MAM
Pizza Hut launches fun wallpapers to liven up video chats
Continuing its quest to make people see the brighter side of lockdown and social distancing, Pizza Hut has launched eleven vibrant pizza themed wallpapers to make video chats even more delightful and memorable. The wallpapers are freely downloadable from Pizza Hut’s Facebook page and can be used across several video conferencing platforms to mask boring walls and cluttered rooms. Pizza Hut is the first food brand in India to have designed and launched their own wallpapers, which are available in simple jpeg formats. The wallpapers can be downloaded from here: Link
Talking about the launch, Neha, Marketing Director, Pizza Hut India said, “As a brand that exists for the love of pizza and bringing people together, we believe these wallpapers are a great way for pizza lovers everywhere to express themselves and add a dash of personality to their video chats, as they catch-up with loved ones, do office meetings or attend classes. Our millennial consumers will especially enjoy using these quirky wallpapers to showcase their love for pizzas to the world. In these trying times, it’s also our way to make the best of being indoors and add some colour and fun to our consumers lives.”
Pizza Hut, through their ongoing #QualityTimeNotQuarantine campaign, has been urging people to be optimistic while staying at home and appreciate the extra time that they have got. The brand recently reinvented its logo to reinforce the practice of Social Distancing and inform consumers about its oven-to-doorstep contactless experience, which enables them to enjoy tasty and hygienic pizzas in the safety of their homes, as the food is delivered straight from the oven to the doorstep, without any hands touching it.
Pizza Hut has also been contributing to COVID-19 relief initiatives in India by providing quality and hygienic meals to medical and frontline staff at government hospitals across cities. The brand has added several WHO-recommended safety and hygiene measures to the existing stringent policies that it has always maintained, for ensuring the highest level of food safety, and the well-being of its customers and employees.
MAM
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.








