09/11/2017 Business Briefing

This is Business Briefing.

I'm Sally Bundock.

Big enough to compete -

21st Century Fox boss

Lachlan Murdoch tells investors

the media giant is stronger

than ever, despite reports it

has discussed a massive

sell-off to Disney.

Plus, green revolution -

Cuba sets its sights on renewables

as cheap Venezuelan oil dries up.

And on the markets its buy buy buy

in Asia with stocks in Japan headed

for a record high.

We'll talk you through

the key movers.

We start in the US,

where the Chairman of 21st

Century Fox, Lachlan Murdoch has

been telling investors the media

giant is in good shape

despite tough conditions.

Lachlan shares the job

with his father Rupert Murdoch,

who founded the business.

Fox has reported better

than expected figures for the three

months to September.

But the results have been

overshadowed by reports it has held

talks to sell off a huge

swathe of its business,

most of its TV and film

business, to Disney.

Let's show you some of the details.

The likes of Netflix,

Google and Amazon are now huge

players in the media business

as more of us stream movies and TV

rather than watching cable channels.

That's led millions of people to cut

the cord with their cable providers.

5 million Americans are expected

to axe cable this year.

Well over twice

as many as last year.

Disney is launching its own

streaming service in 2019

and pulling its first-run

movies off Netflix.

Buying Fox's studios would give it

access to much more content.

All this comes at a turbulent time

for Fox, as Samira Hussain explains.

21st century Fox is under a

microscope these days. Sexual

harassment scandals at its flagship

network, Fox News, means they are

Ian watched closely by regulators

and investors. -- being watched. And

there is Rupert Murdoch was Mac

takeover bid the Sky. He already

owns 31% of the company. Sky has

threatened to shut down Sky News of

the channel as an obstacle to that

bid. In the US, there were reports

Fox was looking to shed most of its

TV and film business to rival

Disney. How much of all of this was

discussed in the earnings column?

Not much. Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert

Murdoch's son, and the executive

chairman of Fox, was at pains to

emphasise the company's strength in

its current form.

Along with our

22,000 colleagues around the world,

we are singularly and intensely

focused on delivering on our

strategic plan. Our businesses and

brands are stronger than ever, and

with the right management and

strategies to achieve market leading

Derby. -- and have the right

management.

The talks between Fox

and Disney have reportedly broken

off, but if a deal did emerge, it

would be a seismic shift in the

media industry.

With me is Georg Szalai,

international business editor,

the Hollywood Reporter.

What are you make of all this

discussion of Fox doing a massive

deal with Disney?

I think it is a

reflection of the changes in

Hollywood. He mentioned the cord

cutting in the US. Lots of

entertainment companies are

wondering how they will deliver

content to consumers in the future,

online, directly to viewers, you can

cut out the cable companies.

Everybody is strained to beef up and

get bigger, adding more content to

their creation is one approach. Some

companies are thinking about

combining Telecom to get a

distribution platform as part of the

company. Everybody is talking in the

industry these days, and all the

bankers that I talk to say they are

pitching a lot of ideas these days.

Who will emerge as the winners and

losers in this? You can see the

benefit for Disney in terms of

content, as you say, but in terms of

Fox?

Fox would focus on its sports

and news operations in the United

States, on television. In use, with

Fox News and Fox Is this, they are

very strong. They have lots of

sports platforms, the Fox TV network

has a lot of sports. They would

think those are things that are

really interesting to people, very

popular, and if we focus on that and

put more money into those we can

ramp up our investment.

And that the

same time there is all this

discussion about power and who holds

power in terms of news output, for

example. As Samira mention, Rupert

Murdoch is trying to buy up the

entirety of Sky in the UK. One of

the rumours is that he might have to

forego Sky News, the 24 hour news

channel, as a consequence of that,

if he was to get approval for that

move forward. Similarly, in the

United States, we have At&T buying

Time Warner, and there are

discussions that they might have to

give up things like CNN if that gets

the all clear. It is interesting,

the shifting sands, with regulators

assessing whether power lies and

whether it is too much or not.

Yes,

traditionally companies try a lot of

deals early in the new

administration. In the US, lots of

people fought with Donald Trump

taking over the White House, let's

try a few deals, a Republican

president might be more favourable

to these deals.

When it comes to he

has a few.

Especially when it comes

to CNN. I think we will see a lot of

politicising around the globe with

these deals, lots of executives

trying to get more careful with what

has been suggested.

Maybe more

frustrated, as well. Thank you for

your time. We appreciate your

analysis.

We are also in Cuba,

which has been reliant on Venezuelan

oil for almost two decades now.

However, the South American nation

is in deep economic trouble

and its oil production has fallen

sharply, forcing its Caribbean ally

to find alternative sources

of energy, as Will Grant reports.

It took a long time and a big

injection of Chinese capital to

reach this point. Earlier this year,

the ground was woken on a major

renewable energy project in Cuba. --

broken. A multimillion dollar plant

at the sight of this sugar mill, to

convert the fibber Swede maribu into

biofuel. -- fibrous weed. This

billionaire was able to get the

project off the ground with

financing from China. Renewables

have taken on new importance to

Cuba. Its long-time socialist ally,

Venezuela, is in economic and

political crisis. During the worst

months, Venezuela cut its subsidised

oil shipments to Cuba, which

serviced a joint refinery. This is

part of Cuba's attempt to break its

dependence on Venezuelan crude oil.

Solar panels which they want to see

installed across the islands, and a

new push towards renewable by major

sources. -- renewable energy

sources. Cuban officials deny they

have embraced green technology

simply because of Venezuelan

economic woes.

Independent of the

problems experienced by our brother

nature Venezuela, in Cuba we need to

reconsider production for our own

economy. We need to read --

reconsider consumption of fossil

fuels, because they are not

infinite. You must find viable

alternatives.

With some 22,000 homes

in Cuba still not on the electricity

grid, these root annals could be a

vital resource for many families. --

roof panels. The state knows that

greater investment in the sector is

key. China remains the most likely

source, if Cuba's green revolution

is to thrive.

Now let's brief you some

other business stories.

The CEO of AT&T has said he never

offered to sell CNN,

and has no intention of doing so.

US regulators are reviewing

a planned $85 billion merger

between media giant Time Warner

and telecoms firm AT&T.

Reports have suggested

they are demanding a sale of assets

such as CNN as a condition

for approval.

Talks over the possible sale

of the film production company

co-founded by Harvey Weinstein

have fallen through,

the BBC has learned.

The Weinstein Company had entered

into a preliminary deal with US

private equity firm Colony Capital.

Former top executives at Yahoo

and Equifax have apologised

at a Senate hearing for security

breaches that exposed billions

of customer accounts.

Politicians are threatening

greater intervention

in tech firms' business.

And now, what's trending

in the business news this morning.

Widely read from the Financial

Times, a report that "nearly half

the benefit" of President Trump's US

tax shake-up will go to richest 1%.

That's according to

the Tax Policy Center.

In the Wall Street Journal,

the clamor for tech IPOs reaches

a fever pitch in Asia.

Online book site China Literature

soared on its Hong Kong stock market

debut, valuing the 4-year

old firm at $12 billion.

And most read on Bloomberg,

what could replace the smartphone?

It says Apple is "ramping up work"

on an Augmented Reality headset

to succeed the iPhone.

Bloomberg says the new device

will be ready in 2019.

And don't forget, let us know

what you are spotting online.

Use the hashtag #BBCTheBriefing.

That's it for Business

Briefing this hour.

But before we go,

here are the markets.

Up next, News Briefing.

We'll take you through the stories

making headlines in the global media

A stellar day for the market in

Japan. At one point they were up

around 2%. The Nikkei is trading

around 23,368 at last look. That is

a 2% climb. Lots going on. A very

weak yen. The yen at its weakest

since March versus the US dollar.

Shares in Tokyo at the highest about

35 years. A real rally following a

good session on Wall Street the

night before. We have the News

Briefing coming up soon.

We'll take you through the stories

making headlines in the global media

today, including that visit

to Asia by President Trump.

Police forces in England and Wales

are struggling to meet demand due

to a surge in the number of calls

from members of the public.

A survey by the policing watchdog

says the service is under

significant stress because of budget

cuts and the increasing complexity

of crimes officers

which are dealing with.

Our Home Affairs correspondent

Danny Shaw has this report.

If you report a crime this is where

your call is dealt with. The control

room. It is the nerve centre of

police operations. There are more

than 8 million 999 calls every year,

with millions of others on the

nonemergency number, 101. The

constabulary say that police are

struggling to cope. They say that

problems retaining control room

staff and an overreliance on

outdated technology are to blame.

Some requests for police to deal

with crimes, including criminal

damage and assault, go unanswered.

In Devon and Cornwall, many callers

hang up it is they have to wait so

long.

The control rooms are right at

the heart of what our police forces

do. The focus on getting that right

is really important for Chief

constables, and we encourage them to

continue with this.

The reporting

into police efficiency says the

service is under CIGNA vegan stress.

It says forces will spend 6% less on

policing in the next three years and

will lose more than 4000 officers

and staff from the police workforce.

That is why many Chief constables

say they need extra resources to

deal with the increased demand. Mike

Cunningham says it would be a good

thing for police to have more money,

but he says the service needs to

show the benefits extra funding will

bring, and he says there is scope

for forces to use their existing

resources more efficiently.

There will be more on that story on

First. Charlie Stayt and Naga

Munchetty will have all of the other

day's news and business, including a

the Brexit talks, which get under

way again today. -- all of the

Brexit talks.

This is The Briefing from BBC News.

The latest headlines:

President Trump said he discussed

North Korea with his Chinese

counterpart Xi Jinping and that both

men believe a solution is possible.

Mr Trump called on President Xi

to cut off all trade ties with North

Korea.

The British Prime Minister is under

pressure to restore stability

to the government after the second

resignation from her Cabinet

in a week.

The UN Security Council tells

the Saudi-led military coalition

in Yemen to end its blockade

of the country and allow

in humanitarian aid,

or risk a famine.

In Business, 21st Century Fox boss

Lachlan Murdoch tells investors

the media giant is stronger

than ever, despite reports it's

discussed a massive

sell-off to Disney.

On BBC News, we are looking at the

most popular stories, one of them is

the self driving shuttle bus in

most popular stories, one of them is

the self driving shuttle bus in a

crash on day one. So this is a story

by Dave Lee looking at the first

test that took place in Vegas. And

of course this self driving shuttle

bus came to a halt. It was involved

in a crash on its first day. It had

several passengers on board. It

collided with a lorry driving at a

very slow speed. We asked whether

you would be getting on a self

driving bus or in a self driving

taxi. So many of you have been in

touch and most of you are saying no.

Some of you are saying, like Muhamed

in Nigeria, why not? And we've got

Charles as well who says keep the

drivers at work otherwise how many

more jobs will