iWorld
Five Reasons Why Hotstar is Hot
With 10 million users in just 40 days, it set a benchmark in the digital space. In a record time span, Hotstar the new app from the Star India network, catapulted the audience’s attention and is showing continued signs of growth.
While VOD platforms are being selective in drawing up their content map, Hotstar has opened its large library for users, that too in regional languages. With smartphones increasingly altering the consumption landscape in the country, Indiantelevision.com gives you five reasons why this is a must have app for your phones.
A rich video experience
Gone are the days when enthusiasm levels of experiencing a video would be marred by buffering issues. Through almost zero buffering, the app claims that it can change the pixel value of the content depending on the bandwidth so that users witness uninterrupted services. In layman’s terms, when the bandwidth decreases, the video will continue playing but there will be a decline in the HD pixilation value. Video is downward optimized to playback continuously in as little as 64 kbps.
Want IPL, download Hotstar!
With the eighth season of India Kya Tyohar returning, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the biggest event on the sports calendar this year. Therefore, it is imperative that you download the app so that you don’t miss out on your favourite Kolkata Knight Riders or Chennai Super Kings scoring some brilliant wins on the palm of your hands.
Novi Digital Entertainment, a unit of Star India, which owns the digital rights of the Indian Premier League, will stream this glitzy event on the VOD platform in its first such endeavour. Plus, in this cricket event, India has no fears of losing in the semi finals. Everyone is a winner here including Stuart Binny!
India’s content hub
Where will you find 20,000 hours of content, across languages including 12 plus full length TV shows, 500 plus movies and live screening of popular sports like cricket, football, tennis and kabaddi on a single platform? The answer is – Hotstar!
In a first for India, Indya Interactive Services (which runs Hotstar.com) earlier premiered the Star Guild Awards 2015 on the video on demand service on 17 January. The award function was aired on Star Plus a day later on 18 January. It recently also premiered Bollywood movies like Baby and Roy first on the platform, much before the world TV premieres. Star India also recently acquired the weekly film and entertainment broadsheet Screen from the Express Group. Content from here will now move to digital as the print edition gets closed. Hotstar is definitely turning hotter!
Marketers, catch up with your digital audiences
Marketers and brands dread when audiences click on the tiny yet powerful option Skip This Ad Now. Weeks of ideation and production of a costly advertisement that is invested on digital mediums, goes down the drain. But fret not, Hotstar does not allow this potent option as audiences have to witness the ads. Besides, consumers wouldn’t mind the same as fresh as well as nostalgic content like Sarabhai versus Sarabhai too is up for grabs. With the India-Pakistan match during the World Cup receiving 25 million views on digital, there is a large chunk of young audiences that can’t be missed by marketers and brands alike.
Personalization and availability across devices
The app allows users to create their own playlists with content they curate for at leisure viewing. Individual episodes, movies, full collections of even movies can be curated. It has also managed to do the impossible as it unites a diverse range of mobile phone users. It doesn’t matter if you own a Samsung or an iPhone, it is compatible for Android, iOS and Nokia ASHA users too.
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.
