iWorld
BBC to launch US OTT service in 2016
MUMBAI: BBC is planning to launch a new over-the-top (OTT) video service in the US by next year.
BBC director general Tony Hall made the announcement during the Royal Television Society Convention in Cambridge.
“Following on from our AMC partnership in the US, we have just signed a new joint venture with Sony Multi-Screen-Media to launch a BBC Earth channel to India. And we’ll begin to try out businesses that go direct to the public. Next year, we’re launching a new OTT video service in America offering BBC fans programmes they wouldn’t otherwise get – showcasing British actors, our programme-makers – and celebrating our culture,” Hall said.
He also informed that the plans would increase commercial returns from BBC Worldwide to ?1.2 billion over the next five years, more than 15 per cent higher than the returns of the previous five years.
While addressing the conference, Hall said that BBC would work with global partners to grow BBC Worldwide further, taking advantage of the demand for British programming and new digital opportunities with offering such as the new OTT service.
Hall hit back at critics, pointing out that to deliver the quality content licence fee payers should expect, the BBC needed a commercial strategy where BBC Worldwide delivers as much as possible back into public service programmes. He said that in 2014 the commercial arm was an indivisible part of the BBC and had a turnover of ?1 billion that gave the BBC a record return of ?226 million.
eNews
OpenAI hires top AI researcher Ruoming Pang from Meta
Former Meta and Apple executive joins ChatGPT maker after months of talks
SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI has hired prominent artificial-intelligence researcher Ruoming Pang from Meta, underlining the intensifying contest among big tech firms for elite AI talent.
According to The Information, which cited an OpenAI spokesperson, Pang joined the ChatGPT maker last week after leaving Meta. At Meta, he oversaw AI infrastructure at the Superintelligence Labs, the unit tasked with building next-generation advanced models.
Pang had joined Meta only around seven months ago from Apple, where he worked on artificial-intelligence initiatives. Bloomberg has reported that his compensation package at Meta was valued at more than $200 million over several years, highlighting how aggressively firms are paying to secure top researchers.
OpenAI reportedly pursued Pang for months before finalising the hire. The move comes amid a fierce recruitment drive across Silicon Valley as companies race to dominate the next phase of AI development. Multi-million-dollar pay packages, equity incentives and senior leadership roles have become routine weapons in the fight for specialists capable of building large-scale AI systems.
As generative AI adoption accelerates and model training demands ever-greater computing power, infrastructure expertise has become a prized asset. Pang’s experience in running large AI platforms is expected to strengthen OpenAI’s ability to scale its models and expand commercial offerings.
