MAM
Pocket Aces sets foot into the travel space with its new web series ‘Love Travel Repeat’
MUMBAI: Pocket Aces, India’s leading digital entertainment company, recently introduced an exciting new travel series, ‘Love Travel Repeat’ on its lifestyle channel, Gobble. With the launch of the new series, the company spreads its wings to set footprint into the travel space. In a first-of-its-kind partnership with Hyundai India, the series has 5 episodes featuring popular web actors Kriti Vij and Pranay Manchanda, as they embark on a road trip from Mumbai to Bengaluru. The first episode aired on 28th December on Gobble’s Facebook, YouTube and Instagram channels.
Gobble has fast evolved since its inception to reach 60M+ monthly reach and 200M+ monthly views. A mainstream digital food content channel, Gobble had several successful award-winning food shows such as You Got Chef’d, Love vs. Food and more. However, the company decided to expand into the travel and home decor verticals, after noticing a clear gap for such content online. To herald this growth, Gobble underwent a rebranding – with a new snappy logo and establishing three new verticals – Gobble Travel, Gobble Food and Gobble Home. The company announced this change with a video depicting its evolution, and a promise of new exciting series coming up this year. ‘Love Travel Repeat’ is the first show from the new Gobble, where the couple’s adventures along the road trip are decided by the audiences’ suggestions received online.
Commenting on the new series, Sonalika Mehra, Gobble’s channel manager, said, “Over the last three years, Gobble has become a household name in the food space. As we created food-focused non-fiction content, we realised the gap that currently exists in India for digital lifestyle content. We plan to create over 6 series and several short video formats over the year to cater to and better understand the audience for home and travel content. Through this expansion, we also hope to partner with relevant brands to create fresh digital content in order to reach out to a wider demographic. We are kicking off the new Gobble with our first travel series, “Love Travel Repeat” where a real-life couple travels from Mumbai to Bangalore with their Hyundai Grand i10 NIOS as the third wheel on the journey.”
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.
