iWorld
Prime Video India Inks Licensing Deal with Paramount Global Content Distribution
MUMBAI: Prime Video, India’s entertainment destination, has announced the expansion of its offering with highly-popular television series from Paramount Global Content Distribution to Prime and Prime Video Mobile Edition members in India, further strengthening its selection of the best and latest English language entertainment.
The specially curated slate features original shows across genres, including two series from Academy Award nominee Taylor Sheridan: Mayor of Kingstown Season one starring Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner and Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest, which follows the McLusky family who are power brokers in a Michigan town where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry, and the limited series 1883 Season one, the prequel to “Yellowstone” starring Academy Award nominee Sam Elliott and Grammy Award winners Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, capturing the Dutton family’s origin story as they embark on a journey west to flee poverty and seek a better future. Additional series include The Stand Season 1, a limited series based on Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world decimated by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil. The Stand Season one stars Whoopi Goldberg and Alexander Skarsgård, from the ground-breaking Star Trek universe, comes the multiple award winning series Star Trek: Discovery, seasons 1-4 starring Sonequa Martin-Green and executive produced by Alex Kurtzman.
The deal also features other popular original shows including Californication, Dexter, The Good Wife, NCIS, Blue Bloods, The Good Fight, Madam Secretary, Reign, The Great, Seal Team, Under the Dome, Munich Games and Parot.
“We are delighted to announce that a curated selection of Paramount Global content is available for streaming to Prime Members in India at no extra cost,” said Prime Video India director – content licensing Manish Menghani. “The slate includes a diverse mix of genres from fantasy and adventure to drama and sci-fi, with each show featuring a stellar cast. At Prime Video, our goal is to make it easy for customers to get deeply immersed in the best stories from the most prolific storytellers and studios around the world. We are certain Indian viewers will enjoy these award-winning shows that have resonated with audiences worldwide,” he further added.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
