this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. feeling the force. disney's turbocharged by a record run at the box office — and its mega—takeover of fox. plus — the light at the end of the tunnel? markets hit new record highs — as china and the us edge towards a deal to end their damaging trade war. and on those markets: the dow and s&p close at all time highs, the nasdaq just a fraction off its record close — that optimism rippling through asian trade. money is rushing into equity funds

as trade fears ease. we start with walt disney — because the force is very much with the entertainment giant after a strong set of results. disney is now more enormous than ever, following its massive $70 billion takeover of 21st century fox. and it's about to begin a new episode in its 96—year history as it prepares to enter the world of streaming. disney made revenues of over $19 billion, up more than a third on this time last year and more than wall street was expecting. it has been boosted by the takeover of fox back in march — which has given it lucrative new content such as star wars. profits were lower though as it processes that mega deal and makes huges

investments in this... from tuesday — disney plus will take on the likes of netflix and amazon prime — offering decades of classic films and television shows — as well as star wars, marvel and pixar movies — for $6.99 a month. disney's theme parks have also been doing well — with sales up some 17%. since the fox takeover, it has invested in new star wars attractions — the first launched in california in may — followed by another in florida in august. and it's had a record—breaking run at the box office. both the lion king and toy story 4 topped $1 billion in worldwide sales in the three months to september. on top of aladdin — and avengers endgame — that means disney has had 5 billion—dollar movies this year. our media editor amol rajan spoke to disney ceo bob iger recently — and asked him about the fox takeover.

why do you think rupert murdoch wa nted why do you think rupert murdoch wanted to sell? i think the primary reason is that he looked at what was happening in the world of media and all of the disruption and he did not believe the hand they had was a strong as it needed to be. he did not have a solution. what are the underlying trends reshaping the industry that makes these mega acquisitions necessary? if you look at the media landscape of today whether you are in the uk or the us oi’ whether you are in the uk or the us or in many other places in the world, it starts with content. content is king. quality stands tall ina sea content is king. quality stands tall in a sea of choice. secondly, content that is so valuable and important and loved by consumers that they will access it all fired anywhere they possibly can. tim mulligan is research director at midia research.

content is king. do you believe that? is there room for multiple streaming services or is this the beginning of the end for rivals? we are entering into a new environment which, frankly speaking, no—one knows how this will play out because it is all new from the point of view that we are transitioning from being an environment where most people consumed content through traditional means, either at the box office or on pay—tv or free to wear, to one where streaming is front and centre stop so our data shows us that streaming is now borderline mainstream in developed market but we have not yet seen the impact of the new direct to consumer services coming to market. so we have apple launching last week, apple tv plus. a very different proposition to what

disney plus will bring next week. we have hbo max coming in in the new year followed by peacock. have hbo max coming in in the new yearfollowed by peacock. these services each have different ways of leveraging their existing advantages. for apple it is the fact that they have i billion users in their ecosystem. they can push content through in a way that disney cannot do without building consolidated partnerships. over the last few days, disney has made a number of announcements about partnership deals it has been doing with third—party providers to reach those consumers. that is their challenge. they have the content but their ability to go direct to consumer and transition from a media powerhouse to a tech powerhouse is on yet untested to —— as yet u ntested. on yet untested to —— as yet untested. the big five as is, amazon, pula, apple plus, disney and netflix. how do they compare? are

they different offerings for the consumer or are they not? you are across all of this and most people watching this at home and in hotel rooms and wherever else around the world would be wondering do i really need all the services? you have a nswered need all the services? you have answered the question yourself there. the reality is the consumer is confronted with what we describe in media research as a tyranny of choice. there is so much choice in the kind of content you consume but also the way in which you consume it. in the predigital era because there was limited availability with prime—time scheduling and programming and a channel business model it was curated. people knew if they tuned in at prime—time they would have something that would be carefully selected for them by taste creators and programme schedulers. now they have to go out and make those decisions by themselves which

puts them in some and unfair responsibility on the end consumer who frequently want a lean back experience rather than a lean inexperience. that is one of the key challenges that these new businesses have to understand. are you creating something that will supplant traditional forms of engagement for tv like content and filmlike content oi’ tv like content and filmlike content orare tv like content and filmlike content or are you going to evolve into a new front of centre lean in experience where it is a 2—way exchange for the end user and the content. quite interesting and it will be interesting to see how this develops. thank you so much for coming in. let's turn to the us—china trade war now — because both sides say they will start removing tariffs on each others' goods as the first phase of a trade agreement — if they can reach one. the reports have boosted global stock markets — but as samira hussain explains — there is still a lot of work to do before a deal can be made.

we have to be clear here. they have not said that they have agreed to any phase one of a trade agreement. all they have said is that if there is going to be some sort of phase one of a trade agreement it would have to include rolling back some of these tariffs. if you look at the way us financial markets have taken the news, they were trading higher as soon as we heard the news from china and then when it was subsequently confirmed, that also gave market a boost. it is clearly assigned the people are hungry for good news when it comes to this trade war between the us and china but also it is significant you see that there is an agreement that some of these tariffs need to come back a little bit because this trade war and the punitive tariffs have had an impact not only on just the united states and china and their economies but ripple effects around the world. let's stay with those tariffs — because they have been taking a heavy toll on china's economy.

but the latest trade figures from china show things may not be quite as bad as feared. rico hizon is following the story. hello. read us the numbers. a little more optimism, we think?‘ hello. read us the numbers. a little more optimism, we think? a little bit of damir dzumhur despite the numbers are not as bad as everyone expected. china's exports and imports contracted yet again in october. it fell by 0.9% from one year ago levels for a third straight month. the existing tariffs, including the latest levies by the us on chinese imports from september one have hit the country's outbound shipment along with stubbornly weak local demand. and of course there are talk of the endgame and some experts believe that even if the first phase is signed soon it is

unlikely to boost exports and manufacturing for some time and could still mean more stimulus is needed from beijing's two avert a sharper downturn. the latest data also showed china's imports shrinking by 6.4% from year ago levels for the sixth consecutive month. the weak figures are due to shrinking activity amply producer prices. slowdown points to lingering wea kness prices. slowdown points to lingering weakness in domestic demand in the limited impact of policy stimulus so far. many economists believe that these weak numbers will likely continue until maybe december or when a deal is forged tween the two economic superpowers force thank you very much. tens of thousands of lufthansa passengers face further disruption as a strike by cabin crew enters its second day. the german airline says it cancelled 700 flights on thursday and around 600 on friday. the ufo flight attendants union has

agreed to talks over the weekend in the dispute over pay and conditions — but says the strike will continue as planned until 2300 gmt on friday. that is it from me. plenty more coming up later on. let's return to the flooding here in the uk where more than a hundred flood warnings are in place across the north of england. the bbc‘s tom ingall is in south yorkshire. this is the river on behind me and it is well and truly burst it banks and flowing with some force through

what should be a car park. it is the middle of the night and there is no—one around except for emergency services who have had a dizzy 18—20 hours. that is how long the rain has been falling heavily and steadily here across the north of england. it has caused severe transport disruption on the roads and rail network, not just disruption on the roads and rail network, notjust locally here in south yorkshire but further afield across the pennines. earlier this evening the focus was on the meadowhall shopping centre in sheffield. it should have been a busy night for them with the switching on of their christmas lights and thousands of people due to attend. around 530 this afternoon, organisers made the difficult decision to call the event of because the river next to the shopping centre had already risen to quite a level and it was threatening roads and the organisers said sorry, we will have to send you home. the problem then was that the roads would read locked and people took a time to leave the shopping centre. unconfirmed reports there were

people even preparing to bed down for the night there although we believe that they have gone home now. the rain is falling still here. tomorrow at first like the authorities will be looking at river levels which are believed to be approaching the same levels as in 2007 when south yorkshire and sheffield endured an absolutely catastrophic flood that devastated thousands and thousands of homes. so far we're not seeing the on that level but it is very serious and tomorrow the cleanup will have to begin in earnest. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines , as the democrats prepare for the first public hearings in president trump's impeachment inquiry, a judge orders him to pay two—million dollars in damages for improper use of charitable funds. after a deadly attack on burkina faso miners, their families say the government

isn't doing enough to combat islamic extremists. the funeral services have begun for some of the victims of an attack in northern mexico in which nine us citizens were killed. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the guardian here in the uk, among many leading with the spending promises made by the two main parties ahead of next month's general election. the i takes a different look at the election focusing on the deal struck between pro—eu parties not to stand against each other for dozens of seats across england and wales. let's look at the financial times, its main story covers a rift between germany's angela merkel and french president emmanuel macron after he said nato was brain dead. and finally, the front page of the times reports that james dean will take the lead role in a new film more than sixty years after his death,

it's made possible by cgi, but it's causing quite a stir in the industry. so let's begin with simoney kyriakou, who's editor of financial adviser at the financial times. let's start with some of the spending pledges, i havejust picked up spending pledges, i havejust picked up the guardian has to be labour and the conservatives have triggered a public spending bidding war in a bid for votes they are promising such massive spending programmes that we are going to see some public investment returns levels we have not seen since the 70. you as a financial journalist, not seen since the 70. you as a financialjournalist, how not seen since the 70. you as a financial journalist, how would not seen since the 70. you as a financialjournalist, how would that be received by the money markets? is it possible that they could actually speak investors? i think investors are always very keen on infrastructure, for the past four or five years infrastructure and spending on infrastructure has been

a huge