Unilever, whose brands include Marmite and PG Tips, has strongly rejected a takeover bid from US giant Kraft Heinz.

The UK-based household goods maker said it saw "no merit, either financial or strategic" in Kraft's offer, worth about $143bn (£115bn).
But Kraft, which makes Heinz ketchup, indicated it would continue working on a deal, sending shares in Unilever surging more than 13%.
The deal would be one of the biggest in corporate history.
It would combine Unilever's dozens of household names, including Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Dove soap, and Hellmann's mayonnaise, with Kraft's own wide range, such as Philadelphia cheese and Heinz baked beans.
Unilever: Profile of a consumer giant
Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever, which has 7,500 employees in the UK, said the offer from Kraft "fundamentally undervalued" the company.
"Unilever does not see the basis for any further discussions," it added.
Kraft, which is part-owned by US billionaire Warren Buffett, said it had made "a comprehensive proposal" and looked "forward to working to reach agreement on the terms of a transaction".
The US food company attracted political scrutiny when it bought Cadbury in 2010, although it later spun the UK chocolate maker off into another company.
A takeover of Unilever could raise concerns about job cuts and would likely be examined by competition regulators, analysts said.
With so many brands, the firms would be in a stronger position to raise prices, said Neil Wilson, an analyst at London broker ETX Capital.
"The combined entity would have a huge brand footprint and be able to flex bargain muscles even more with supermarkets," Mr Wilson said.
Takeovers are like those strange mating rituals you see on Planet Earth narrated by David Attenborough.
Kraft Heinz has approached Unilever about getting together and making an even bigger business with a huge family of brands.
Unilever has spurned the offer and is looking aloof, saying not only the proposal was too cheap but also that it "sees no merit, either financial or strategic....Unilever does not see the basis for any further discussions".
Quite a slap in the face you might think but faint heart ne'er won fair hand. If Kraft Heinz offered a lot more money it might look a bit more attractive to Unilever.
Although whether the competition and takeover authorities would bless the union is another matter.
It would create a behemoth that could dominate many consumer sectors from food to soap and might stifle competition; many societies have rules against that kind of relationship.
"It could come up against a number of hurdles as it would create a giant in the sector. EU regulators in particular could be against it," Mr Wilson said.
Unilever clashed with UK supermarket Tesco in October over its attempts to raise prices to compensate for the steep drop in the value of the pound.
The consumer goods giant has over a dozen sites across the UK, including three major plants in Liverpool, Norwich and Gloucester.
A UK government spokesman said: "This is clearly an important potential deal for a major company in the UK and its workforce. We continue to monitor the situation closely."
If the deal went through, it would be the second biggest ever, behind Vodafone's $183bn takeover of Germany's Mannesmann in 2000, according to Dealogic.
Kraft's offer was at an 18% premium to Unilever's closing share price on Thursday, Unilever said.
The 13% rise in Unilever shares after the companies' announcements suggested investors were not fully convinced the deal would happen. Kraft shares rose 11% on Wall Street.
Still, analysts said Kraft was likely to return with another offer for Unilever, which reported net profit of 5.5bn euros (£4.7bn) last year.
"With Kraft Heinz saying it'll be coming back to the table, it looks like the initial offer was just to test the water," said Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Mr Buffett's investment fund Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian private equity firm 3G are major investors in Kraft.
Kraft merged with Heinz in 2015 to create one of America's biggest food companies.
In 2010, Kraft bought Cadbury for £11.5bn, but it no longer owns the UK chocolate maker after spinning it off in a company called Mondelez.


A man has been charged with an attack on a woman near a river bridge in Leeds.

The 23-year-old told police she was dragged into bushes and assaulted on Redcote Lane, Kirkstall, at about 17:50 BST on Monday.
Daniel Paton, aged 30, from Bramley, has been charged with kidnap and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He remains in custody and is due to appear at Leeds Magistrates' Court later.
Mr Paton was initially arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and attempted rape.


Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi led from the start to secure victory in the Spanish MotoGP at the Circuito de Jerez.

The 37-year-old outpaced his Yahama Movistar team-mate Jorge Lorenzo to claim his first victory of the season.
The Italian now trails championship leader Marc Marquez by 24 points after four races of the 18-race series.
Spain's Marquez finished third on the Honda, while Northern Ireland's Eugene Laverty came in a creditable ninth.
Cal Crutchlow took 11th place on the LCR Honda ahead of fellow Briton Bradley Smith on his Monster Tech 3 Yamaha.
It is the first time since 2009 that the race has not been won by a Spanish rider.
Rossi, who qualified in pole, seemed momentarily to have been passed by defending champion Lorenzo on lap two, but managed to regain the lead in the same manoeuvre.
"I think this was the perfect weekend because we started to go faster from Friday morning," Rossi told BT Sport 2.
"We worked very well with the team. I had a good start, we had good pace and I felt good with the bike from the beginning."
Marquez, who won back-to-back victories in Argentina and the United States in the previous two races, leads the standings with 82 points, with Lorenzo second on 65 points and Rossi a further eight points behind in third.
The next race takes place at Le Mans in France on 8 May.
Spain result:
1. Valentino Rossi (Italy) Yahama 45m 28.834s
2 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha  +2.386
3. Marc Marquez (Spain) Honda  +7.087
4. Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda +10.351
5. Aleix Espargaro (Spain) Suzuki  +14.143
6. Maverick Viñales (Spain) Suzuki  +16.772
7. Andrea Iannone (Italy) Ducati  +26.277
8, Pol Espargaro (Spain) Yamaha  +30.750
9. Eugene Laverty (Northern Ireland) Ducati +32.325
10. Hector Barbera (Spain) Ducati +32.624


For the first time, MPs have agreed in a vote that we will begin the process of leaving the EU by the end of March.
The government chief whip was seen with a massive grin after tonight's vote.
Remember ministers' climbdown came with a clever kicker, persuading Labour to sign up to their timetable for triggering Article 50 without committing to very much in return - the vague promise of a plan that could be as detailed as the back of the proverbial fag packet.
There's grumpiness on the Labour benches at how it was handled - angry conversations taking place, sources suggest - a sense among some that the front bench allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by the government's cunning plan.
Potential Tory rebels on the Remain side are deeply suspicious of the government's real intentions for giving more information about its ideas for Brexit. They backed off today, but will be back for more, no question.
But beyond the immediate machinations and the chief whip's big grin, two realities are confirmed by the events of the last 24 hours.
Yes - the numbers tonight suggest not very many MPs will actually try to block Brexit, or frustrate the process. They will certainly try to push the government for more details. They will certainly try to amend the proposals that eventually make it to the Commons, whenever that is. That could disrupt and delay things, but trying to stop it happening is not on the agenda of the vast majority.
But what's equally clear is that Theresa May does not have a secure majority on the EU. As soon as her plans (eventually) hit the floor of the House, she's likely to have to compromise.
That is precisely why the government is fighting so hard just across the road in the Supreme Court to try to avoid MPs having a say before the really hard work in Brussels even begins.


Josh Taylor says he "learned a lot about himself" in his Commonwealth super-lightweight title defence against South Africa's Warren Joubert.

The Scot, 26, stopped Joubert in the sixth round - a ninth win out of nine.
"I had to [get] over the clash of heads and cut in the first round," he told BBC Scotland. "It's a pretty nasty cut.
"I learned I can deal with having to get cuts and when it gets rough I can carry on with it. I kept myself nice and calm."
The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medallist has previously stated his ambition to fight fellow Scot and WBA super-lightweight champion Ricky Burns.
Taylor's promoter, former world champion Barry McGuigan, said: "We'd love that fight. That's a great fight, that's a magnificent fight down the line.
"He [Taylor] is impressive. He's so inventive. He's creating his own little style. Taylor has got that uniqueness about him, he's just so inimitable in everything he does.
"He's great to watch and he's definitely going to go the whole way. The difficulty for me now is how do I fill the gap between here and world championship fights because that's where he's capable of going?
"I need to have something else in the middle because once you make that step, there's no turning back. You can't go back and have easier fights where you can gain experience. That's my dilemma."
And Taylor added: "I'm quite happy where I am just now, maybe another defence of the Commonwealth, maybe even knock on the door of the European [title].
"I learned a lot about myself [against Joubert]. I was impressed with my own performance.
"I caught him clean a few times and he took them and he came back at me and hit me a couple of times himself.
"Once I started finding my range, started catching him with good shots, it didn't take me long once I caught him clean."


Tom Daley and Grace Reid won Great Britain's first gold medal of the 2016 European Aquatics Championships.

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Daley, 21, and Reid, who turned 20 on Monday, won the mixed 3m synchronised event with a score of 321.06 at the Olympic Park Aquatics Centre in London.
Daley told BBC Sport: "I can't believe what has just happened.
"Grace and I were only put together 10 days ago and to come away with a European gold on a board that I never train on, I'm just over the moon."
Italians Maicol Verzotto and Tania Cagnotto took silver and Russians Nadezhda Bazhina and Nikita Shleikher bronze.
Daley will also compete in the synchronised 10m platform on Thursday and individual 10m on Sunday.
Reid, who will compete in the individual 3m springboard on Saturday, said: "Today was a great day and there's a lot to take away from it and just build on it this season.
"My eyes are on the Olympic trials (in June), but there's another event to go here first."
This is the first European diving final in which men and women have competed together.
Mixed events were included for the first time at last year's World Championships following approval by international governing body Fina in late 2014.
Georgia Ward and Matty Lee won team bronze for Britain on Monday.


The outgoing US President Barack Obama could visit Ireland again after he leaves the White House, the US Ambassador to Ireland has said.

Kevin O'Malley told RTÃ‰'s Marian Finucane Show that he expects the trip to happen within the next 12 months.
Mr Obama visited Ireland in May 2011.
During the trip, he went to his ancestral home in the small village of Moneygall, Co Offaly.
Mr O'Malley paid tribute to President Obama as a "spectacular leader and role model" whose "character is impeccable".
"The last sentence that President Obama said to me on Wednesday of this week when we were saying goodbye was 'please tell them (Ireland) I'm coming'.
Mr Obama will officially leave the White House when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.


Ten people have been held in China on suspicion of hunting a panda to sell its fur and meat, Chinese state television says.

Police discovered the panda's skin and 9.75kg (22lb) of meat in a raid in December, CCTV reported.
Officers said the panda was shot dead by two brothers in Zhaotong in southern Yunnan province.
Thousands of people responded to the news on the Chinese social media site, Weibo, and condemned the crime.
Panda poaching is extremely rare in China where the endangered animals are seen as a national treasure.
"To the Chinese, giant panda is more than an animal. It's a spiritual symbol.  The case needs to be dealt with severely to stop any further incidents like this," said one Weibo user called Gloomy Thick Eyebrows.
Another user, Brilliant, said: "Deplorable! These guys are heartless."
But Cuozao Worker said: "Why I can't see as much media coverage when a man is killed?"
In 2014, there were only about 1,864 pandas left in the wild, all in China.
Images posted on the Weibo showed a bloodied black-and-white pelt laid out on the ground.
Photographs also showed a parcel of red meat and two long bones. The China Daily newspaper said parts of the panda's skull and its gall bladder were also found.
Police said the panda was an adult female.
The two hunters and one person who allegedly bought the panda meat were among those arrested, but the identity of the other seven people was not disclosed.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists giant pandas as endangered, but their numbers have almost doubled since the late 1970s.
Hunting pandas can lead to a 10-year sentence - or, in what the Chinese government calls "grave circumstances", life imprisonment or even a death sentence can be applied.


Zambia's hopes of becoming only the second African nation to win the Under-20 World Cup are over after a 3-2 defeat to Italy on Monday.

A thrilling quarter-final tie in Suwon, South Korea, was settled in extra-time by a goal from Luca Vido.
The Zambians paid dearly for giving the Italian play-maker the freedom of the Zambian penalty area in the second period of extra-time.
The Zambians will also be kicking themselves for failing to take advantage of playing against 10 men following the expulsion of Giuseppe Pezzella just before half-time.
Pezzella received a straight red card for a professional foul on goal-bound Edward Chilufya.
Although the referee awarded Zambia a penalty before reversing his decision after consulting the video assistant referee, he still sent Pezzella off.
Zambia had got off to a dream start at the Suwon World Cup stadium when Patson Daka scored after just three minutes.
Daka found himself at the end of a glorious pass from Emmanuel Banda and beat Italian goalkeeper Andrea Zaccagno from close range.
Zambia could and should have doubled their advantage in the 14th minute when Emmanuel Banda's free-kick was blocked by Zaccagno but Chilufya and Fashion Sakala arrived late for the rebound.
But five minutes after the break, the Italians equalised when Riccardo Orsolini headed past Mangani Banda for his fourth goal of the tournament.
Six minutes from time Sakala's superb strike - his fourth goal of the campaign - looked to have won it for the reigning African champions.
But with a place in the semi-finals tantalisingly close, a brilliant free-kick by Federico Dimarco four minutes later sent the game into extra-time.
With penalties looming, Vido broke Zambian hearts when he put away one of the many chances that littered this thrilling contest.
The late strike not only knocked out Zambia but also sent the Italians into a semi-final showdown with England, who beat Mexico 1-0 in their quarter-final.


Premiership side Newcastle Falcons have signed Canada lock Evan Olmstead from Championship club London Scottish on a deal starting from next season.

Olmstead joined Scottish in January, having previously played for Australian club Parramatta Two Blues and Calgary-based Prairie Wolf Pack.
The 25-year-old has won seven international caps for Canada.
"He will fit in well with the type of game we are trying to implement," said director of rugby Dean Richards.
"He is a typically hard Canadian player who brings a real no-nonsense edge to his play."


A London woman convicted of funding her husband fighting in Syria has been jailed at the Old Bailey for 28 months.

Amal El-Wahabi, 28, tried to trick a friend into carrying 20,000 euros (Â£15,800) to Turkey, the court heard.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC told El-Wahabi that she knew her husband Aine Davis was involved in fighting and she was sending him cash to help his cause.
Davis, a former drug dealer with a conviction for possessing a firearm, left the UK in July 2013.
The judge said El-Wahabi should spend half the sentence in prison and then be released to spend the remainder on licence. He said the length of the sentence had been influenced by the fact that she was the mother of two young children.
In January this year, Davis, also known as Hamza, asked his wife to arrange the delivery of cash to neighbouring Turkey.
El-Wahabi, from north London, persuaded an old school friend, Nawal Msaad, to act as courier in return for 1,000 euros.
However, the plan fell apart when Ms Msaad was stopped at Heathrow Airport and confirmed to police that she was carrying the cash. A court later heard claims that she had hidden it in her underwear.
Ms Msaad told the trial earlier this year that she did not realise what the cash was for - and she was found not guilty of being part of the plot.
Sentencing El-Wahabi, Judge Hilliard said that there was clear evidence that Davis had gone to Syria to fight under the black flag of Isis and also that he had "no true regard" for her.
"I am also satisfied that you knew he was engaged in violence with guns for extremist religious and ideological reasons and knew the money you were sending was destined for that purpose."
Judge Hilliard said that her two children, aged five and 17 months, had been "innocent victims" of the crime.
In mitigation, Mark Summers QC, appealed for a suspended sentence saying that El-Wahabi had lived under the "constant threat" that her husband would leave her for another wife in Syria.
But prosecutor Kate Wilkinson said that El-Wahabi had stayed in contact with Davis and had encouraged his activities.
She had sent one message saying that "it will be good for your body and soul".
Judge Hilliard said: "I am satisfied that the initiative for this offence must have come from Aine Davis and you committed it because you were infatuated with him and thought he might provide for you and your two children.
"You even contemplated taking your children to Turkey to be nearer their father, when it should have been obvious to you it was in their interests they should be as far away from him as possible."
Acting Commander Terri Nicholson of the Metropolitan Police's Counter-Terrorism Command said: "A necessary component of terrorism is finance. Whether the funding of terrorism takes place in the UK or overseas, the offences are serious and will be subject to thorough investigation. In this case, a large quantity of cash was seized which would otherwise have supported terrorist activity in the Syrian conflict.
"This conviction should be viewed as a very clear message not to support those engaged in terrorism. There are well established charities through which people can donate for humanitarian purposes in Syria.
"These charities have experience in providing such assistance in high risk, insecure and dangerous environments. Donations must be made via these routes."


Football fans have paid tribute to a supporter who was hit by a train while trying to rescue his brother.

Nick Mann, 35, and brother Robert, 32, had been to see Shrewsbury Town's match at Portsmouth on Saturday.
Robert fell on to the Tube tracks at Old Street station, London, and Nick was hit by a train as he tried to help. He died in hospital on Sunday.
Fans at Shrewsbury's match held a minutes' applause in honour of Nick, who had followed the club all his life.
His photo was shown on the scoreboard in the 35th minute of the team's match against Dagenham & Redbridge on Friday, prompting fans to begin the tribute.
Both brothers were originally from the Shropshire town and had regularly attended fixtures around the country.
Tweeting shortly after watching the team beat Portsmouth 2-0 on Saturday, Nick had described it as one of his favourite away days of the season.
Paying tribute, Shrewsbury Town FC said its thoughts were with his friends and family.
A journalist and press officer, Nick was a big music fan, writing for a number of websites.
His brother Robert is still in a critical but stable condition at the Royal London Hospital.
British Transport Police (BTP) said they were not treating the incident as suspicious, adding that it appeared to be a "tragic accident".
One eyewitness described watching Nick hit by the train as he attempted to pull his brother off the line.


Chancellor George Osborne has announced a multi-million pound Chinese investment in three property projects in northern England.

Hualing Industry and Trade Group will invest in Scarborough Group-led schemes in Leeds, Salford and Sheffield with a gross value of £1.2bn.
The projects are expected to create 18,000 jobs and 10,000 new homes.
Mr Osborne is in Xinjiang, in China, on a trade visit partly aimed at boosting funding for the "Northern Powerhouse".
The three projects are:
Scarborough Group chairman Kevin McCabe said: "As a family business with its roots in the north of England, we are now very proud to bring our partners in China to the UK to invest in our great northern cities and to accelerate the development of our major projects in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.
"Our partnership with the Hualing Group is a new and exciting one for Scarborough and we look forward to working with them over the coming years to bring our northern projects to fruition."
Mr Osborne said: "We are building an ever closer relationship with China - it's a partnership that is set to unleash growth and help regions like Xinjiang where we know investment can make a real difference, as well as unleash new growth back home, in places like our own Northern Powerhouse."
Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council, welcomed the investment and said she hoped "additional investment from China" would follow as a result of the trade delegation.
"The Digital Campus has been extremely successful in developing new technological businesses in Sheffield and this investment will allow us to take this scheme forward to ensure we remain at the cutting edge of new developments well into the 21st Century," she added.


Lancashire built a huge lead with the help of Luke Procter's century on day two against Hampshire at Old Trafford.

Procter made a dogged 137, his highest first-class score, and Alviro Petersen a sparkling 81 in a total of 465, a first-innings lead of 347.
It would have been greater had it not been for a fiery and entertaining spell from Tino Best, who took 5-90.
Jimmy Adams fell to Jimmy Anderson early in Hampshire's second innings as they closed on 22-1, 325 runs behind.
Their quest to avoid an innings defeat will be aided by a surface that remains true, albeit with some turn on offer to the spinners.
Indeed, the way Lancashire piled on the runs on a hot day further highlighted the inadequacy of Hampshire's meagre first-innings 109.
Procter was at first in the company of Haseeb Hameed, who made a careful 62 before edging the impressive leg-spin of Mason Crane to slip, with Petersen then arriving to make batting look easier than anyone else in the match.
While the South African busily accumulated and punished anything loose, Procter, favouring the leg side, registered his second first-class century.
It was when Petersen was caught hooking Best that Lancashire began to slide in the face of some thrilling, hostile bowling from the West Indian.
Procter was caught pulling, while Liam Livingstone had his stumps uprooted and James Anderson was comprehensively bowled.
Faced with such a huge deficit, Hampshire instantly lost Adams, who edged a beauty from Anderson, before Michael Carberry and England hopeful James Vince watchfully ensured there were no further loses.
Luke Procter told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"I'm over the moon. To get a century at Old Trafford was one of my boyhood dreams and it's come true. I didn't really think about it when I was out there. I just kept batting.
"The bowlers did a fantastic job for us in the first innings and then for us to put 450 on the board is fantastic. We just wanted to bat all day. There was no rush with how fast we got our runs.
"Haseeb is really good to bat with. He is calm and that calms you down. Alviro was great too. He puts the pressure back on the bowlers. When they come hard at us he goes back hard at them.
"Ashwell Prince batted at three last year and it's obviously big boots to fill bit I've really enjoyed it. I've had a few starts so it's good to get a century on the board."
Tino Best told BBC Radio Solent:
"Mason Crane bowled beautifully. For a 19-year-old leg spinner to have that much control is amazing. England have produced a quality leg spinner. He is really one for the future.
"He kept it tight and it gave me the opportunity to really run in and express myself. That's why Hampshire have brought me. At the end of the day, you only have a short while to play this game and I'm 35 this summer. But I'm fit and strong and I'm always ready to go and to commit myself.
"The sun was warm, the wicket was flat and I thought to myself that this is just like first-class cricket in Barbados. But you still have to run in hard and bowl quick and that's what Hampshire are paying me to do.
"The best wicket for me was getting Steven Croft. He is a good player who can take the game away from you. Alviro Petersen was a prize wicket too. It was a good battle. West Indies versus South Africa. And I'm not going to back down. I knew he was going to play his pulls but I made sure he didn't pull me out of the park because I back myself. That was a big wicket as he is a class act."


Japan's Mitsubishi corporation has made a landmark apology for using US prisoners of war as forced labour during World War Two.

A senior executive, Hikaru Kimura, expressed remorse at a ceremony in Los Angeles that prisoners had been put to work in mines operated by the firm.
It is believed to be the first such apology by a Japanese company.
One of the few surviving former US prisoners forced to work in Japan was present to accept the apology.
James Murphy, 94, said this was "a glorious day... for 70 years we wanted this."
"I listened very carefully to Mr Kimura's statement of apology and found it very very sincere, humble and revealing," he added.
"We hope that we can go ahead now and have a better understanding, a better friendship and closer ties with our ally, Japan."
Relatives of other former prisoners were also present at the ceremony, held at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
Mitsubishi is acting independently of the Japanese government which has already issued a formal apology to American prisoners.
Japanese government officials say that it is an important gesture ahead of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in August.
"We hope this will spur other companies to join in and do the same." said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
The mines operated at four locations run by Mitsubishi's predecessor company, Mitsubishi Mining Co.
Only two living survivors could be located to accept the apology, and, only Mr Murphy was fit enough to make the trip to Los Angeles, local media reported.
About 500 American POWs were forced to work in the mines from among the thousands of allied, Philippine, Korean and Chinese prisoners who were pushed into slave labour by the Japanese.
Mr Murphy told US media earlier that he spent a year at a copper mine near Hanawa, an experience he described as "a complete horror".
"It was slavery in every way: no food, no medicine, no clothing, no sanitation," he said, adding that it was all the more galling to know that Mitsubishi built fighter aircraft used against American forces.
He said that, while he had forgiven his captors, he still wanted the apology for his ordeal.
Although no cash compensation is being offered by Mitsubishi, the apology was "a big deal", he had said.
Correspondents say it is not clear why the apology has come so long after the war.
The Japanese government officially apologised to American former POWs five years ago.


Organisers who brought the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil to Londonderry will bid for the festival to return in 2017.

Derry City and Strabane District Council lent its support to the move after a meeting with the Derry Comhaltas on Tuesday.
An estimated 400,000 people attended the event in 2013 when it was brought to Northern Ireland for the first time.
It is the biggest festival of Irish music and culture anywhere in the world.
Evelyn Ni Dochartaigh is one of the organisers of the Fleadh. She said Â£1m in funding will be needed if the city is to host the festival once more.
"Within the euphoria of the 2013 fleadh there was widespread support that we would bid again. We put a proposal to the business and culture committee yesterday, it was unanimously supported but it does still need to be ratified by full council.
"The local authorities are crucial in this process, especially in terms of finances. We could do it for a million, that is what we are asking for, even though it cost around 1.6 million in 2013."
Ms Ni Dochartaigh also believes that any financial backing by taxpayers will be returned handsomely.
"What you don't want is people to say the first fleadh was great, this isn't so good. So we will tailor it to fit the cost. The economic benefits will outweigh that anyway, so it is a no-brainer."


A man has been shot in the legs in north Belfast.

Police said a 24-year-old man was the victim of a "paramilitary style shooting" in Flax Street on Sunday.
Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín said people in Ardoyne were disgusted that the shooting happened while a community festival was taking place.
"This young man was shot only yards from the entrance to the venue of the Ardoyne Fleadh where thousands of people had gathered," she said.
"This was a cowardly and despicable attack and local people are also horrified that it was carried out in full view of children who were going to the festival.
"The thugs who carried out this attack represent no one.
"They should immediately end their campaign of violence and threats against the people of Ardoyne.
"Anyone who has any information on this attack should bring it to the police."
The man was taken to hospital for treatment. His injuries are not life-threatening.


A teenage girl has been released without charge after the remains of a newborn baby were found in a Kent street.

The child's body was found in Broadway, Sheerness, on 4 March.
The girl, arrested five days later, has been released after a post-mortem examination found the child was stillborn.
Kent Police confirmed there would not be an inquest into the death.
The remains had been found just before 12:50 GMT and the remnants of a small fire were also found at the scene, police said.


Luis Fonsi's Despacito has become the most-streamed song of all time, just six months after it was released.

The hit single has been played 4.6 billion times across all streaming services, overtaking Justin Bieber's Sorry, which previously held the title.
"What's happened with this song is just insane," said Fonsi, who hails from Puerto Rico and sings in Spanish.
"I don't want to use the word accident because I was trying to write a hit, but I didn't plan for it to cross over.
"I just wanted to make people dance."
The 39-year-old said the global success of his song - which has reached number one in 35 countries, including the UK - gave him hope in the current political climate.
"I come from Puerto Rico and I live in Miami. We're living in an interesting time right now when people want to divide us. They want to build walls.
"And for a song to bring people and cultures together, that's what makes me proud."
Despacito is a sun-bleached slice of sensual reggaeton. The title translates as "slowly", referring to the speed of Fonsi's seduction technique.
It hit number one around Latin America when it was released in January, but only caught fire in the English-speaking world after Justin Bieber heard the song in a nightclub and asked to add a verse.
His version of the song - known as Despacito (Remix) - has become a phenomenon on streaming services, most notably Spotify and Apple Music. It is already the fourth most-played video of all time on YouTube, where it is rapidly closing in on the top three, all of which are years old.
The head of Universal Music Group, Sir Lucian Grainge, said the success of Despacito showed how streaming was democratising the music market.
"Streaming has allowed a song with a different beat, from a different culture, in a different language, to become this juggernaut of success and pleasure," he told the BBC.
"The industry has predominantly been English-speaking artists for the last 50 years [but] streaming will continue to open up music from Latin America artists globally.
"Anything and everywhere is up for grabs."
Of course, records will continue to be broken alongside the growth of streaming services - which give users access to a vast library of on-demand music for a monthly fee.
In March, Spotify announced it had attracted 50 million subscribers. Apple Music, which is yet to reach its second birthday, has already attracted 27 million paying customers; while Google Play, Amazon Unlimited, Deezer and YouTube and dozens of others have contributed to Despacito's success.
Critics might point out that the song would never have achieved such visibility without Bieber's contribution, but Sir Lucian was candid about how Universal had harnessed the star's brand power.
"Bringing in Justin Bieber meant that we could take something that was well on its way, and really take it to heights that would have been perceived as unimaginable when the song was written," he told the BBC.
"We were at one level, and he helped us get to the next."
Fonsi also paid tribute to Bieber's contribution, and reflected on his breathtaking success in a phone interview from Lisbon.
Hi Luis! How does it feel to have the most-streamed song in history?
It's been an incredible ride. Pretty much from the start it has just been crazy. Obviously it was a snowball effect. It started first with my more traditional market - the Latin American market. But we had an instant response. I got phone calls congratulating me from people who don't normally call.
Is it a source of pride that Despacito is predominantly a Spanish-language song?
Yeah, that's the beauty behind it. The original version, which I did just with Daddy Yankee, was in Spanish then four months later, Justin Bieber jumps in [and] adds a verse at the beginning in English.
It was his choice to keep the chorus in Spanish - because we had an English lyric for it - but he wanted to stay true to the original version.
Now I'm getting videos from different parts of the world, listening to people trying to nail the Spanish, trying to learn a bit of Spanish through the song.
Have you forgiven Justin for butchering the song when he performed it live? (The singer sang "burrito" and "dorito" instead of the Spanish lyrics)
Yeah, you know, it's not his language. If he was saying he could speak Spanish and he couldn't, I'd be like, "Hey man". But I don't think he's ever come out and said he's a Spanish-speaker. He just wanted to do the song because he loved it. And I think you have to tip your hat to him, because he took the time to phonetically learn the chorus in Spanish.
I know that that takes time [because] I've actually done the song in different languages myself. I've just done the song in Portuguese, and Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, but it was very hard for me to nail that version. And if you were to ask me to sing it now in Portuguese, I wouldn't have a clue where to start!
So I think we just have to let it go.
Why has it become so popular?
This is a question I've been asked a lot but, for some reason, I don't have the perfect answer for it. I think it's the sum of lots of little things.
Obviously, it's a very catchy melody. The way the chorus starts "Des-Pa-Ci-To" is very easy to remember. And it's almost impossible not to move when you hear the track, even if you're not a dancer. And obviously you add Justin Bieber to that, and it brings another angle to all of this.
But I wish I knew exactly what the secret was, so I could apply it to all my future songs!
What is the strangest place you've heard it?
It probably hasn't been anywhere too strange - but you walk into a restaurant, or you're at a traffic light and the car next to you is listening to itâ€¦ It's just insane! I can't help but smile.
Just today, I heard a Hebrew version of Despacito. Yesterday, I had some friends who were visiting Croatia and it was playing there. People are sending me all kinds of different versions.
Maybe you should edit them together - like Pharrell did with Happy.
Yeah, you know what? I'm compiling a bunch of footage and audio from all the different versions that have been done in all the different languages and I want to edit it together. It's so amazing. It makes me proud that the world's coming together.
I come from Puerto Rico and I live in Miami. We're living in an interesting  time right now when people want to divide us, they want to build walls, and for a song to bring people and cultures together, I think that's what makes me proud. Music has that power. It might sound cheesy but I do believe music brings us together.
Did you see that Canadian PM Justin Trudeau put you on his summer playlist?
Oh really, I didn't know that! That guy has good taste!
How can you ever top something like this?
Oh, you don't. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I don't want to be a pessimist about it. I don't want to be negative about it. But my next song, I can't approach it thinking, "How do I beat Despacito?"
Do you really expect to win the lottery twice? We just have to be grateful for what we've done and go forward.
Luis Fonsi was speaking to BBC Music's Kev Geoghegan.
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After the rawness and drama of Brazil, it is a shame in some ways for the Formula 1 World Championship to be decided in the rather more sterile surroundings of Abu Dhabi.

It is all relative, of course. No F1 grand prix is without challenge and jeopardy. But Yas Marina's large run-off areas, dearth of challenging corners, manicured backdrop and predictable weather are a world away from the intensity of Interlagos.
It looks lovely on television, with its painted borders and the shimmering Yas Viceroy hotel, the race start held at sunset, and the cars glimmering under lights.
But the track itself? Well, this is what Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen said when he first experienced it in 2009: "The first few turns are quite good, but the rest of it is rubbish." Except he used a ruder word than rubbish.
It is a pleasant enough weekend. Everything works. The weather is nice, especially when the sun has gone down. But as a race track, it is unremarkable.
This seems a shame, given that it was built virtually with cost no object. Why spend all that money to come up with something so… mundane?
This is the third time in its eight years in F1 that Abu Dhabi will host the championship showdown and on the face of it, it is hard to see how Nico Rosberg cannot end the weekend with his first title.
His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton excels in Abu Dhabi, especially in the last sector, where the sequence of right-angled corners fit perfectly with the way he brakes late and rotates the car into the corner using a combination of oversteer and impeccable feel and skill.
But to take a fourth title, Hamilton has to win the race and hope Rosberg finishes lower than third.
And on a track on which it is hard to see how any other team can challenge Mercedes, that will almost certainly take a mechanical failure. And the German, unlike Hamilton, has not had one of those all season.
BBC F1 analyst Allan McNish:
Rosberg goes to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi on 25-27 November with a 12-point lead over Hamilton.
In pure mathematical terms, it is very difficult for Hamilton to take the title - he has to win with Rosberg lower than third.
Hamilton will go all out for the race win, and I think he will do it.
Rosberg will play the percentage game, because that is the right thing to do. There is no point taking any unnecessary risks, the risky race was Brazil.
But it is the final race, and you never quite know what will happen.
We have seen Abu Dhabi throw up a curve ball before - in  2010, when Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber were the top two in the championship and Ferrari focused so much on Webber that they let Sebastian Vettel get into a position to win the race and the title.
It is a different situation this year. There is no third contender, it won't rain and the circuit will suit Mercedes. So the race is between Hamilton and Rosberg.
But reliability and bad starts have played a role on a number of occasions this year.
Mainly, that has affected Hamilton but that's not to say that a last twist of the tale could not be in the other direction.
Andrew Benson - chief F1 writer
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England's Anthony Hamilton won the first ranking title of his 26-year career with a 9-6 victory over Ali Carter in the German Masters final.

The 45-year-old, nicknamed the Sheriff of Pottingham, fought back from 5-2 down to triumph in Berlin.
World number 14 Carter, winner in 2013, claimed the first three frames.
But Hamilton, ranked 66 and hampered by a neck injury in recent years, chalked up breaks of 118, 73, 74 and 70 as he recovered to secure victory.
Hamilton's run to the final - his first since the 2002 China Open - included wins over the world number one and two, Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham.
The Nottingham potter, who briefly dropped off the main tour last year, was embraced by his father and mother as the crowd gave him a standing ovation after his victory.
"Dreams are made of this stuff," he said.
"It's been a fantastic week and I just can't ask for any more than this.
"I don't know what to do with the trophy as I've never had one."
Carter has won four ranking titles - the most recent in the World Open last summer was his first since being given the all-clear from lung cancer in 2014.
"Anthony played really well. He thoroughly deserved it. I'm delighted for him," Carter said.
Ronnie O'Sullivan, five-time world snooker champion, told Eurosport: "I was on the amateur circuit with him and his mum and dad were there all the time.
"He's very self-deprecating. Every professional in the game will be over the moon for him."
Jimmy White, six-time world championship runner-up: "He's a really nice guy. It's just a wonderful moment. He's given his whole life to the game."


Former Miami Dolphins running back Rob Konrad swam nine miles to shore after falling off his boat while fishing.

Konrad, 38, swam the equivalent of 290 lengths of an Olympic-size swimming pool after his 36-foot boat, which was on auto pilot, drifted away from him off the South Florida coast.
The United States Coast Guard reported that friends became concerned when he failed to return for dinner.
After up to 12 hours in the water, he had treatment for hypothermia symptoms.
He played 82 games for the Dolphins between 1999-2004.


A six-year-old boy was saved from drowning in a seafront lagoon by a stranger, police have said.

The child, who apparently could not swim, was paddling in The Lagoon on the Western Esplanade in Southend just before 18:00 BST on Wednesday.
He wandered into a 2m-deep section and struggled to keep afloat before disappearing under the water.
Essex Police has appealed for his rescuer, who jumped in fully clothed to pull him to safety, to come forward.
Sgt Ian Hughes said: "There is no doubt that he saved the boy from drowning and deserves to be recognised for his quick-thinking and bravery.
"Unfortunately he left the scene soon after the rescue because his own son wanted to go on a ride at Adventure Island. His clothes were soaking wet but he wanted to make sure his son had that ride."
The boy, from Peckham in south London, was checked by paramedics and was found to have made a full recovery.


An 18-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a man shot and killed during a raid at his warehouse.

Akhtar Javeed, 56, from West Ham, was gunned down outside his warehouse in Digbeth, Birmingham on 3 February.
The 18-year-old was arrested in Derby on Thursday night and is in police custody.
A silver Renault Megane has also been seized and is being examined. Police had been looking for a similar car seen in the area at the time.
On the day of the shooting two masked men in a silver Renault Megane entered Direct Source 3 Ltd on Rea Street South, police have said.
Five staff members were handcuffed with cable ties and it appeared Mr Javeed was shot while fighting off the attackers.
He was found outside his business premises with a "major neck wound" and pronounced dead in hospital.
The robbers escaped empty-handed in the Renault Megane and turned on to McDonald Street, without their vehicle lights on, detectives said.
Det Ch Insp Martin Slevin of West Midlands Police said investigations into the Mr Javeed's death are continuing.
"We are still appealing for anyone who saw a silver Renault Megane in or around that time to get in touch," he said.
Detectives are also keen to speak to two people - a worker pushing a bike and a private hire taxi driver - also seen in the area at the time.


Curb Your Enthusiasm will return for a ninth season, US network HBO has announced.

The comedy series, which stars Larry David as an exaggerated version of himself, last aired an original episode in 2011.
Speaking about the show's five-year absence, David joked: "In the immortal words of Julius Caesar, 'I left, I did nothing, I returned'."
An official return date for the new series has not yet been confirmed.
The commissioning of a new series is the first major programming decision by Casey Bloys, who took over as president of programming at HBO last month.
In a statement, he said: "We're thrilled that Larry has decided to do a new season of Curb and can't wait to see what he has planned."
The show, which premiered in 2000 and stars David in a fictionalised version of his own life, is HBO's longest-running scripted comedy series.
The actor, who also co-created comedy series Seinfeld, has maintained a high profile in the US since Curb Your Enthusiasm was last broadcast, parodying Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Saturday Night Live and recently appearing on NBC variety show Maya and Marty.


A US company has been accused of being a prolific spammer by security researchers who got access to its internal database.

Security expert Chris Vickery got access to River City Media's (RCM) data via back-ups accidentally left online.
The database included more than 1.3 billion records detailing email addresses and personal information.
RCM has not responded to accusations it is involved in sending out junk mail marketing messages.
In a blog, Mr Vickery said he had "stumbled upon a suspicious, yet publicly exposed, collection of files" that he had been able to view because whoever had put it online had forgotten to protect it with a password.
As well as a massive database of personal data, the files are said to include internal messages sent by staff at RCM and documents about its business practices.
The BBC has sent emails to RCM asking for comment on the allegations but has not received any response.
Mr Vickery said the information showed the different ways in which the company tried to outwit security measures designed to prevent it sending lots of messages.
In marketing materials found in the data back-up, RCM allegedly said it had the ability to send up to one billion messages per day.
It also detailed many other ways the company is believed to have skirted systems designed to stop spam.
Information about the net addresses and domains used by RCM were now being added to widely shared systems that helped block spam, said Steve Ragan, who helped Mr Vickery analyse the data.


As a case study in Washington dysfunction, the battle over who should fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the death of Antonin Scalia is hard to better.

It brings into collision the three branches of the US government, the executive, the legislative and the judicial. It exposes the extreme partisanship that has become the hallmark of Washington politics.
And it does all this in an election year - when both the presidency and the Senate are up for grabs - which means the next eight months could become a civics lesson from hell, to borrow the phrase used by the historian Louis Menand to describe the disputed aftermath of the 2000 presidential election.
The brief moment of remembrance for Scalia, an intellectual colossus treated with almost Reagan-esque reverence on the American right, was quickly overtaken by partisan rancour.
What next for the Supreme Court?
How Scalia's death reshapes four cases
Scalia - in his own words
Who are the Supremes?
Within minutes of the news breaking, Conn Carroll, the communications director for the Republican Senator Mike Lee, asked on Twitter: "What is less than zero? The chances of Obama successfully appointing a Supreme Court Justice to replace Scalia?"
Within a couple of hours, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McDonnell delivered a more decorous, if no less pointed, version of that tweet, when he stated that the Senate should not select a replacement until a new president is sworn in, even though inauguration day is still 11 months away.
Later that night, in a televised Republican debate in South Carolina, Donald Trump summarised this stance in a three-word slogan: "Delay, delay, delay." The backlash from Democrats was predictably vituperative.
Given there is no historical precedent for leaving a seat on the Supreme Court vacant during an election year, the talk inevitably is of a constitutional crisis. But what we are primarily dealing with here is a crisis of governability that predates the death of Antonin Scalia. His passing has merely brought this dysfunction into sharper focus.
In modern-day Washington, gridlock has become the norm.
Obstructionist tools like the filibuster, which were once used sparingly, have become routine (a supermajority of 60 votes is required to pass contentious bills rather than a simple majority, a number that is notoriously hard to get).
Brinkmanship has replaced sensible negotiation, as evidenced by long-running disputes over the budget and the raising of the debt ceiling.
Bipartisanship has been likened to "date rape", the phrase first used by the former Republican House leader Dick Armey. Small wonder that the former Republican House Speaker John Boehner was forced to conduct negotiations with Barack Obama in secret, lest the Republican Caucus accuse him of betrayal.
The 113th Congress, in which the Democrats held a majority in the Senate and the Republicans controlled the House, is widely regarded as among the worst ever.
Sitting from January 2013 to January 2015, it passed just 234 bills, which sounds like a creditable number until you compare it with the infamous 'Do nothing" congress which Harry S Truman railed against in the late 1940s, which passed more than 900.
It shut down the government for 16 days in 2013, and recorded a record low average approval rating of just 14%.
The ability of the president and congress to deal with major issues, most notably the colossal size of the federal debt, has been seriously impaired.
"Congress has been less productive in legislation, more prone to delays in appropriating funds, and increasingly slow in handling executive and judicial appointments," concluded Prof Nolan McCarty, part of a task force appointed by the American Political Science Association to study governmental dysfunction.
At this basic operational level, Washington is failing. Republicans complain that President Obama is running the country using monarch-like executive powers that go beyond his constitutional authority.
The White House bemoans Republican obstructionism on Capitol Hill, which, it argues, leaves the president with no choice but to circumvent congress.
"Crisis point" is how two of Washington's most experienced retired lawmakers, Trent Lott, the former Republican Senate majority leader, and Tom Daschle, his opposite number on the Democratic side of the aisle, have described it.
Joining forces to write a scorching polemic, Crisis point: Why we must - and how we can - overcome our broken politics in Washington and across America, they note: "Bipartisanship is the life force that keeps the government running. It is neither a life raft to be embraced only in crisis, nor a naive idealism to be mocked.
"Bipartisan negotiation is the pumping blood of democracy, and it has run dry in the current Washington landscape."
Lott and Daschle, it should be remembered, were hard-nosed political warriors, but patriots as well as partisans.
They are far from alone in penning despondent tomes about deadlocked Washington.
Consider the most recent books from Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein, two of America's most respected political scholars.
In 2006, they brought out, The broken branch: How Congress is failing America and how to get it back on track. By 2012, they thought it necessary to bring out an updated study, with an even gloomier title - It's even worse than it looks: How the American constitutional system collided with the new politics of extremism.
One wonders what title they will come up with next.
What explains this dysfunction? A central reason, obviously, is the polarisation of politics, which in Congress reached a record high in 2013, according to studies of lawmakers' voting records reaching back to the late 19th Century.
No Senate Republican was more liberal than a Senate Democrat and no Senate Democrat was more conservative than a Senate Republican. This might seem like a statement of the obvious given the modern-day partisan divide, but it is historically new.
In 1994, there were 34 senators who occupied this political centre ground, what's often referred to as the ideological overlap.
Political moderates like Sam Nunn, the former Democratic Senator from Georgia and Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, have become increasingly rare, their places often taken by fierce partisans.
Moderates, like Lugar, tend to be punished for reaching out across the aisle. He was ousted in 2012, for instance, following a Tea Party challenge in the Republican primary.
The threat of a primary challenge from a rival within the party often poses more of a threat than being ousted by a candidate from the opposing party in the election proper. This is especially true in the House of Representatives where only a small number of seats, about 16 out of 435, are a genuine toss-up between the two parties. This encourages hyper-partisanship and militates against compromise.
It's the combination of extreme partisanship and the US Constitution that turns a problem into a crisis.
The founding fathers designed the constitution with checks and balances to ensure a separation of powers between the three branches. But these checks and balances can easily be used as partisan weapons.
For the system with so many veto points to work, it needs co-operation and compromise. Lyndon Johnson's landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, which dismantled segregation in the south, required Republican support to overcome a filibuster from southern Democrats.
Ronald Reagan and the former Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neil - though fiercely opposed ideologically - shared a commitment to get things done, which helped them put social security on a surer footing and bring about tax reforms.
Even Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton reached agreement on a balanced budget and welfare reforms.
This kind of compromise is all but absent in modern-day Washington, save for a few issues such as trade promotion. And both sides have used their constitutional veto powers to thwart the other.
The kind of ideological battles exposed by the death of Antonin Scalia are nothing new, though this one is particularly charged because it could turn the Supreme Court into a left-leaning branch of government rather than the present right-leaning one.
Nor are constitutional wrangles unprecedented. But the looming battle could take Washington's trench warfare to a new level, producing more paralysis and stalemate.


Prime Minister David Cameron has said the UK government could not guarantee making up any shortfall in the EU aid Wales receives if Britain was to leave.

He also indicated he was disappointed Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies had decided to vote to leave the EU in the referendum in June.
Mr Cameron made his comments in an interview on BBC Wales Today.
Leave.EU said the UK's net contribution to the EU budget was Â£9-12bn, so there was "no such thing as EU aid".
Earlier on Friday, Mr Cameron told an audience at GE Aviation, in Nantgarw, leaving the 28-member bloc would put 100,000 jobs in Wales at risk.
Asked on BBC Wales Today if he could make up the shortfall in EU aid for places like Wales after an exit, he said: "I think you can't be certain about that.
"We know, between 2014 and 2020, in the European budget is Â£1.8bn for Wales, vital money for economic development and important projects.
"Were we to leave, I believe there could be quite an economic dislocation.
"We might see higher interest rates. We might see higher unemployment. We might see higher prices.
"In those circumstances, of course, the United Kingdom government would always want to do everything it could for all the different parts of the United Kingdom, but you can't guarantee these things, because we might be in quite difficult economic circumstances."
In response, Leave.EU spokesman Jack Montgomery said: "Our net contribution to the EU budget is about Â£9-12 billion.
"So there's no such thing as EU aid in this country - the prime minister is trying to bribe us with our own money."
Earlier this week, Welsh Conservative leader Mr Davies said he was not convinced by an EU deal negotiated by Mr Cameron and would be backing the campaign to leave.
Mr Cameron, asked if he was disappointed by Mr Davies' decision, said: "It's always disappointing when someone doesn't back your view."
During his visit to Nantgarw, he said: "For Welsh MPs and members of the Welsh assembly, it's up to them to make their choice.
"But each of them has only one vote. It will be the people of Wales, the people of the United Kingdom who will make this decision."
Mr Cameron said three million jobs in the UK, including 100,000 in Wales, were "in some way reliant on European trade".
"I don't think we should put those at risk," he added.
"We have a big say in this market. We can make sure that we sign trade deals with other countries across the world. I think the alternatives would be worse."
Leave.EU boss Liz Bilney said the real threat to Welsh jobs came from remaining in an EU that "has devastated the steel industry" with policies that undermined business.
Speaking on the impact of cheap Chinese steel on the UK industry, Mr Cameron said the UK had been voting with other European countries on anti-dumping tariffs - a process where firms allegedly sell goods at prices below fair market value.
UKIP's Nigel Farage, who wants the UK to leave the union, has said powers to protect the steel industry from cheap Chinese imports had been "given away" to Brussels.


It's amazing to think that just 10 years ago, flat-rate digital music streaming services were a mere gleam in the eye of industry executives.

It was as recently as September 2007 that Rick Rubin, then co-head of Columbia Records, put forward the idea as a way of combating online music piracy and file-sharing.
"You'd pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come from anywhere you'd like," he told the New York Times.
"In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cell phone, from your computer, from your television."
As it turned out, he was essentially describing Spotify, which launched just over a year later.
He even got the price right. In those heady days, when the pound was a lot stronger, $19.95 was equivalent to Â£10, which, give or take a penny, is the monthly cost of Spotify Premium in the UK today.
But Spotify is yet to make a profit, while plans to float the firm on the stock market have reportedly been delayed, raising a big question mark over its business model.
Of course, Spotify isn't the only streaming platform out there. Others have joined it over the past decade, including Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music and Deezer, as well as high-resolution music services Tidal and Qobuz.
But Spotify is seen as the leader, with more than 100 million users, 40 million of them paid-up subscribers to its Premium tier.
The Swedish firm is now a major player in 60 countries, including the world's biggest music market, the US, where streaming accounted for 51% of music consumption last year.
Reflecting the huge impact that Spotify has had, its chief executive, Daniel Ek, has just topped US music industry magazine Billboard's latest Power 100 list of the biggest movers and shakers in the business.
"For the first time since [former file-sharing service] Napster decimated music sales, the recorded music industry is showing signs of growth, and that reversal of fortune is largely due to one man," Billboard said in its citation.
The magazine also hailed Spotify as "the place fans discover music as well as consume it", pointing to its promoted playlists, including its Discover Weekly service.
However, the clock is ticking for Spotify as it hatches its plans to go public.
The firm originally planned to float this year, but according to the TechCrunch website, this could now be delayed until 2018.
There are various issues behind this move, not least of which is that Spotify needs to conclude new long-term licensing deals with the big three record companies - Universal, Sony and Warner - to avoid the risk of suddenly losing major chunks of its content.
It's thought that Spotify currently pays 55% of its revenue to record labels in royalties, with additional money going to music publishers.
In the interest of finally becoming a profitable company, it would like to lower that percentage, but this is unlikely to go down well with artists, who argue that the royalties they receive from streaming are unfairly low as it is.
But if it waits too long before floating, it could face a serious cash crisis.
In March last year, the firm raised $1bn from investors at an interest rate of 5% a year, plus a discount of 20% on shares once the initial public offering (IPO) of shares takes place.
However, under the terms of the agreement, the interest rate goes up by one percentage point and the discount by 2.5 percentage points every six months until the IPO happens.
So as time goes on, Spotify must pay ever larger sums to its creditors just to settle the interest on its loan, while the amount of money it can raise from its IPO is trimmed by an ever greater amount.
Unless Mr Ek can get the better of this brutal arithmetic, the future looks tough for Spotify.
But at the same time, as Billboard says, "the entire music business now has an interest in its success".
"If it's not already too big to fail, it's headed in that direction quickly," concludes the magazine.


England beat the Wallabies for only the fourth time in Australia as they triumphed in a mighty battle in the first Test in Brisbane.

The win looked unlikely when they fell 10-0 behind early on as Michael Hooper and Israel Folau scored for the hosts.
But the tourists hit back through the boot of Owen Farrell and tries from Jonathan Joseph and Marland Yarde.
Australia rallied as Hooper and Tevita Kuridrani crossed, but Jack Nowell had the final word for England.
It was England's first ever win in Brisbane, their biggest points tally home or away against the Wallabies and equalled the 25-14 victory in Melbourne in June 2003 as their biggest margin of victory down under.
Saturday's victory puts them 1-0 ahead in the three Test series, which continues in Melbourne and then Sydney on the next two Saturdays.
James Haskell was at the heart of a tremendous performance from the England pack, while Farrell kicked 24 points in another impressive performance by the versatile Saracen.
The hosts started in spectacular fashion, looking to spread the ball wide and outflank England's defence, and they opened the scoring as lively open-side flanker Hooper scooted over after the long-striding Folau had made the initial break.
The 6ft 5in full-back was a menace with ball in hand and when he sliced through off the drifting Bernard Foley, Australia had a 10-point lead after only quarter of an hour.
If the wayward Foley had managed to land his shots at goal - the fly-half's goal-kicking was some way below the standard of the rest of his game - the hosts might have been out of sight.
But they were not and when England finally got themselves into the match, the momentum changed for good.
The visitors began to monopolise possession and Farrell cut the home lead to a single point with three penalties.
Worse was to come for the hosts as poor play in their own 22 enabled England centre Joseph to kick ahead and score a try, which Farrell converted.
A penalty apiece made it 19-13 to England at the break, and after the restart the visitors took total control.
Haskell's rampaging break split the Australian defence and gave George Ford - on at fly-half, with Farrell moving to inside centre in place of Luther Burrell - the opportunity to send Yarde over with a raking pass.
Before the match, England coach Eddie Jones had promised 'Bodyline' rugby, and the relentless power of the visitors' pack, with Haskell and the Vunipola brothers, Mako and Billy, stepping up alongside Maro Itoje, forced Australia further onto the back foot.
England's front row had also started shoving the Wallabies back in the scrum and when the home side had Scott Sio sin-binned, and Farrell extended England's lead to 16 points, it looked like game over.
But you can never write off an Australia side in any sport and, down to 14 men and apparently mortally wounded, they decided all out attack was the only response.
Hooper scored his second try to give them hope before Kuridrani blasted over to cut England's lead to just seven points.
But England were in ruthless mood and, after Danny Care tapped a late penalty, Ford's delightful kick set up Nowell to finish the game in style.
The Wasps flanker continued his re-birth under the astute management of Eddie Jones with a magnificent performance in Brisbane.
Haskell is a big character but seems to be a confidence player, and having been marginalised under the Stuart Lancaster regime, he is now playing arguably the best Test rugby of his career.
In defence he mixed big hits with a ferocious work-rate that saw him cover every blade of grass while making 18 tackles, and he was a constant physical presence at the breakdown too, throwing in three turnovers for good measure.
His running game, dormant for so long in England colours, has also reappeared and his pacy 50m second-half break - which included a side-step many an England winger would covet - was decisive in Yarde's try.
Australia: Folau; Haylett-Petty, Kuridrani, Kerevi, Horne; Foley, Phipps; Sio, Moore, Holmes, Arnold, Simmons, Fardy, Hooper, Pocock.
Replacements: LealiIfano for Horne (29), Frisby for Phipps (78), Slipper for Sio (66), Polota-Nau for Moore (57), Kepu for Holmes (58), Mumm for Arnold (48), Horwill for Simmons (25), McMahon for Fardy (68).
Sin Bin: Sio (54).
England: Brown; Watson, Joseph, Burrell, Yarde; Farrell, Youngs; M Vunipola, Hartley, Cole, Itoje, Kruis, Robshaw, Haskell, B Vunipola.
Replacements: Nowell for Watson (70), Ford for Burrell (29), Care for Youngs (72), Mullan for M Vunipola (66), Cowan-Dickie for Hartley (72), Hill for Cole (65), Lawes for Kruis (60), Launchbury for B Vunipola (73).
Att: 52,500
Ref: Romain Poite (France).


With a Europa League trophy and a Champions League place assured for next season, the reign of Rafael Benitez as interim Chelsea manager has almost come to an end.

Reports link former Blues boss Jose Mourinho with a return to Stamford Bridge, while it looks increasingly likely that veteran midfielder Frank Lampard will extend his stay in west London by at least one more season.
After a difficult campaign involving an early Champions League exit,a managerial departure and hostility from fans to the new arrival, two former Chelsea stars assess the current state of the club, the legacy of the Benitez era, and what 2013-14 could hold.
"Benitez has done a wonderful job and is leaving a mini-legacy from his time in charge, and people should be grateful for what he has done.
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"There is a will about the team - you saw it in the Champions League final last year and it happened again at half-time tonight when the players themselves decided to go and win that trophy.
"The squad is in transition invariably. With John Terry and Frank Lampard, even if they do stay, it will still be relatively short-term.
"The team will continue to evolve and, having secured Champions League football, they can go out in the summer and attract players who would otherwise be looking elsewhere.
"There is a good strong nucleus of players there who are all pulling in the same direction and that is absolutely vital at the highest level if you are to overcome difficult periods in games.
"The club is in fantastic shape and it's just a shame, because of the way the club has operated, that people still talk about the other issues.
"Volatility is the norm and most people would ask how it can be success when it's unstable, but Chelsea is the anomaly.
"Rafael Benitez managed the squad and the players look like they're together. That stems from the manager and he's galvanised that squad.
"He deserves credit and it's a shame that some people want to tear that page out of the history books because of something he said a long time ago."
"The speculation I am hearing from behind the scenes is that John Terry will not be at Chelsea next year.
Chelsea's triumph means Rafael Benitez becomes only the fourth manager to win the Uefa Cup/Europa League more than once. Others to have achieved that feat are:
"Chelsea are formidable despite chopping and changing their manager all the time, but I do feel that if they had kept their managers for a little longer they might have won even more trophies.
"We wait and see who might come in here, but the academy is doing very well - they just lost to Norwich in the Youth Cup final on Monday night, and they have got talent coming through. But with a big club like Chelsea you want the finished article.
"Rafael Benitez's CV looks fantastic with another European trophy. I know the management have been very happy with him and they didn't realise the venom he would come across, but in different circumstances he would be the Chelsea manager next year.
"I have friends who support Chelsea. They're businessmen, sensible people, and they just have a blank when it comes to Rafa Benitez. I wish they'd change their minds but they won't. I wish the fans would show him some respect.
"It's the comment about the plastic flags that sticks with them. He's said he doesn't have anything to apologise for and he was defending his team. There are so many sub-plots, but he needs the respect he deserves because he's won a European trophy."


Bath wing Semesa Rokoduguni has been called up as cover for the banned Chris Ashton by new England boss Eddie Jones.

The Saracens winger, 28, has been given a 10-week ban, ruling him out of the Six Nations days after being recalled by England after an 18-month absence.
Ashton was cited for making contact with the eyes of another player and Saracens are considering an appeal.
Winger Rokoduguni, 28, will join up with the squad until a final decision is made on Ashton's case.
Fiji-born British Army solider Rokokoduguni signed a two-year contract extension at The Rec last week. He won his first and only England cap in November 2014 against New Zealand.
England begin their Six Nations campaign in Scotland on 6 February, ending it on 19 March in France.
Saracens and Ashton had three working days to decide on whether to lodge an appeal after receiving the written judgement on Friday.


Newcastle is bidding to host both of the major European cup finals in 2018.

The bid is a partnership between NewcastleGateshead Initiative, Newcastle City Council, Newcastle United Football Club and Newcastle Rugby Limited.
If successful, United's St James' Park will stage the Champions Cup final and Newcastle Falcons' Kingston Park will host the Challenge Cup final.
A final decision will be made in April 2017.
The next stage of the bidding process sees a shortlist of candidate cities drawn up by 16 December, followed by venue visits and a selection process through to March 2017.
St James' Park, with a capacity in excess of 52,000, staged international matches in the 2015 Rugby World Cup as well as playing host to rugby league's Magic Weekend for the past two seasons.
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Mick Hogan, managing director of Newcastle Rugby Limited, said: "Securing the 2018 finals would be another significant boost for the development and growth of rugby in the region.
"The city has two great venues in St James' Park and Kingston Park Stadium, which would ensure a fantastic weekend of club rugby.
"When it comes to major events, Newcastle-upon-Tyne always delivers to the very highest levels."
Lee Charnley, managing director of Newcastle United, added: "We have a strong recent history of hosting major rugby events at St James' Park.
"The sell-out crowds we have welcomed pay testament to our ability to excel at the hosting of such high-profile sporting events."
Edinburgh is hosting both European finals in 2017, with the Champions Cup final at Murrayfield on 13 May, a day after the Challenge Cup final.
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ScotRail has unveiled the first in a fleet of electric trains the company is billing as "faster, longer and greener".

The Class 385 train, which was built by Hitachi, is the first of 70 that will operate on Scotland's busiest route from Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk.
They will also be used between Stirling, Alloa and Dunblane, as well as some routes south of Glasgow.
Night testing of the train will start this week, ScotRail said.
All Edinburgh - Falkirk High - Glasgow services will be using the new trains from December 2017 and the whole fleet will be delivered by 2019.
ScotRail said the trains were inspired by the Japanese Shinkansen bullet train and would offer rail travellers in Scotland a "21st Century passenger experience".
The electric aluminium trains are much lighter than the current diesel stock which means they can accelerate faster and offer potentially shorter journey times.
They will also provide thousands of extra seats, according to ScotRail.
The four-car train was unveiled in Glasgow.
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said: "The arrival of the first new class 385 train for testing in Scotland is a great milestone in this government's commitment to our railway and a tangible sign to passengers of the very real efforts we are making to improve capacity and comfort.
"Since 2007, we have introduced an extra 140 carriages with 200 more to follow by 2019, increasing the ScotRail fleet by 50%.
"This forms part of the Scottish government's Â£5bn investment in transforming Scotland's railways and I will continue to push for improvements of this kind."
There has been much recent criticism from the public over the punctuality and reliability of ScotRail services since Dutch firm Abellio took over the franchise in 2015.
Opposition parties have also repeatedly questioned the Scottish government over the level of service.
In November, Mr Yousaf called for "immediate improvement" in rail services as the government published its improvement plan for ScotRail.
Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, said the delivery of the first Class 385 train was a "landmark day".
"We now have a visible symbol of our ongoing massive rail investment, the biggest since Victorian times, one that will become a reality for our customers from next September when passenger services begin.
"We are delivering more seats, more services and better stations over the next few years, leading a transformation that we can all be very proud of."


This year's EU referendum "laid bare some further divisions in our country", Theresa May has said.

In her first new year message as prime minister, Mrs May called for unity following June's "divisive" vote, ahead of negotiations on the UK's exit from the EU.
She said: "If 2016 was the year you voted for that change, this is the year we start to make it happen."
Mrs May also quoted MP Jo Cox, who was killed a week before the EU referendum.
The prime minister said in December she would set out her proposals for a "truly global Britain" in a speech on Brexit in the new year.
She has pledged to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, getting leaving talks with the EU under way, by the end of March.
These can take up to two years, unless an agreement is reached to prolong the process.
In her new year message, Mrs May said: "I know that the referendum last June was divisive at times.
"I know, of course, that not everyone shared the same point of view, or voted in the same way.
"But I know too that, as we face the opportunities ahead of us, our shared interests and ambitions can bring us together...
"So when I sit around the negotiating table in Europe this year, it will be with that in mind - the knowledge that I am there to get the right deal - not just for those who voted to leave - but for every single person in this country.
"Of course, the referendum laid bare some further divisions in our country...
"This is the year we need to pull down these barriers that hold people back, securing a better deal at home for ordinary, working people."
Mrs May said the divisions revealed by the Brexit campaign needed to be addressed in 2017.
"As the fantastic MP Jo Cox, who was so tragically taken from us last year, put it: 'We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us'," she said.


It's billed as the greatest show on earth in the ultimate party city - the Rio Olympics gets underway on Friday evening.

4 August 2016 Last updated at 13:32 BST
But amongst all the excitement, where do the star performers go to rest, eat and relax?
BBC Sport reporter Ore Oduba has been for a look around the Olympic village, where Team GB will be living for the next few weeks.


That's how Chris Pratt has reacted publicly after being linked to the role of Indiana Jones in a possible reboot of the legendary franchise.
Everything is speculation at the moment, but the star is now one of the go-to men for blockbuster producers.
The Jurassic World actor was speaking as he picked up the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award at Harvard University.
The award is presented annually by America's oldest undergraduate troupe to famous actors and actresses.
Responding to the Indiana rumours, he said that he knew as much as anybody else but that it would be awesome to play the role - made famous by Harrison Ford and River Phoenix.
As part of the Hasty Pudding ceremony - where the university acting society honours big stars - winners are treated to a traditional comedy roast.
He was teased about some of his earlier TV and film roles, including a 2009 comedy he made with Kim Kardashian called Deep In The Valley.
The Hasty Pudding troupe said that audiences asked for refunds after watching it.
Pratt responded: "Joke's on you. It didn't even open in theatres."
As if he hadn't shown off his genial, funny and all-round-nice-guy personality enough already, he'd visited a children's cancer centre in Boston earlier in the day.
The reason? He was fulfilling the Super Bowl bet he made with fellow actor Chris Evans.
Pratt's a Seattle Seahawks fan, whilst Evans supports the New England Patriots.
The two stars agreed that whoever's team lost the Super Bowl would visit the other's chosen charity, dressed as the superhero they're known for playing.
As the Seahawks lost, Pratt got his Guardians Of The Galaxy Star-Lord leather jacket on and surprised the children at Christopher's Haven in Boston.
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A £40m undersea electricity cable has been laid between Jersey and France.

The Normandie 1, one of Jersey's three undersea power cables stretching to France, replaces its predecessor EDF1 which failed in June 2012.
The failure of the original power link to France forced Jersey and Guernsey Electricity to produce more energy by burning fossil fuels.
The new 27km-long (16.7-mile) cable has taken just over a week to install by a 4,000-tonne boat.
A spokeswoman for Jersey Electricity said it had been quicker to install than the Normandie 3 power cable because it was fixed on the seabed rather than under it.
The power cable will also provide electricity to Guernsey, via Jersey.
Guernsey Electricity chief executive officer Alan Bates said: "Once up and running, N1 will allow us to import around 95% of our electricity requirements.
"The remaining demand will be met on-island using our diesel generators, which also serve as a back-up to the cable network."
The cable, which joins Archirondel in Jersey with Surville on the north coast of France, has been jointly funded by Jersey Electricity and Guernsey Electricity and is due to come online at the start of 2017.
Undersea cable timeline


A letter reportedly taken from William Wallace when he was captured by English forces should be returned to Scotland, historians have said.

The Scottish government wants the note, granting Wallace passage to visit the Pope in 1300, handed to Scotland's national archives.
The "safe conduct" letter is one of a small number of documents thought by some to have belonged to Wallace.
However, the National Archives in London said it would consider any new evidence on the origin of the document.
It also said there was no firm evidence the letter was ever in Wallace's possession and there was nothing in the document to prove that Wallace either visited or intended to visit the papal court.
A group of historians, convened by the National Archives and the National Archives of Scotland, is examining the document's history and authenticity.
The first meeting of the William Wallace Working Group, made up of academics from Scotland, England and France and specialists from both national archive organisations, concluded that it was an original.
Minutes from that first meeting read: "The experts are unanimous in judging that the letter itself, far from being a copy, is an original produced in the French royal chancery."
The letter was reportedly in Wallace's possession when he was captured in Robroyston in 1305 - eight years after he had led a Scottish army to victory against English forces at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
It was written by King Philip IV of France to urge the Pope to "hold our loved William le Walois of Scotland, knight, recommended to his favour" during a proposed visit to Italy.
The nature of the business Wallace hoped to discuss with the Pope is unclear, and no surviving evidence exists that Wallace ever made the trip.
The disputed document has been held in England since Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered on 23 August 1305 after being found guilty of treason.
Many experts favour the theory that the letter was taken from Wallace after his arrest but others suggest that an emissary delivered it - only to be intercepted by English spies.
The Wallace working group is due to meet in the next two months, with its final report not due until at least the end of 2011.
A Scottish government spokesman said: "There has always been tremendous interest in this letter and repeated claims that it should rightfully reside in Scotland's National Archives.
"However, its origins and precise link to William Wallace is a mystery, one which this expert group is working to solve.
"We look forward to receiving the group's final report which should help establish the letter's place in Scottish history and support discussions between Scottish and UK government ministers on the status of the document."
A spokeswoman from the National Archives said they would consider new evidence about the origin of the document, if it came to light during the academic study.
"However, the decision to return the document to the country it originated from would require approval from both The National Archives' management board and the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor," she added.


Bydd Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd yn nodi achlysur arbennig y penwythnos yma wrth iddyn nhw ddathlu eu 50 mlwyddiant.

Cafodd y clwb ei sefydlu yn 1967 fel modd i Gymry Cymraeg y brifddinas chwarae a chymdeithasu, ac ers hynny mae wedi mynd o nerth i nerth.
Bellach mae tîm y dynion yn chwarae yn ail adrannau Cynghrair SWALEC, ac mae gan y clwb ail dîm, tîm merched ac adran iau hefyd.
Fel rhan o'r dathliadau bydd y clwb yn mynd ar daith i Lydaw - lleoliad eu hymweliad tramor cyntaf un, a hynny i Brest yn 1970.
Nos Sadwrn bydd 260 o gyn-chwaraewyr, aelodau presennol a chefnogwyr y clwb yn dod at ei gilydd i ddathlu'r 50 gyda chinio mawreddog yng Nghaerdydd.
Ac yn ôl un o gyn-gapteiniaid mwyaf adnabyddus y clwb, mae'r clwb wastad wedi bod yn rhan bwysig o gymuned Gymreig y brifddinas.
" Yn syth roedd 'da chi gymdeithas roeddech chi'n teimlo'n rhan ohoni," meddai'r sylwebydd Huw Llywelyn Davies.
"Allai feddwl, i fois yn dod o'r gorllewin neu'r gogledd falle, a ddim yn nabod llawer o bobl yng Nghaerdydd cyn cyrraedd naill ai'r coleg neu swydd, ac yn sydyn maen nhw yng nghanol criw o Gymry.
"Mae hwnna'n sicr yn helpu pobl i setlo yn y brifddinas."
Mae nifer o wynebau cyfarwydd hefyd yn gyn-chwaraewyr i'r clwb, gan gynnwys y cyflwynydd Gethin Jones, yr actorion Dafydd Hywel a Rhys ap William, y cerddor Dewi Pws, a chyn-asgellwr Cymru, Mark Titley.
A bydd hi'n garreg filltir arbennig i'r prif hyfforddwr presennol, Gareth Williams, o gofio fod ei dad Martin yn un o sylfaenwyr y clwb.
"Pan ddechreuodd dad, y gêm gyntaf dwi'n credu iddyn nhw fenthyg cit oddi wrth rywun, a mam-gu oedd yn glanhau'r cit - fel 'na oedd hi bryd hynny," meddai Gareth Williams.
"Nawr mae pethau wedi symud 'mlaen. Mae e jyst yn falch dwi'n credu fod e'n gweld bod ni dal 'ma ar ôl hanner can mlynedd.
"Mae 260 o bobl yn mynd i fod yn y cinio 'ma nos Sadwrn, mae'n mynd i fod yn noson arbennig i bobl fel dad fi'n credu, sy'n gweld twf y clwb."
Yn ogystal â'i hanes lliwgar, mae'r clwb hefyd wedi bod yn gwneud eu marc ar y cae yn ddiweddar, gan gipio'r Fowlen Genedlaethol yn Stadiwm y Principality dair blynedd yn ôl.
"Mae'r clwb wedi newid lot dros y blynydde - pan nes i ddechrau dim ond un tîm oedd yn rhedeg, roedden ni'n cwrdd tu fas i Cameo bob wythnos a chasglu tîm at ei gilydd," meddai'r asgellwr, Mark Beynon.
"Dyddie 'ma mae dau neu dri tîm yn chwarae, mae 'na griw ieuenctid a thîm merched 'fyd. Ni 'di mwynhau lot o lwyddiant.
"Ro'n i'n lwcus i chwarae yn Stadiwm y Mileniwm a chael cais bach, ond dwi ddim yn licio siarad am hwnna!"


A rare glimpse of the nesting habits of a colony of one of the UK's rarest seabirds is being captured on camera on a Denbighshire beach.

Images of the little terns at Gronant Dunes, near Prestatyn, are being gathered for an exhibition to showcase the birds.
There are 136 breeding pairs on the beach, the last remaining colony in Wales.
They return each April from Africa to nest in the dunes on the Dee estuary.
Volunteers cover shifts between 04:00-22:00 BST to protect them from predators.
Denbighshire Countryside Service is working with professional photographer David Woodfall from Denbigh to record their lives for a future exhibition.


Colleges will only receive a fraction of the amount they want to spend on bursaries to students from poorer backgrounds, according to official figures.

Scotland's colleges asked their funding body for a total of £14.7m for bursaries.
But they will only receive £3.5m, with five receiving no money for bursaries.
The Scottish government said overall support for college students was at a record level.
College students are entitled to loans to meet their living costs on similar terms to those offered to university students. Colleges themselves award and distribute bursaries to those from low income backgrounds.
The body that provides the money for bursaries - the Scottish Funding Council - said that in previous years colleges had often asked for more money than they had actually given out.
Because this money cannot be spent on other things it was handed back.
In a document detailing the funding, the Scottish Funding Council said: "It should be noted that our experience of previous years is that there is an element of over-estimation in the requests that we receive.
"For example, a number of colleges that received additional funding through last year's reallocation process returned a significant proportion of this funding to us, as it was not used in-year."
A Scottish government spokesman said: "The Further Education student support budget is at a record level of £104m, meaning students are receiving more financial support than ever before. This redistribution exercise is an annual process designed to ensure funding is allocated in the most fair and equitable way.
"It is not at all unusual for requests for additional funding to exceed the amount available for re-allocation. We would expect colleges, as they have done in the past, to do everything possible to ensure students are not disadvantaged."
The National Union of Students described the figures as "extremely worrying".
The vice president of NUS Scotland, Robert Foster, said: "There's a huge shortfall in vital financial support for college students, to the tune of £11.2m, and we're really concerned that this could see colleges closing their doors to new students or individual students getting less financial support, or even none at all.
"Colleges support some of our most disadvantaged communities, so a shortage in these funds could be a disaster for those who rely on student support the most, including students with children trying to get back into education."
"The Scottish government has invested additional money in the past and we must see them act this year too, as clearly funds are not keeping up with demand. We also need serious reform of the system so that students receive an entitlement to support, protecting them from budget shortages."
Some of the government's critics have argued the money being spent on free university tuition often amounts to a middle class benefit and that it would be better spent on colleges.
Others have claimed colleges are being squeezed, with attention focused on universities.
Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Liam McArthur said: "In some areas we know that more young people go on to college instead of university.
"These cuts will strike a damaging blow to the people who need help the most and blows a further hole in the SNP's claims to be committed to widening access."


More than a fifth of men wish they had looked after their children rather than returning to work, researchers say.

More than a third of men questioned told researchers that they worked full-time and were offered no flexibility at all by their employers.
The study also found that 80% of women feel "guilty" about going back to work after having children.
The survey was commissioned to help launch the Work and Family Show, which begins in London today.
Researchers sent questionnaires to working parents and expectant parents whose details were on the the databases of My Family Care and the Baby Show.
It was carried out online last month, with 1,000 people responding.
The survey suggests women find it harder than men to return to work after starting a family, but that significant numbers of fathers also have concerns.
More than 80% of women respondents said they felt "guilty going back to work and leaving my child", and worried about leaving their children in the care of others, compared with just 39% of men.
However, only 24% of women said that they wished they had not returned to work, with 22% of men saying the same.
More than 20% of women said they felt less confident in their abilities when they did return to work, compared with less than 2.5% of men.
Only around 20% of men and women said they could agree with the statement "I have found a balance and feel that I have it all".
More than 43% of women respondents said they did "most of the domestic chores", compared with just 27% of men who said the same.
The Fatherhood Institute, a charity which describes itself as "the UK's fatherhood think-and-do-tank" says the survey's results "fit with previous evidence".
"It is men, not women, who are most dissatisfied with their work-life balance," said Adrienne Burgess, the institute's joint chief executive.
"They're more likely than mums to be in full-time paid employment, and to be the sole or main breadwinner. Full-time working men also work longer hours on average than their female counterparts, and tend to have longer commutes," she said.
"Crucially, few employers have strategies to support the men in their workforce to combine their work and domestic commitments.
"As a result, men are less likely to request flexible working, and if they do, are less likely to get it."
The survey was conducted by My Family Care, one of the organisers of the show.
Its director, Ben Black, said that "more companies than ever before" had introduced measures to help their employees balance their careers with the needs of their families, but he believes more can be done.
"Today, over 2.2 million parents are not working in order to look after their family. However, more than 60% are looking to return to work but do not know how to, or are scared of how they will manage to look after their children and focus on work."
The Work and Family Show opens in London today, alongside the Baby Show.
The event's organisers say it aims to give working parents "practical advice, inspiration and ideas to help you create a happy and healthy work-life balance".
Jenny Willott, the Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs, will be taking part in a panel discussion at the show.
The government says it is keen to encourage employers to introduce more flexible working, and points to its policy of shared parental leave as a measure that can help working families achieve a better work-life balance.


A fire has closed the A14 in both directions on the border of Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

A stack alight in a neighbouring field has lead to smoke billowing across the dual carriageway at Catworth.
Police have tweeted that the road is closed between Brampton Hut on the A1 and the A605 junction at Thrapston.
Motorists were being advised by the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Roads Policing Unit to find alternative routes.