Amazon Prime hits 100m subs

The streaming platform Amazon has more than 100 million subscribers to its Amazon Prime service; the "prime" subscription includes the streaming film and television platform as well as free shipping on purchases from the Amazon online department store. The figure is significant as it puts in the company of Netflix, which just announced it has around 124 million subscribers globally (off a content spend of close to US$8 billion annually). It also means US president Donald Trump's recent anti-Amazon rants put him at odds with close to a third of the entire US population. According to Amazon's boss Jeff Bezos, the company has shipped more than five billion items via Prime in 2017; the platform also recently commissioned a big-ticket remake of The Lord of the Rings.

New York gongs for Aussies

It has been a year of bad headlines for the ABC drama The Doctor Blake Mysteries and its star Craig McLachlan, but the 52-year-old actor was awarded a silver medal for his work on the series at the annual New York Festivals. The SBS program Dateline won three gold medals, for the documentaries Getting Away With Murder, World's Most Dangerous Journey and Lost Children of China, and a bronze medal for the documentary Tiny Home Rebel, while the Seven Network won a gold medal for its breaking news coverage of the Las Vegas mass shooting. The Doctor Blake Mysteries took home two silver medals, McLachlan's and another for best crime drama. Other winners included Ten's Wake in Fright (silver), Foxtel's A Place to Call Home and Ten's MasterChef (bronze).