iWorld
Bigg Boss Season 11 garnered 70 mn views on Voot in 10 days
MUMBAI: Colors ace Bigg Boss Season11 has garnered a big buzz on the internet. It has amassed around 70 million views in just the first 10 days of the show on Viacom18’s Voot. Voot carries every aspect of Bigg Boss including the full episodes, voting, MTV Bigg Boss Extra Dose and several exclusive show extension properties like Unseen Undekha, cutless and soon to be launched Bigg Buzz.
About the overwhelming numbers, Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gaurav Gandhi said: “Bigg Boss from our network flagship channel Colors is the biggest digital entertainment content property in India by far and we can see the magnitude of it in the first 10 days itself on Voot. There is no other TV show that inspires so much fandom and the biggest fans of the show get everything they can think of now, including voting to save their contestants, on one digital platform and that is Voot. The episodes and the exclusively curated content around Bigg Boss on Voot has witnessed unparalleled digital viewership and has helped deepen the connect of these fans with the iconic show and that is why we see the average watch time per day per viewer for Bigg Boss on Voot is well over 45 minutes. With the momentum we have seen in the first ten days, we are now pushing to cross the magical 1 billion views mark for this season of Bigg Boss on Voot.”
The exclusive segments, over and above the full episodes, curated for Bigg Boss on Voot include Unseen Undekha – A full dose of Bigg Boss for the true fans with exclusive and unseen content from the Bigg Boss house beyond what can be seen in the show episodes. From intimate conversations, impromptu dances and games organised by the housemates, to all the drama & fun that is an inherent part of BB, Unseen Undekha offer a daily, exclusive view into the saucy lives of the contestants as they go about surviving in the BB house.
Cutless – A favorite with hardcore BB fans, Cutless offers a daily extensive, no holds barred access to watch complete unedited, uncut action and drama around eliminations, tasks, nominations and other game-changing events in the Bigg Boss house.
Bigg Buzz –The fervor around the show gets bigger and better with Bigg Buzz, a fun weekend social media round-up show. Bigg Buzz will see a humorous take on all the madness of BB on the web, peppered with Live Video Chats, Twitter Interactions, Facebook Live etc. Upping the heat on the show will be other celebrity guests, the eliminated contestant of the week along with friends & family, ex-BB Stars and Social Media Influencers. Bigg Buzz is all set to up the engagement with the commoners truly making Bigg Boss11 – a show for the fans, of the fans and by the biggest fans of BB11.
iWorld
Snapchat parent Snap cuts 16 per cent of workforce in AI-driven restructuring
The Snapchat parent is axing around 1,000 jobs and closing 300 open roles to save $500m, as artificial intelligence makes smaller teams the new normal
CALIFORNIA: Snap is snapping. The Snapchat parent has confirmed plans to cut around 1,000 employees, roughly 16 per cent of its full-time workforce, as it bets that artificial intelligence can do what headcount once required. Shares jumped more than 10 per cent in premarket trading on the news, a brisk vote of confidence from a market that has watched the stock shed about 31 per cent this year.
The restructuring, which also closes more than 300 open roles, follows pressure from activist investor Irenic Capital Management, which holds an economic interest of about 2.5 per cent in the company and has been loudly pushing Snap to tighten its portfolio and lift performance. The firm got what it asked for, and then some.
Chief executive Evan Spiegel told employees the cuts would reduce annualised expenses by more than $500m by the second half of the year. The company expects to incur charges of between $95m and $130m related to the layoffs, mostly severance, with the bulk landing in the second quarter. Staff in Snap’s North America team were asked to work from home on the day of the announcement.
The financial backdrop is not without bright spots. Snap expects first-quarter revenue to rise around 12 per cent to approximately $1.53 billion, broadly in line with analyst estimates. Adjusted core profit for the January to March quarter is forecast at about $233m, comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s expectation of $186.8m.
The harder question surrounds Specs, Snap’s augmented reality smart glasses subsidiary, which Irenic has urged the company to spin off or shut down entirely. The unit has absorbed more than $3.5 billion in investment and burns through approximately $500m in cash annually. Snap is pressing ahead regardless, with a consumer product expected later this year, even as Meta leads the market in the segment.
Spiegel is betting that leaner teams, smarter machines and a consumer AR play can restore Snap’s credibility with investors who have run out of patience. The redundancy notices have gone out. The harder restructuring, the one that requires a hit product rather than a headcount reduction, is still very much pending.
