Politicians across the divide supported the motion to impeach bill kaczynski a moral incapacity Company Owned by kaczynski is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those are your top stories counting the cost is up next the very same things your company. Witnessed documentaries. At this time on aljazeera. Hello im come on santa maria this is counting the cost on aljazeera you look at the world of business and economics this week the mouse and the fact its one of the biggest media shake ups in recent history and disney buys out Rupert Murdochs twenty First Century fox but the story goes deeper than that its about how we consume all this entertainment content and how a new habit of watching the internet rather than the t. V. Is impacting the corporate landscape or is it the other way around also this way why is there no opec for gas well there is an industry body the gas exporting countries for. Secretary general whats determining the price of gas also the issue of Net Neutrality who really owns the internet who has the right to control our access why it matters so much. So it is the big media to name synonymous with on Screen Entertainment and by the sounds of things this will be no mickey mouse outfit the Walt Disney Company is buying up the entertainment business of Rupert Murdochs twenty First Century fox in a landmark fifty two point four billion dollars deal if its approved itll be a union of hollywood heavyweights but this is also about survival of the fittest disney and fox both need to strengthen their offerings because as you all know we dont just watch the t. V. Or go to the movies anymore that why the story to come after this from john hendren. In a move that would reshape the Entertainment Industry large parts of what belong to twenty First Century fox would become the property of disney were getting quite Quality Content were getting global reach were getting access to new technologies and were also getting great talent there while there is risk associated with this whether you look at the price or whether you look at the regulatory side or whether you look at the complexity of integrating companies this size that risk was well worth taking on the marriage of fox and the mouse is priced at fifty two billion dollars but it still needs the approval of any trust regulators in an email to disney employees chairman and c. E. O. Bob iger called it a historic move forward for us one that reflects a rapidly evolving media landscape brands from Rupert Murdochs fox empire included in the deal or Twentieth Century fox film and Television Sky b s b the National Geographic channels the f. X. Networks star india and its streaming service the aim of this combined company is to create even more high Quality Content and then to distribute it in ways that consumers prefer and consumers demand in todays world and we think that this combination is going to enable even more that disney expects to save two billion dollars in cost savings analysts say that will likely come at the expense of shrinking or even eliminating the hallowed Twentieth Century fox studios the cellular home to classics such as the sound of music. Was. In the very first Star Wars Film with the hulu service it will let disney take on Netflix AppleAmazon Google and facebook in the rapidly expanding realm of online video the massive deal is not a foregone conclusion the u. S. Justice department recently said eighteen ts bid to acquire time warner is unlikely to be approved without major changes that signals that plan pacts like this could also have to pass intense antitrust scrutiny before they become reality. Joining us from london now Mark Mulligan hes a media and Technology Analyst and the founder of Media Research thank you so much for your time disney and twenty First Century fox theres almost not enough suppose heads to say how big this deal and this company will be or the interesting thing is its all about your perspective so in the media world yes absolutely huge in the tech world and the combined entity still far off the likes of facebook and google and amazon and i think thats actually the point you know that disney and fox are realizing that with the growth that youre seeing within the tech majors versus Media Companies the only chance theyve got of even being on the same lap of the races of these guys is by being a combined entity but are they really good i mean are they competing obviously in these online world but theres still a company like facebook or google is very different to disney which which has so much history and makes the content its primary thing is to make the content. Were already seeing google making its own content youve got bread is a starting point and there will be more t. V. Which is a t. V. Proposition which is taking on the mainstream and more will become a really big deal weve got facebook making original facebook probably bidding on sports rights. Google potentially been a sports rights next year amazon already looking to beat in sports rights all of these companies are going to be going right at the home turf of disney and fox and weve seen with the likes of netflix and amazon you know these are companies which have come from nowhere to be absolutely major player grabbing the emmys in the awards in the kitty market share in subscriber count what weve seen at the moment is a battle between distribution and content the saying always to be content is king but now we see that the distribution the Big Technology companies thats where the power resides i think we need to look at the disney folks there within that context do you reckon they can put it in this marketplace now given as you just i mean you just mentioned amazon t. V. And netflix is one but theres so many of these streaming services now is there a place for disney within that. Were certainly seeing a degree of maturity in the streaming market in the big markets in the the u. S. Weve got more than one hundred million video subscribers and had dozens upon dozens of Different Services but they still move fast amounts of growth in this market in or even in the u. S. But you know you look elsewhere so many markets across europe in the americas and asia are still really just getting going so this is a market which is a huge amount of growth left to me yet. The challenge is is if you are worried one company who makes one set of shows you know how to be good those shows are is just one set of shows so if you are going to really have rallied to your end users you either need to make sure that is so compelling we need to mix it in with the stuff which is why when we see the likes of h. B. O. Doing its own. Video service it looks so much narrower and shallower than what you get on netflix is the thing there mark everything weve talked about is dependent on having a decent Internet Connection and we all know how frustrating it is when you dont have one. This is actually a major issue here isnt it making sure that people if theyre going to have access theyve got to have the internet in the first place absolutely in companies not netflix have got incredibly smart at this so one of the things that theyre greater is migrating people away actually from mobile viewing to t. V. Centric viewing you know the majority of people a sign up for netflix on mobile well after a number of months be mainly watching through a t. V. Set you know so there is a recognition from the streaming companies of the need to get people you know away from the less reliable mobile networks into the home market but theres a much bigger challenge at the moment which is were just looking like were going to have new regulations on Net Neutrality in the u. S. What that essentially means is the telcos who provide the Internet Access are going to be able to decide which services they want to perform well and which not so it might be that you know telco x. In the u. S. Has. Launch its own Video Service and it decides if anybodys watching netflix is going to get a really small amount of connection so however good your broadband connection is netflix is always going to underperform and thats potentially one of the most worrying developments thats facing streaming services of the moment and is that just a u. S. Issue at the moment or is this something people all over the world should be concerned about the whole Net Neutrality debate has been going on for you know more well more than a decade but normally what we see is that when regulations get put in place in the u. S. Then we end up seeing versions of them making their way into the solution across europe and in other regions so its a very contentious issue is one where local governments and regulators or have their own viewpoint but itll be a very important precedent set at the u. S. Does go down this route final thought for you then martin and this is getting a bit philosophical but go with me on this because as were talking about all this it just makes me think about this internet saturation yes you made the point that netflix is trying to drag people towards their televisions but really phones Tablet Computers it follows us everywhere and i wonder about your thoughts on that saturation and what its doing to us especially is it progressing just so fast. Yes its a really good question were in whats termed the attention economy where all these Different Services social media and everything that we can get on our devices is competing for attention you know everybodys trying to get a bit of our attention to to get to suspend time with content the services its resulted in. Filling up our time much more than we used to one of my favorite statistics of the entire digital liver is from the National SwedishStatistical Office when theyre looking at the activities most cannibalized by Digital Media and the number one activity most kind of lies is staring out of the window you know so we really are get to the stage where were spending less time being mindful spending less time reflecting were spending much more time swallowing the information around us and i think well see the most dramatic societal and Cultural Impact among the gen zinni thats the the young millennial born in this millennium or one would say were tweens and teens theyre the ones whove grown up from the playground with snapshot with instagram their entire lives has been this continual feed of information so i think thats when were going to see the real impact of whats happened with the tension economy bursting at the same. Again fascinating talking to you and i must remember to go and look out the window again thanks for joining us pleasure. Now on that note its interesting to hear a form of facebook executive now saying social media is quote ripping society apart. Who headed facebooks user growth from two thousand and seven to two thousand and eleven expressed regret over his past and building the tools that he says are now destroying the social fabric of how Society Works he recommended people take a break from social media saying addiction to it is a global problem well heres the response from facebook has not been at facebook for over six years when joe mouth was at facebook we were focused on building new social media experiences and growing facebook around the World Facebook was a very Different Company back then and as we have grown we have realized our responsibilities have grown to. Mention this next topic in our interview a little bit earlier Net Neutrality and this week rules protecting open Internet Access have been repealed by the u. S. Government the changes could mean large corporations can pay the Internet Service providers to prioritize their websites and even block their competitive neutrality advocates worry this all could lead to censorship and increased Internet Access costs castro has more on that from washington. Opposed to the repeal of Net Neutrality rules in the u. S. And making their voices heard on the streets of washington protesters in the end were not loud enough to sway the vote of the federal Communications Commission your car was your reason were still i dissent the Commission Voted three to two along partisan lines to undo the obama era regulations that the chairman called burdensome and unnecessary it is not the job of the government to be in the business of picking winners and losers in the internet economy we should have a level Playing Field and let consumers decide who prevails Net Neutrality rules essentially prohibited broadband providers in the u. S. From speeding up a consumers access to some internet content over others even if websites were willing to pay for the advantage the idea was to preserve the internet as a public resource for all protester randy call and says the rules have protected her nonprofits ability to reach an online audience this in an email out to gazan people and from their great one point three million around the country and in places around the world. Only possible through having a free and open internet that like all our cards and the strength of our ideas could not be blocked arse stopped by the size of our budget never before has a debate over the intangible connections of the internet sparked such public passion more than twenty million comments were received by the f. C. C. Prior to thursdays vote and now at least two states have said they will appeal the commissions decision which you dont of course just and youve got congresspeople youve got millions of people who are in your corner and we will achieve internet you close the internet wallabies Net Neutrality. We will win at the end of the day Internet Companies have said they have no immediate plans to change consumers experience but now that the Net Neutrality protection is gone it remains to be seen how long the industry will put in quality over revenue potential. And still to come on counting the cost how households in greece turned their power bills into checks from the Power Company and they did it with more than a little help from the sun that story still to come. In other news this week it seems one way to survive retail armageddon is to engage in some Retail Therapy stuff to the c. E. O. The european more. Has said Online Shopping has its limits and physical stores will never go out of fashion and hes putting his money where his mouth is. Which has high end malls from paris to helsinki is bidding fifteen point seven billion dollars to buy a strangers westfields the deal is approved will create the worlds biggest mall operator in the u. S. It was the final policy amazing to Federal Reserve chief janet yellen and the central bank raise rates by a quarter of a percentage point while also raising its forecast for u. S. Growth in twenty eighteen to two and a half percent that is well above septembers estimate of two point one percent the new fed chair Jerome Powell takes over in february also many ways in for president trumps tax bill to passenger legislation so a lot to watch in the u. S. Economy in the next year and here in the middle east state oil firm adn all crazy eight hundred fifty one Million Dollars through an initial Public Offering of a ten percent stake in its distribution unit the listing is part of a strategy by the u. A. E. As well as other gulf nations to privatized Energy Sector assets dont forget the listing of saudi state owned oil giant saudi aramco which is slated for twenty eighteen it is likely to be the Worlds Largest i. P. O. Do you notice there even in these days of Renewable Energy how we generally still talk about oil before anything else and opec meeting or decision for example it is still a big deal and often a consequential one but now Gas Producing countries like russia and iran have laid out what they think is the future of their industry for the next two decades and its looking pretty strong remember natural gas is used for beverage thing from heating to Electricity Generation and its a lot cleaner i went down to the headquarters of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum here in doha to catch up with dr Mohamed Hussein a bally the organizations secretary