well, always a bit back from inland. moving into saturday, a lot of dry and fine weather, a weather front will increase the cloud in parts of scotla nd increase the cloud in parts of scotland and northern ireland and bring a bit patchy north into the far north—west later. temperatures reaching 2a or 25 degrees in areas west of london and perhaps west london has the greatest chance of seeing that. in the second part of the easter weekend, a growing chance of something a bit more unsettled coming in from the north—west.

you're watching bbc news at 9 with me, rebecca jones. the headlines... uk universities are accused of using gagging orders to stop bullying and sexual misconduct allegations being made public. the bbc has found that millions of pounds have been spent on non—disclosure agreements since 2017. french president emmanuel macron says notre—dame cathedral will be rebuilt "even more beautifully" following a massive fire on monday. translation: yes, we will rebuild the notre dame cathedral and it will be more beautiful than before and it will be done in five years. new research suggests that eating even small amounts of red and processed meat,such as a rasher of bacon a day, can increase the risk of bowel cancer.