Philippa Kaur

Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

From Korean horror to Palestinian romance, Netflix covers every genre—almost. Among tens of thousands of hours of video on its servers, the world’s largest streaming platform is missing the category that draws bigger audiences to television than anything else: live sport.That will change at 3pm on November 14th in Las Vegas with the Netflix Cup, a celebrity golf tournament which will be streamed live to the company’s 250m subscribers. The unconventional show, featuring teams made up of professional golfers and Formula One racing drivers, is billed as a one-off. It may turn out to be a warm-up for something bigger.Netflix says the purpose of the cup is to promote “Full Swing” and “Drive to Survive”, its successful docu-series about golf and racing. Lately the company has been active in a niche in what it calls sports shoulder-programming, commissioning factual series such as “Break Point” (following professional tennis players) and “Unchained” (tracking the Tour de France), as well as profiles of stars such as David Beckham.Showing sport itself has not tempted the streaming giant. Rights are wildly expensive—America’s National Football League (nfl) earns more than $10bn a year from its media deals—as well as low margin: the more value broadcasters get out of the games, the more the leagues demand when the rights come up for renewal. Last year Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-chief executive, said the company was “not anti-sports, we’re just pro-profit”.That wording left the door open to a different approach—and the Netflix Cup suggests one. By owning the tournament, Netflix will keep any upside. “If they create value, they will enjoy the fruits of that, as opposed to creating value for another sports league who might turn around and ask them for an increase,” says Brandon Ross of LightShed Partners, a research firm. Netflix has reportedly explored buying small sporting outfits such as the World Surf League on this basis.The bigger question is whether the company might one day bid for rights to established leagues. Analysts increasingly believe that it will, though they disagree on when. “Netflix’s next frontier has to be more sports rights,” says Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson, another research company, who sees the golf cup as a test of sport’s ability to attract viewers to the platform, and of Netflix’s ability to execute live content. He sees rights to America’s National Basketball Association, which come due for renewal in 2025, as a possible target. Mr Ross thinks that is too soon.Netflix downplays all such talk. But it has more reason than in the past to bid for sports. Since its subscriber growth stalled early last year, leading to a plunge in its share price, Netflix’s executives have racked their brains for new ways to expand. Last year the company introduced advertising, which it had previously dismissed. This year it has cracked down on users sharing passwords, which it once encouraged. Sport could help to attract new subscribers, particularly in foreign markets where the streamer has struggled to break through. Cricket turbocharged the growth of Disney+ in India—though it proved so expensive that Disney eventually dropped it.Netflix’s newish ad business also makes sport more attractive. Sport appeals to advertisers, who say that it engages audiences like nothing else, while being reliably brand-safe (some advertisers balk at showing off their products alongside, say, “Squid Game”). Live action means ad breaks can’t be skipped; fans are loth to slip out to put the kettle on for fear of missing the action. And sport offers unmatched scale, with nfl games regularly drawing 20m concurrent viewers in America on Sunday nights.If Netflix were to take to the field it could be game-changing. Sports-rights holders have cashed in following interest from deep-pocketed streamers such as Apple, Amazon and Google (which last year bought nfl rights for YouTube). But they are nervous that old-media bidders are tightening their belts. Disney (which owns espn, a giant sports network) and Warner Bros Discovery are both aggressively economising as their legacy cable networks shrink. “The entire [sports] content world right now…is hoping that Netflix gets involved in bidding for sports rights,” says Mr Ross. “And all of the traditional media buyers are praying that Netflix doesn’t.”Netflix, meanwhile, is simply praying that its live-streaming technology holds up. Its first live show, a comedy special with Chris Rock in March, went well. But in April a live episode of “Love is Blind”, a dating contest, was a technical fiasco. As the Netflix Cup tees off, the people behind the camera may be more nervous than the players.■ More

Tourists on Mallorca might now marvel at a new attraction on the Mediterranean island: a miniature economy entirely energised by “green” hydrogen. At its heart, two solar plants power an “electrolyser”, which splits water into oxygen and hydrogen, creating carbon-free fuel. The hydrogen can propel buses, be injected into the island’s gas grid and power fuel cells at hotels and the port. “The project shows what is possible,” says Belén Linares, head of innovation at Acciona Energía, a renewable-energy firm that is one of the project’s investors.There is one snag: the hydrogen has yet to materialise. Because of a design flaw, the electrolyser, which is made by Cummins, an American firm, has been recalled. Importing green hydrogen, which is derived from renewable sources, is impractical. Buses and fuel cells stand unused. A newly elected local government also appears less interested. The previous administration talked “a lot of hot air”, according to a quote in the local press by the new mayor of Palma, the island’s capital.Boundless possibilities, or hot air? The same question also hangs over a wider green-hydrogen economy, which European governments hope to see emerge in the Mediterranean basin, turning the region into a sun-fuelled counterpart to a wind-driven northern dynamo already taking shape around the North Sea. The prize is large. If plans for Europe’s southern powerhouse go well it will give the continent access to cheap renewable energy and allow it to clean up its carbon-spewing heavy industry.The Mediterranean has always been a conduit for energy. From the days of Roman dominance to the 19th century it was manpower in the form of enslaved Africans. Today it is mostly natural gas. Half-a-dozen pipelines connect Europe to Africa and the Middle East. The EU depends on the region for over a third of its natural-gas imports. In the age of renewable energy, countries on the shores of the Med boast some of the best conditions on Earth for harvesting natural forces.Solar capacity shows vast potential. Spain on average basks in an annual 4,575 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of sunlight per square metre and Morocco in 5,563 kWh, double what Germany can expect. Sparse populations mean that Spain and Portugal have ample land for such plants, as do the deserts of northern Africa and the Middle East. In some parts of Morocco and Mauritania both sun and wind are abundant, forming rare sweet spots where hydrogen electrolysers can run virtually non-stop. “There are only ten such locations around the world,” explains Benedikt Ortmann, who runs the solar business of BayWa, a German energy and construction company.Tapping this reservoir of renewable energy is not a new idea. In the early 2000s an association backed by dozens of corporations, mostly German, came up with the idea of plastering the Sahara with giant solar plants. But support for Desertec, incorporated in 2009, quickly evaporated mainly because of the cost of the technology. The development of better and cheaper means of harvesting the sun’s rays is behind a revival of the idea. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the average cost of electricity of utility-scale solar plants has declined from $0.45 per kWh in 2010 to $0.05 last year.Transporting the energy north, to where it is needed, is now also more feasible. Desertec’s plan involved undersea cables, which have limited capacity. But now cheaper and efficient electrolysers can convert electricity into hydrogen at source. This can then be transported as a gas or a derivative, such as liquid ammonia. Analysts expect that in a few years green hydrogen from north Africa will cost under $1.50 per kilogram, probably making it cheaper than “blue” hydrogen, which is derived from natural gas but requires the resulting carbon to be captured and stored.Demand for energy from the south is much more likely to materialise than in the days of Desertec, too. Hydrogen and its derivatives will be badly needed as carbon-free feedstocks for Europe’s steel and chemicals industries. Of the 20m tonnes that the eu has set as a consumption target by 2030, much will come from its southern fringe and northern Africa.The region’s position as Europe’s southern powerhouse is, however, not a given. Europe has to jump-start a market for a new energy source and do so in a deregulated arena with many competing players. “It’s a chicken-and-egg problem,” says Kirsten Westphal of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, a lobby group. Simultaneously ramping up demand and supply is a delicate balancing act. Companies are hesitant to commit to long-term offtake agreements if they are unsure about the availability and pricing of hydrogen. This, in turn, discourages producers from making crucial investment decisions. It doesn’t help that political instability in northern Africa increases risks and thus the cost of capital.Yet the biggest problem is linking both sides of the market, which starts with establishing physical connections. Most of the hydrogen will first need to be transported by ship, probably in the form of ammonia (liquid hydrogen, which has to be kept at -253°C, is tricky to move around). But shipping capacity is limited. James Kneebone of the Florence School of Regulation estimates that, even if it were technically possible, repurposing the entire existing global fleet of vessels able to transport liquefied natural gas could only deliver some 6.5m tonnes per year. That leaves a reliance on pipelinesExperts are divided over whether existing gas networks can be upgraded for hydrogen and building new pipelines is expensive. Geopolitical turmoil may deter investments in pipelines as well as hydrogen production. All three corridors identified by the eu through which hydrogen could flow in the Mediterranean basin cross troublesome territory. Hydrogen piped from Mauritania would ideally go through Western Sahara but Morocco’s control of the region is disputed. An alternative under consideration is an offshore route via the Canary Islands.Once built, pipelines are vulnerable to political interference. In November 2021 Algeria’s rocky relations with Morocco led to a cutting off of diplomatic relations and an interruption of gas flows through the Maghreb-Europe pipeline, which connects Morocco’s gasfields with Spain, via its neighbour’s territory.Closer to home, things are no less complicated. An agreement for an underwater pipeline connecting Barcelona to Marseille, from where hydrogen could be transported from Spain through existing infrastructure via France to Germany, could still get caught up in a spat between Germany and France over whether nuclear power should be considered “green”. Moreover, Air Liquide, a French firm that is the world’s largest producer of industrial gases, is lobbying hard against a project that would devalue its own network of hydrogen pipelines.Europe has no choice but to confront these problems if it wants to meet its ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions. Some steps have already been taken. They include the launch by the European Commission of half a dozen initiatives, from a “hydrogen accelerator” to spread the use of the gas, to a “European hydrogen bank” to jump-start trade. More importantly, the commission has allowed subsidies to flow by relaxing state-aid rules, so member countries can support firms in their efforts to decarbonise. Funds have also been earmarked for hydrogen pipelines, such as a 3,300km link from Algeria and Tunisia to Austria and Germany. And hydrogen projects in northern Africa will benefit from investment from institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.Some member states want to move faster. Spain and Portugal have embarked on ambitious national strategies, aiming to transform the Iberian peninsula into a green-hydrogen hub. But it is Germany, which will have to import up to 70% of the hydrogen needed to decarbonise its mighty heavy industry, that is keenest to see it thrive. Germany has already set aside more than €8bn ($8.6bn) to help its firms go green. In a show of zeal, a couple of years ago, the country’s foreign office embarked on “hydrogen diplomacy”, complete with half a dozen “hydrogen embassies” in key countries. More recently, the ministry of economic affairs spawned H2Global, a platform for trading hydrogen.Above all Germany seems to acknowledge that it needs to give in order to get. It appears not just happy to see the erection of solar plants and electrolyser farms in Africa, but is ready to help create local jobs, upgrade grids and build desalination plants (electrolysers need a lot of pure water). In time Germany may even accept that parts of its heavy industry could migrate to where the hydrogen is produced. “The industrial map always follows the energy map,” observes Simone Tagliapietra of Bruegel, a think-tank.Such schemes are vital if Germany is to avoid a situation in which it depends on unpredictable authoritarian regimes for energy, as it did with Russia and natural gas. “To avoid a repeat with hydrogen, Germany needs to build true partnerships,” says Andreas Goldthau of Erfurt University. If all goes to plan and Europe’s southern dynamo gets up to speed, spots like Mallorca will buzz not just for their beaches and nightlife, but for the energy sparked by hydrogen electrolysers. ■ More

In January 1944 the Office of Strategic Services, an American wartime intelligence agency, issued a short document. The “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” offered advice on how ordinary citizens in occupied Europe could disrupt the German war machine.To cause physical damage, the guide tells the “citizen-saboteur” to use everyday items like salt, nails, pebbles and candles as weapons. This bit of the guide is a window into historical derring-do: dried-up sponges that can expand to plug sewer systems, jammed locks on unguarded buildings, various references to emery dust.But the guide also outlines a less direct sort of sabotage, which is alarmingly familiar to anyone who works in an office today. This form of obstruction involves behaviour that confuses, demoralises and delays. Manager-saboteurs should ensure that three people have to approve things when one would do. Employees should spread disturbing rumours. Everyone should “give lengthy and incomprehensible explanations when questioned”. At some point a wartime effort to hurt the Nazis appears to have been mistaken for a serious guide on how to run the modern workplace.No bit of the manual is more recognisable than its advice on how to turn meetings into weapons of mass distraction. Hold them when there is more important work to be done, it urges. Talk as often as possible and at immense length. Reopen questions that have already been decided. Bring up irrelevant issues whenever you can.It’s hard not to read all this and ponder if your own organisation is being targeted by an enemy. And once that thought enters your mind, you also start to wonder whether all sorts of behaviour reflect instructions in a revised edition.• Call hybrid meetings whenever possible to maximise inefficiency. If you are in the room together, initiate side conversations to sow confusion among remote attendees.• If you are on Zoom, unmute yourself slowly or not at all. Pretend not to be able to hear anything even when you can. Look baffled. Put on eight different pairs of headphones. Shrug theatrically. Entire geological eras can pass in this way.• Alternatively, dial into the meeting on your phone, unmute yourself and put the phone in your pocket. Go for a long walk. If this is done right, a single person can force tens of others to abandon a meeting.• Always turn up to meetings a few minutes late. This is especially important if you hold a senior role. Nothing will happen until you get there except for some awkward interchanges about weekend plans. If discussions have started, ask for a quick recap. If you have co-conspirators, stagger your arrival times so that you are constantly going back to the beginning.• Don’t have an agenda. Just turn up and look expectant. If there is pre-reading, don’t do it. Never agree on action items or take minutes.• If there is an agenda, take advantage of “the law of triviality”, a rule of thumb coined in 1957 by Cyril Northcote Parkinson. This refers to an imaginary committee whose members are asked to decide on proposals for a nuclear power plant and a new bike shed. Lacking expertise in nuclear power, the committee nods the plant through. Where everyone is an authority, like the bike shed, endless debate ensues. Whatever your version of the bike shed is—coffee machines, Oxford commas—bring it up early.• If you are giving a presentation after someone else, take an absolute age to find it. Faff around in the wrong folder. Act as if you can’t see the slide-show button until someone else points it out.• Say things like “there are no bad ideas”, so that everyone offers up their own bad ideas. At the end ask “does anyone have anything else?” and wait for as long as it takes for someone to fill the silence. Hopefully, it will be about the coffee machine and everything will kick off again. Conclude by saying that you think it has been a very useful meeting but don’t specify in what way.If you are behaving like this inadvertently, listen to the latest episode of Boss Class, our management podcast, to find out how to run a meeting better. If you are trying to cause disruption, your cover is blown. ■ More

Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More