Last week, it emerged that the streamer has agreed to buy Warner Bros Discovery’s film and TV business for $72billion (£54billion), putting it in control of franchises such as Harry Potter and Batman as well as HBO shows such as Game Of Thrones and Succession.
The deal is yet to be completed, however, with an expectation that it will close in late 2026 as Discovery elements such as certain channels, news and sport, are sold off.
It is also expected to face regulatory approval in the US and elsewhere, and US President Trump has now spoken on the news.
“Netflix are a great company and they’ve done a phenomenal job,” he said at an event in Washington DC over the weekend. “They have a very big market share. And when they have Warner Bros. that share goes up a lot. That’s going to be for some economists to tell. I’ll be involved in that decision.”
Speaking about Netflix boss Ted Sarandos, he added: “He came up in the Oval Office last week. I have a lot of respect for him, he’s a great person. But he’s done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things.”
Trump then said: “But it is a big market share, there’s no question about it. It could be a problem.”
Speaking on the Today programme, former chair of the Federal Trade Commission Bill Kovacic suggested the president’s comments mean that the deal is “going to run through the White House”.
“That means that we’re going to have probably a deep level, an unprecedented level of presidential control in the resolution of what used to be a technical analysis of a merger,” he added.
The deal has attracted criticism both in Washington and Hollywood, with the Writers Guild of America among those speaking out against it.
“The world’s largest streaming company swallowing one of its biggest competitors is what antitrust laws were designed to prevent,” they said. “The outcome would eliminate jobs, push down wages, worsen conditions for all entertainment workers, raise prices for consumers, and reduce the volume and diversity of content for all viewers.”
Netflix beat rivals Paramount Skydance and Comcast for the Warner Bros. takeover bid, with the former previously offering to buy the whole company, though Warners rejected this before putting itself up for sale. Paramount is run by David Ellison, the son of billionaire and Trump ally Larry Ellison. By Sam Warner, NME
Some have even gone so far as to leave the country to live somewhere with more affordable choices for working parents.
One couple told The i Paper they made the move to Spain after finding it difficult juggling their jobs with bringing up their son and daughter in the UK.
Jonathan Langridge and his wife, Sara Bustillo de Castro, both 36, swapped Cambridge for Madrid in September 2023. Inspired by their experience, Bustillo de Castro wrote a book comparing the best – and worst – places to raise children while both parents continue to work.
“Childcare costs were very high [in the UK] but it was not the only reason we moved,” she told The i Paper.
She said they wanted to be in a country where both parents could have a career. “That was really complicated in the UK because it is really expensive.”
In comparison, she said, her native Spain was “amazing” because nannies were affordable and social security cover was provided by employers.
She pays €1,900 (£1,672) per month to a woman who looks after her children, Emma, five, and Tom, three.
“In the UK, we had nursery for both children who were aged one and three, £2,800 in total per month.”
In Spain, the couple have one child in a private nursery costing €520 (£458) per month, though Bustillo de Castro notes that public nurseries are available for some. “On top of that, we have a helper 40 hours per week. Total cost for us is roughly €1,900 per month, but she’s not just taking care of the kids in the evenings, she’s with them during the school holidays, when they’re at home because they’re ill, when there are school strikes. Otherwise she takes care of shopping, cooking, cleaning, ironing, sewing buttons that have fallen off, laundry… everything. She’s a rockstar.”
The couple looked for this kind of arrangement in Britain “but the closest thing was an au pair and it’s absolutely not the same level of commitment or maturity”, Bustillo de Castro added.
The Bubble childcare app puts the average cost of a full-time nanny working a 45-hour week in the UK at £3,450-£4,500 per month, or starting from £2,400 for a live-in nanny.
Bustillo de Castro conceded that September’s childcare reforms in Britain, which grant 30 hours free nursery care per week to parents during term time, would make combining career and family life easier.
The family moved to Madrid from Cambridge in 2023 (Photo: Provided)
But critics say that even parents eligible for this scheme still face some of the highest childcare fees in the world.
The latest data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), from 2023, showed that families in the UK spent an average of 25 per cent of household wage on childcare (for one parent on the average wage and the second on 67 per cent of the average wage).
This was the highest proportion of any country in Europe and the third highest globally after the US, where 40 per cent of household wage went on childcare, and New Zealand, on 27 per cent.
Ireland also ranked highly at 22 per cent, while Spain was only 8 per cent and German families spent just 1 per cent of household income on childcare. The latest UK government subsidy – which is expected to come alongside an increase in nursery fees and in the cost of extras such as food – is thought to be unlikely to dramatically alter the UK’s position relative to other OECD nations.
The OECD report on the annual cost to the average family with two children aged two and three at public nurseries was £11,848 in the UK while in Spain it was £2,152. The lowest figure among European countries was in Germany at £377, while the highest was Switzerland at £17,754.
The more recent 2025 annual childcare survey by children’s charity Coram put the average cost of a full-time nursery place in England at £12,425 per year for an under two-year-old, £11,736 for a two-year-old, and £6,600 for a three- or four-year-old.
“I was trying to understand why it is more difficult in some countries than others to have children and balance it all,” said Bustillo de Castro. “I concluded that it is a mix of culture and policy.
“Because of writing the book, we moved to Spain.”
Langridge, who is British but was born in Cape Town, is a commercial director for an industrial printer company, while Bustillo de Castro works as vice-president for expansion for an airport ground handling company. They lived together in the UK for two years.
Bustillo de Castro noted that in Britain many mothers stopped working or returned to work part time after taking the average nine months of maternity leave. In comparison, in Spain most women go back to work after four months of maternity leave (paid at 100 per cent of the employee’s salary).
“Maybe that is because our work market is less mature than the UK and there is a culture in Spain of grandparents helping,” she said.
Her book compared childcare for working couples in the UK, US, the Nordics, Spain, France, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore and Kenya.
Help for working couples was best in Kenya and Singapore, she said, but this was often because migrants offered childcare at a low price. The same happened in Spain, where many childminders come from Latin America.
Bustillo de Castro noted that some Nordic countries were better at helping parents to look after children and have a job because there was typically a culture where work was not the only thing in life.
She added that, despite the National Health Service, access to a GP in the UK was “really tough”. The I Paper
Plans to house asylum seekers in Inverness have been delayed
STV News
Concerns had been raised about the impact on the community in Inverness. Scotland’s First Minister has said UK Government plans to house 300 male asylum seekers at an army barracks in the Highlands were “made up on the back of an envelope”.
John Swinney welcomed the news that the Home Office has delayed proposals to place the men at Cameron Barracks in Inverness.
He said the decision was “an acknowledgement that the plans were not well formulated”, and said the Home Office should do “some homework” before taking forward such proposals.
The UK Government said on Friday that while it was still “continuing to accelerate plans” to move asylum seekers to the Scottish site, as well as the Crowborough military base in East Sussex, it would wait until they were “fully operational and safe”.
Highland Council and some local residents have raised concerns about the proposals to house asylum seekers at Cameron Barracks.
Asked about his response to the delay, Swinney told the Press Association on Saturday: “I think the announcement from the Home Office of a delay to their plans indicates that these plans were put together on the back of an envelope
“We’ve said all along that there had to be detailed engagement and dialogue with Highland Council and the Scottish Government about these plans, and despite our best efforts, we have been unable to have that detailed engagement.
“I can’t answer detailed questions about what would be the arrangements around the Cameron Barracks, and that’s because the answers are not forthcoming from the Home Office.
“So I think the overnight decision from the Home Office is welcome because it’s an acknowledgement that the plans were not well formulated.
“And I would respectfully say to the Home Office, if they want to take forward plans of this nature, they should do some thinking, some homework first.”
Questions had previously been raised about the suitability of Cameron Barracks, which is in need of a £1.3 million refurbishment.
Concerns were also raised about “community cohesion”, and how the local authority could ensure people were prepared for the “sudden” presence of 300 asylum seekers.
In recent months, protests have regularly taken place at hotels housing asylum seekers at various locations in Scotland.
Asked whether the protests themselves are racist, he said: “Yes, they are, because they are expressing hostility towards individuals, and it is important that we confront that sentiment.”
Swinney added: “Many of the people who are participating in these protests against the asylum seeker hotels are people who are spreading racist hate in our country.
“So yes, there are people in there who are doing exactly that, and that’s why that’s got to be confronted, and why people in Scotland can rely on their First Minister to do exactly that.”
Commenting on the plans for Cameron Barracks, Scottish Conservative Highlands and Islands MSP Edward Mountain, said: “This delay is nothing more than a ploy by the UK Government in the hope people come round to their flawed idea of housing asylum seekers at Cameron Barracks.
Angus MacDonald, Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, said: “Irrespective of how long this delay lasts, Cameron Barracks is not an appropriate location to house such a large number of asylum seekers.
“It is the wrong solution in the wrong place.”
UK Government ministers have been looking at ways of clamping down on the use of asylum seeker hotels.
A Home Office spokesperson said on Friday: “We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels.
“Moving to large military sites is an important part of our reforms to tackle illegal migration and the pull factors that make the UK an attractive destination.
“We are continuing to accelerate plans to move people into Crowborough and Cameron Barracks, when the sites are fully operational and safe.
“We will not replicate the mistakes of the past where rushed plans have led to unsafe and chaotic situations that impacts the local community.”
The Home Office did not wish to make further comment on Saturday. STV News
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