Andy Burnham ghosts the UK business community
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday, July 17th, and this is your FT News Briefing. Investors are worried about Netflix's future growth, and UK businesses are worried about being ghosted by Andy Burnham. Plus, why is Europe so good at football? We'll take a look.
So Western Europe has 5% of the world's population. The whole rest of the world has produced one team to compete with them, and that is a team with Leo Messi.
I'm Mark Filippino, and here's the news you need to start your day.
Netflix revenues got a bump last quarter. The streaming giant reported earnings yesterday and said revenues grew by 13% year-on-year.
What were Netflix's latest earnings and why did shares slide?
It credited higher subscription prices and more ad revenue. Netflix largely met Wall Street expectations, and that's the good news. The not-so-good news is that the company warned shareholders that it's forecasting its worst revenue growth in three years for the third quarter. It also had a fall in operating margins last quarter. Netflix blamed that on higher costs related to films and other programs. The streamer is under pressure from investors. Its shares have fallen 21% this year. Investors are worried about increased competition. They also have some questions about Netflix's strategy after it failed to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. Netflix shares fell in after-hours trading following the earnings report.
The Labour Party will name Andy Burnham to be the next prime minister today. In the run-up to this, major UK businesses say they've been calling Burnham's team, but no one's picking up. And they're worried that means he's not going to listen to their concerns once he's in office. Here to tell us more is the FT's chief UK business correspondent, Ashley Armstrong. Hi, Ashley. Hello. So what exactly have business leaders been telling you about trying to get in contact with Burnham's team?
Yes, there's been a bit of a scramble to get close to power, which is all that chief executives ever want to do. And chief executives aren't used to being ignored either. So they've been sending their minions out and kind of saying, you know, we want to speak to Burnham, we want to speak to his camp leaders. And the problem is, is that they and their trusted advisors don't even know who to contact. Because let's not forget, there's huge jobs where we don't know who's going to be running the show. And if you consider how small Burnham's team is, you can understand why loads of emails, WhatsApps, messages, carrier pigeons at one stage have been talked about, you know, are all going unread.
That was going to be my next question is how normal is this that, you know, the business community can't get in touch with the incoming prime minister? It sounds like it's not very normal.
No. And what somebody said to me was it's not only unprecedented, but it's also an unprecedented level of speculation about who is going to be in the cabinet. If you think in the run-up to a normal election, you know who the shadow cabinet is. You know who's going to be in positions. And people don't in this scenario. And also, Andy Burnham has been away from frontline politics for some time. He's known as a figure as the Greater Manchester Mayor. But he hasn't been in Westminster.
How is Netflix forecasting its worst revenue growth in three years?
He hasn't had a national interest. So people are trying to read the tea leaves, which is always quite a dangerous business, to try to understand what kind of things that he's done in Manchester might have an interpretation for kind of national policies as well.
Tea leaves aside, what does Burnham and his team have to say about these complaints from major UK businesses?
Well, what's really interesting is they haven't responded. It's fascinating. Somebody said about the whole WhatsApp kind of generation of being left on read. That's exactly what's happening to businesses at the moment because businesses low down on their priority list. They feel like that they've only just won this make a field by election where they had to really speak to voters against reform, against a very populist party. They had to win that first rule and appeal to the general public.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:52
2
What were Netflix's latest earnings and why did shares slide?
0:52–3:18
3
How is Netflix forecasting its worst revenue growth in three years?
3:18–6:35
4
Why are investors worried about Netflix's strategy and competition?
6:35–8:14
5
Why are UK businesses struggling to reach incoming PM Andy Burnham?
8:14–9:43
6
How unusual is it for business leaders to be 'ghosted' by a prime minister’s team?
9:43–10:59