US Business

With the launch of cheaper, ad-supported subscriptions, Netflix and Disney+ are expected to bite into the revenue of traditional television channels as the streaming services look toward continued expansion.

After having long-shunned the notion of advertising on its platform, Netflix thisyear accelerated work on just such an offering as inflation prompts consumers to spend less and competition in the streaming television market intensifies.

Netflix is expected to launch an ad-supported subscription tier in early November, about a month before rival Disney+ does the same, according to US media reports.

“These launches are going to create the biggest premium advertising space in more than a generation,” said analytics company Samba TV senior vice president Dallas Lawrence.

“It’s going to be a major moment for advertisers.”

The windfall for Netflix and Disney+ could be considerable. Market tracker Statista forecasts that spending on television ads globally will hit $159 billion this year.

Insider Intelligence analyst Ross Benes estimates that advertising revenues from streaming could reach $30 billion in two years in the United States alone.

Global video sharing and online television platform YouTube saw $28.8 billion in ad revenue in 2021.

“Not long ago, everyone said subscriptions would kill ads,” said Kevin Krim, head of marketing analytics firm EDO.

“Now, we can see that is obviously not true.”

Some streaming television services such as NBCUniversal’s Peacock, Paramount+ and HBO Max already feature ad-supported offerings.

But Netflix and Disney+ — with 220 million and 152 million subscribers respectively — throwing their hats in the advertising ring could catch the attention of businesses interested in reaching television audiences, analysts said.

Netflix is looking to win over at least 40 million subscribers to its ad-subsidized tier by next year’s third quarter, according to an internal document cited by the Wall Street Journal.

When the time comes, Disney+ will transition its existing $7.99-per-month subscription tier to the ad-supported version, and the ad-free option will go for $10.99, the company has said.

– Threat to old-time TV –

Being able to reach Netflix or Disney+ viewers promises to help brands reconnect with audiences that have abandoned traditional “linear” television in favor of streaming entertainment, said nScreenMedia chief analyst and founder Colin Dixon.

“This actually gives advertisers access to people who they haven’t been able to reach in a while, in their most focused viewing time,” Dixon said

No matter when viewers with ad-based subscriptions choose to watch a show or film, the commercials will be there, waiting for them.

It will also afford advertisers the luxury placing ads directly with Netflix or Disney+ for viewers around the world, rather than having to negotiate numerous deals with channels or stations in various regions, Dixon added.

These new subscription tiers will put pressure on linear television service providers that have not yet entered into the streaming game, analyst Lawrence said.

Even major US studios such as CBS, NBC and Fox are expected to see TV ad money lured away by the prospect of matching marketing messages with winning content such as “Stranger Things” at Netflix or “Star Wars” at Disney+.

“When Netflix and Disney+ unlock that capability and allow advertisers to access the most premium inventory available on televisions, we’re going to go to a full stampede out of linear television and into streaming environments,” said Lawrence of Samba TV.

“It will probably drive down linear television advertising value.”

Along with reaching viewers wherever and whenever they stream television shows, ads on Netflix or Disney+ can provide marketers with more data than is available from what Samba called “old-fashioned TV,” he added.

Streaming television ads can also be targeted at individual viewers, noted Krim.

And, Netflix and Disney+ have a chance to create new advertising models, breaking long-held norms about advertising length or placement, and even involving partners in program creation.

So far, streaming television services do not seem a threat to digital ad revenue for the likes of Amazon, Facebook, Google or TikTok, with marketers expanding their overall budgets for reaching people online, according to analyst Benes.

The United Arab Emirates agreed Sunday to supply natural gas and diesel to Germany as part of an “energy security” deal to replace Russian supplies.

Emirati industry minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber called it a “landmark new agreement” that “reinforces the rapidly growing energy partnership between the UAE and Germany”, at a signing attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the UAE’s state news agency WAM reported.

Scholz signed the deal while on a Gulf tour that took him to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar hunting for new energy sources.

He met with Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who said on Twitter they had discussed “cooperation in areas including energy security, emissions reduction and climate action”. 

The German leader said he “welcomed” the “energy security” agreement, WAM said.

UAE state oil company ADNOC completed its first direct diesel delivery to Germany this month, and will “supply up to 250,000 tons of diesel per month in 2023”, it reported. 

The first delivery of 137,000 cubic metres of liquefied natural gas will be made in December at Germany’s new floating LNG import terminal at Brunsbuettel, near Hamburg, the RWE energy firm said in a statement.

ADNOC will make more LNG deliveries to Germany in 2023, WAM said. 

Scholz’s two-day Gulf tour aimed to seal new energy deals to replace Russian supplies and mitigate the energy crisis resulting from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

On Saturday, he met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah.

On Sunday afternoon, following his trip to the UAE, he held talks in Doha with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on energy and investment, according to an official statement.

No deals were announced in Qatar however. The two countries are locked in tough talks on the length of contracts for LNG supplies, according to German media, and Scholz said he wanted to see progress.

Scholz said Qatar’s controversial rights record was improving but did not commit to attending the World Cup in the Gulf state that starts in November.

– Energy transition –

Scholz’s stop in the UAE included a tour of an environmental project at a mangrove park with Emirati climate change minister Mariam Almheiri. 

Almheiri said discussions would cover “climate action and economic growth” as well as energy supplies. 

“The UAE believes all three pillars must go hand in hand. We cannot look at one or two of these pillars separately,” she said.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been critics of what they call unrealistic energy transition models they say have contributed to shortages that have hit Europe in the past two years.

Scholz told reporters in Abu Dhabi that his country had “made progress on a whole series of projects here in terms of the production and purchase of diesel and gas”, while adding it was determined to avoid energy dependence on Russia. 

“The fact that we are dependent on one supplier and also dependent on its decisions will certainly not happen to us again,” he said. 

“With the investments that we are now making in Germany, and that will become reality bit by bit next year, we will indeed have an infrastructure for gas imports for Germany, such that we are no longer directly dependent on the specific supplier at the other end of the pipeline, as we are with a pipeline connection.” 

Scholz ended the tour in Qatar one day after France’s TotalEnergies signed a new $1.5 billion deal to help expand Doha’s natural gas production. 

The German chancellor said such projects were “important”. 

“We have to ensure that the production of liquefied gas in the world is advanced to such an extent that the high demand that exists can be met — without having to fall back on the production capacities in Russia that have been used so far,” he said. 

A major blaze swept through part of one of the world’s biggest fresh produce markets on the outskirts of Paris on Sunday.

The fire destroyed a fruit and vegetable warehouse at the Rungis complex to the south of the French capital. 

Flames spread shortly after noon, the authorities said, sending a dark plume of smoke billowing over the southern suburbs.

A hundred firefighters brought the fire under control by mid-afternoon and there were no injuries, the fire brigade said.

The warehouse, about the size of a football pitch, belonged to Les Halles Mandar group.

“It’s a shock, but we’re glad there were no injuries”, boss Shaoul Abramczyk said.

“We will not be able to fulfil our partners’ orders from tomorrow (Monday) and for several days”, he added.

“When a market operator is the victim of a tragedy of this nature, the whole market is struck at its heart”, Rungis market head Stephane Layani said.

Swiss voters on Sunday accepted by a hair a divisive pension reform plan, which will raise women’s retirement age to the same as men’s, but snubbed a push to ban factory farming

Final results showed a tiny majority of Swiss approved a government plan to reform the country’s pension system for the first time in more than a quarter of a century. 

Bern has long argued the need to “stabilise” the country’s old-age security system, under pressure as life expectancy rises and the giant baby boomer generation reaches retirement age.

After failing twice to get the approval needed for similar plans, in 2004 and 2017, two separate votes on different aspects of the reform passed Sunday.

Just 50.57 percent of Swiss agreed to the most controversial part of the reform, involving hiking women’s retirement age by one year.

This means women will need to work until the age of 65 before receiving a full pension, bringing them en par with their male counterparts.

A separate vote on boosting funding for the reform through a sales tax hike meanwhile passed with 55 percent in favour.

Parliament approved the key measures last year, but left-leaning parties and unions decried the reform “on the backs of women” and pushed the issue to a referendum under Switzerland’s direct democratic system.

Backers of the reform argued that it was reasonable for men and women to retire at the same age, with Celine Amaudruz, vice president of the populist rightwing Swiss People’s Party hailing the vote as “a first step towards permanence” for the old-age insurance system.

– ‘Slap in the face’ –

But Sunday’s decision sparked outrage from the plan’s opponents.

The Swiss Socialist Party’s women’s group immediately announced a demonstration in Bern on Monday, warning the plan would dramatically cut women’s already inferior pension income.

“Women’s pension income will be reduced by 7 billion Swiss francs ($7.1 billion) over the next 10 years: a slap in the face of all women,” it said in a statement.

Opponents argued that women face significant discrimination and a broad gender pay-gap in Switzerland, and thus receive far smaller pensions than men, demanding such issues be addressed before hiking their retirement age.

In 2020, women in Switzerland on average received pensions nearly 35 percent smaller than men, according to the Swiss economy ministry.

Polls ahead of Sunday’s vote revealed deep divisions between the sexes, with around 70 percent of men questioned in favour and close to 60 percent of women opposed.

Sunday’s results were not immediately broken down by gender, but did show a dramatic divide between different Swiss regions.

While Switzerland’s German-speaking part was overwhelmingly in favour of the reform, the French and Italian-speaking parts were staunchly opposed, with nearly 63 percent of Geneva voters voting “no” and more than 70 percent in Jura canton.

Pierre-Yves Maillard, head of the Swiss Trade Union Federation, warned that the deep divide seen between the sexes and the regions on such an important issue was “not good politics.”

“It will leave a trace,” he told the Keystone-ATS news agency.

– Factory farming ban rejected –

Another hotly debated issue on Sunday’s ballot, a proposed ban on intensive livestock farming, was meanwhile rejected.

Final results showed just over 63 percent of voters voted “no” to the popular initiative by animal rights and welfare organisations. 

The backers of the initiative had wanted to make protecting the dignity of animals like cattle, chickens or pigs a constitutional requirement.

Their initiative would have imposed stricter minimum requirements for animal-friendly housing and care, access to outdoors and slaughtering practices, essentially outlawing factory farming.

The government and parliament opposed the initiative, insisting that Switzerland already has among the world’s strictest animal welfare laws, and that tightening the rules would significantly hike prices.

Backers of the initiative said Sunday they were pleased the campaign had at least raised awareness about the issue.

“All of Switzerland has discussed the problems linked to intensive livestock farming and our meat consumption,” Vera Weber, head of the Franz Weber Foundation, told RTS.

“For us, it is in any case a victory.”

Voter participation Sunday ticked in at over 52 percent, above the usual ceiling of around 50 percent.

The United Arab Emirates agreed Sunday an “energy security” deal with Germany to supply liquefied natural gas and diesel as Berlin searches for new power sources to replace Russian supplies.

Emirati industry minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber called it a “landmark new agreement” that “reinforces the rapidly growing energy partnership between the UAE and Germany”, at a signing attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the UAE’s state news agency WAM reported.

Scholz was on a visit to the UAE as part of a Gulf tour that also includes stops in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

He met with Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who said on Twitter afterwards they had discussed “further opportunities for cooperation in areas including energy security, emissions reduction and climate action”. 

The German leader said he “welcomed” the “energy security” agreement, WAM said.

As part of the deal, the UAE will provide “an LNG cargo for delivery in late 2022, to be used in the commissioning of Germany’s floating LNG import terminal at Brunsbuettel”, a North Sea port, the WAM report added. 

UAE state oil company ADNOC completed its first ever direct diesel delivery to Germany earlier this month, and will “supply up to 250,000 tons of diesel per month in 2023”, it said. 

“ADNOC has reserved a number of further LNG cargos exclusively for German customers in 2023,” it said. 

Sunday was the second and final day of Scholz’s Gulf tour, which he hoped would seal new energy deals to replace Russian supplies and mitigate the energy crisis resulting from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

On Saturday, he met in Jeddah with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and on Sunday afternoon he arrived in gas-rich Qatar to hold talks with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. 

– Energy transition –

Scholz’s stop in the UAE included a tour of an environmental project at a mangrove park with Emirati climate change minister Mariam Almheiri. 

Almheiri said discussions on Sunday would, in addition to energy security, cover “climate action and economic growth”. 

“The UAE believes all three pillars must go hand and hand. We cannot look at one or two of these pillars separately,” she said.

She also reiterated Abu Dhabi’s insistence on “a just transition” away from fossil fuels. 

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been leading critics of what they describe as “unrealistic” transition models they say have contributed to the current energy crunch. 

Scholz told reporters in Abu Dhabi that his country had “made progress on a whole series of projects here in terms of the production and purchase of diesel and gas”, while adding it was determined to avoid energy dependence on Russia in the future. 

“The fact that we are dependent on one supplier and also dependent on its decisions will certainly not happen to us again,” he said. 

“With the investments that we are now making in Germany, and that will become reality bit by bit next year, we will indeed have an infrastructure for gas imports for Germany, such that we are no longer directly dependent on the specific supplier at the other end of the pipeline, as we are with a pipeline connection.” 

His visit to Qatar comes one day after France’s TotalEnergies signed a new $1.5 billion deal to help expand Doha’s natural gas production. 

Scholz said such projects were “important”. 

“We have to ensure that the production of liquefied gas in the world is advanced to such an extent that the high demand that exists can be met — without having to fall back on the production capacities in Russia that have been used so far,” he said. 

Swiss voters appeared set Sunday to narrowly accept the government’s divisive pension reform plan, which would raise the retirement age for women, while snubbing a push to ban factory farming.

Shortly after polling stations closed at noon (1000 GMT), the gfs.bern polling institute projected that Swiss had voted to reform their pension system for the first time in more than a quarter of a century. 

Bern has long argued the need to “stabilise” the country’s old-age security system, under pressure as life expectancy rises and the giant baby-boomer generation reaches retirement age.

The government has seen its attempts to introduce similar pension reform plans thwarted in the polls twice before, in 2004 and 2017, but gfs.bern projected that separate votes on different aspects of the reform had both passed.

Early results indicated that 51 percent of voters had opted for the most controversial part of the reform, involving hiking women’s retirement age by one year, gfs.bern said an hour after polls closed.

A separate vote on boosting funding for the reform through a sales tax hike was meanwhile on track to pass with 56-percent support, the pollster said.

If those numbers are confirmed, women will need to work until the age of 65, the same age as the current retirement age for men, before receiving a full pension. 

– Gender pension gap –

Parliament approved the key measures, which include a sales tax hike, last year, but left-leaning parties and unions decry the reform “on the backs of women” and pushed the issue to a referendum under Switzerland’s direct democratic system.

While backers of the reform argued that men and women retiring at the same age is not unreasonable, the plan sparked significant pushback, especially from women.

This result “is painful for the left and the unions, but especially for the people it will affect,” Socialist Party parliamentarian Samuel Bendahan told the RTS public broadcaster.

Opponents argued that women face significant discrimination and a broad gender pay-gap in Switzerland, meaning they receive far smaller pensions than men.

They argued it was unfair to increase their retirement age without first addressing those issues.

In 2020, women in Switzerland on average received pensions nearly 35 percent smaller than men, according to the Swiss economy ministry.

Polls ahead of Sunday’s vote revealed deep divisions between the sexes, one Tamedia poll showing 70 percent of men questioned in favour and 58 percent of women opposed.

Early results Sunday were not broken down in terms of gender, but did show a divide between different regions, with the German-speaking part of the country clearly in favour of the reform and the French-speaking part opposed.

Initial results from Geneva for instance showed more than 62 percent of voters had voted against the plan, the RTS public broadcaster reported. 

– Factory farming ban rejected –

While the pension reform plans appeared set to pass, gfs.bern projected that another hotly debated issue on Sunday’s ballot, a proposed ban on intensive livestock farming, would not pass.

Early results showed that a full 63 percent of voters had rejected the popular initiative by animal rights and welfare organisations, gfs.bern said. 

The backers of the initiative had wanted to make protecting the dignity of animals like cattle, chickens or pigs a constitutional requirement, and impose stricter minimum requirements for animal-friendly housing and care, access to outdoors and slaughtering practices.

The proposal, which essentially amounted to outlawing factory farming, would also have extended to imports of animals and animal products.

The government and parliament opposed the initiative, insisting that Switzerland already has among the world’s strictest animal welfare laws, and warning that tightening the rules further would significantly hike prices.

Bern had also cautioned that the import clause could impact relations with Switzerland’s trading partners.

Backers of the initiative said Sunday that while they would have liked to see their proposal pass, they were pleased the campaign had raised awareness about the issue.

“For us, it is in any case a victory,” Vera Weber, head of the Franz Weber Foundation, told RTS, pointing out that “all of Switzerland has discussed the problems linked to intensive livestock farming and our meat consumption.” 

Switzerland votes Sunday on a slew of issues, including a proposed ban on factory farming and divisive pension reform that would raise the retirement age for women.

After aborted attempts in 2004 and 2017, Bern is hoping to garner enough votes to “stabilise” Switzerland’s old-age security system, under pressure as life expectancy rises and the giant baby-boomer generation reaches retirement age.

The most controversial part of the reform would require women to work until the age of 65, the same age as the current retirement age for men, before receiving a full pension. They currently bow out a year earlier at 64.

Parliament approved the key measures, which include a sales tax hike, last year, but left-leaning parties and unions decry the reform “on the backs of women” and pushed the issue to a referendum under Switzerland’s direct democratic system.

– Gender pension gap –

While backers of the reform argue that men and women retiring at the same age is not unreasonable, the move has sparked significant pushback, especially from women.

Opponents argue that women face significant discrimination and a broad gender pay-gap in Switzerland, meaning they receive far smaller pensions than men.

They argue it is unfair to increase their retirement age without first addressing those issues.

In 2020, women in Switzerland on average received pensions nearly 35 percent smaller than men, according to the Swiss economy ministry.

Surveys indicate, however, that Swiss voters, who have twice rejected government pension reform plans, have warmed to the idea, even if a war of the sexes is bubbling.

In a recent Tamedia poll, 55 percent of those questioned supported it. But while 70 percent of men backed the reform, 58 percent of women opposed it, the findings said.

– Ban factory farms? –

Another hotly debated topic on the ballot is a popular proposal to ban intensive livestock farming, essentially eradicating factory farms in largely rural Switzerland.

The animal rights and welfare organisations behind the initiative want to make protecting the dignity of animals like cattle, chickens or pigs a constitutional requirement.

“We believe animal agriculture is one of the defining problems of our time,” animal welfare group Sentience, which presented the initiative, says on its website.

If accepted, the initiative — backed by left-leaning parties, Greenpeace and other environmental organisations — would impose stricter minimum requirements for animal-friendly housing and care, access to outdoors and slaughtering practices.

The new requirements would also extend to imports of animals and animal products.

The government and parliament oppose the initiative, insisting that Switzerland already has among the world’s strictest animal welfare laws.

Under current legislation, farms cannot keep more than 1,500 fattening pigs, 27,000 broiler chickens or 300 calves, basically ruling out the kinds of massive factory farms seen in other countries.

– Farmers opposed –

Bern has cautioned that tightening these rules further would significantly hike prices, while the import clause could impact relations with trading partners.

Such arguments appear to have convinced a growing number of Swiss and the most recent polls put the “no” camp in the lead. Farmers are sceptical and opposition is higher in rural areas then in cities.

The Swiss will also vote on a number of regional issues, including a vote in Bern canton that could lower the legal voting age from 18 to 16.

Most people vote in advance in Switzerland’s popular polls and referendums held every few months. On Sunday, ballot boxes will open for just a few hours before closing at noon (1000 GMT).

Initial results are expected by the early afternoon.