Netflix appears to be riding high, with far more subscribers than its rivals Amazon Prime, HBO Max and Disney+. Yet the streaming giant is cutting staff as its revenue and viewership growth slows
and no more hits like “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game” emerge.

What did the commenters say?
Netflix investors have been “increasingly worried” since the company’s failed bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, said The Wall Street Journal. Although Netflix has the lowest cancellation rate among major streamers, its subscribers are spending less time watching programming on the platform. And since strong viewership tells executives “customers are satisfied and less likely to cancel their subscriptions”, that’s a bad sign. The company’s shares have fallen by 40% over the last year. 

The problem is “keeping viewers hooked”, said The New York Times. Shows including “Beef” and “The Night Agent” are shedding audiences in their latest seasons. Viewers are instead “drifting toward TikTok and YouTube for the attention Netflix used to own”, said Investing.com’s Jesse Cohen. Netflix accounts for just under 8% of US and UK viewing time, while YouTube comes in at 14%.

Netflix has also suffered a “brain drain” that is affecting its hit-making ability, said Drew Taylor at The Wrap. The Duffer Brothers, who created “Stranger Things”, have left for Paramount, and filmmakers such as David Fincher and Noah Baumbach are also departing. The key to any revival “will be to reestablish those relationships”.

What next?
Netflix announced last month that it was cutting 1,000 jobs, including chief content officer Bela Bajaria. Her replacement, British-born TV executive Peter Rice, “understands talent relations” and will help make the streamer a place where Hollywood creators “love to do” their “best work”, said co-CEO Ted Sarandos in a call to investors.

Sarandos (pictured above) must now “get down to business with his shiny new hire”, said Screen Daily. Rice, whose roles have included chair of Walt Disney Television and president of 21st Century Fox, will need to help “change the content culture” and “put an end to what has turned out to be its annus horribilis”.

One of Britain’s biggest unions has called for a blanket ban on problem airline passengers, after a survey of members revealed that the majority of aviation workers have suffered abuse from customers.

Unite found that 72% of ground staff and 71% of cabin crew face verbal abuse at least monthly. Just under a third of ground staff and 42% of cabin crew said they had been physically assaulted. According to the UK Civil Aviation Authority, reports of serious disruptive passenger incidents have more than doubled since the pandemic, with more than 1,000 last year.

Booze and bad behaviour
Although flight delays, cancellations and baggage issues contribute to disruptive behaviour, by far the biggest factor is alcohol. In the Unite survey, 95% of cabin crew and 55% of ground staff pointed to intoxication as the biggest trigger for abuse.

Being drunk on a plane is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to £5,000 and two years’ imprisonment. But Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary told The Times earlier this year that the airline was having to divert almost one aircraft a day because of drunken and aggressive behaviour by passengers. “Until somebody creates an accident that causes a plane to crash and kills hundreds, no government will take this problem seriously and airlines are tearing their hair out,” he said, calling for morning drinking at airports to be banned.

‘Alarm bells’
Under current data protection rules, airlines are prohibited from sharing passenger details, so people banned from a flight or airline can easily book with another carrier. However, the Department for Transport set out plans this summer to create a national database of disruptive passengers, which would be cooperatively managed by the government and the airline industry. This would alert airline staff to passengers with a history of abuse, and they could then decide whether to let them fly. Repeat offenders could be banned for life from all airlines operating out of the UK.

The proposal is broadly welcomed by airlines, airport staff and the public. But civil liberties campaigner Josie Appleton, of the Campaign for Freedom in Everyday Life, said the plan “should ring alarm bells”. It “sets a dangerous precedent of government working with private companies to bar people’s access to transport and services”, she told LBC.

Andy Burnham takes a tumble during a cricket match with local youth players and West Indies legend Vivian Richards in Antigua. “My running between the wickets needs a bit of work,” the PM, in the Caribbean for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, joked afterwards.

Kin Cheung / Pool / Getty Images

Christmas market cruises are a great way to get into the festive spirit while exploring the world. Ships become a “moving base while Europe does the costume change”, with “ordinary streets” transformed into “Advent villages strung with lights”, said Yahoo! Here are some of the best.

Belgium and the Netherlands
Ditch the hassle of airports for a no-fly “bargain break” to the Netherlands and Belgium with Ambassador Cruise Line, said The Sunday Times. On the four-night trip from London Tilbury, the first stop is Bruges (pictured above), where visitors can enjoy the “sparkles” of the Winter Glow festival. And next up is Rotterdam and the Markthal, offering “foodie gifts” that are ideal for the season.

France, Germany and the Czech Republic
This bumper 11-day trip with Viking visits three countries, two rivers and a host of Christmas markets. Starting in Paris, the ship moves to Reims and then the “colourful stalls” of Mainz and Bamberg, complete with the “scent of spiced gingerbread”, said The Independent. The cruise ends with two days in “pretty Prague”.

Hungary, Slovakia and Austria
Riviera Travel’s five-night round-trip cruise from Budapest is the ideal mini-break for those keen to soak up the “festive feeling”, said Travel Weekly. Highlights include a stop at the Slovak capital, Bratislava, where the ship docks just a “quick hop and skip over the road” from the city’s main square and festive market. Moving on to Vienna, the “city of music” is celebrated on board with a classical recital, while ashore, there are plenty of stalls to pick up Christmas treats.

Fixation on the past ignores the horrors of modern slavery
Theresa May in The Times
Andy Burnham says he’s “open” to Britain apologising for transatlantic slavery, but “he is failing to address the horror that is slavery today”, writes former PM Theresa May. An estimated 50 million people worldwide are living in bondage, “denied their freedom, their dignity” and their “humanity”. Governments should “legislate and enforce their laws, and support victims”, and companies should tackle “any forced labour” in their supply chains. We must “stop thinking about the past and work to eradicate” this modern-day exploitation.

TikTok says I have ‘ferritin face’ – is this a trend too far?
Charlotte Cripps in The Independent
According to social media, my “dark under-eye circles”, “ghostlier-than-usual pallor” and “shedding of hair” are “dead giveaways I have an iron deficiency”, writes Charlotte Cripps. TikTok is in a “frenzy about ‘ferritin face’”, named after a “blood protein that stores iron”. A quirk that previously “felt like a personal failing” can now be a “shared experience, complete with its own hashtag and tribe”. But experts are warning that “pseudo” health trends and self-diagnosis are fuelling dangerous “medical misinformation”.

I’ve discovered both me and my dog are common
Simon Kelner in The i Paper
Socialite Nicky Haslam’s annual List of Common Things is a “faintly ridiculous, yet diverting, wintertime ritual”, writes Simon Kelner. Perusing it, we can “recognise those things that we, secretly or unknowingly, have also been sniffy about”. Haslam’s latest no-nos include quail eggs, foldable wing mirrors and being thin “(a comment on the age of Ozempic)”. We’re living in a “more class-agnostic” society, but he’s a “reminder that Britain hasn’t shaken off its obsession with establishing where everybody sits in the social pecking order”.