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IAA appoints Srinivasan Swamy as chairman & world president
MUMBAI: Indian advertising professionals seem to be taking the world by storm. Close on the heels of the Pandey brothers becoming the first Asians ever to receive the Lion of St Mark Award (the highest honour at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity), yet another Industry doyen has broken the proverbial glass ceiling.
R K SWAMY HANSA Group chairman Srinivasan Swamy will take over as the chairman and world president of the illustrious International Advertising Association (IAA), the first Indian ever to do so.
Sundar, as he is called by his friends, will lead a team of 25 executive committee members from a host of countries including India, USA, UK, Austria, Italy, Poland, Ghana, UAE, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Netherlands, Kuwait, Iran and Nepal.
He will take over from the legendary advertising professional Felix Tataru from Romania today at a glittering function to be held in his honour at Bucharest.
The International Advertising Association is an 80-year old institution and considered the most prestigious advertising body of its kind in the world. The IAA is acknowledged as the world’s most influential network of marketing and communication leaders, aimed at representing the common interests of all the disciplines across the full spectrum of marketing communications – from advertisers to media companies to agencies to direct marketing firms, as well as individual practitioners.
Its activities involve professional development of marketing communication practitioners, protecting freedom of commercial speech, advertising self-regulation, protecting consumer interest, training and education.
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Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
