MAM
Safeguarding consumer safety, KFC to deliver right to your car or bike
MUMBAI: KFC is doubling down on its efforts to keep its team members and customers safe with the introduction of ‘KFC to Your Car or Bike’. An extension of contactless takeaway, the initiative is a first-of-its-kind service in India, with the food being delivered to your vehicle. Customers can place a prepaid order on the KFC App, website or Msite and arrive at the designated spot near the restaurant where their order will be delivered to them. The new service is being launched at select KFC restaurants across cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, among others.
KFC India CMO Moksh Chopra said, “While delivery remains one of the easiest ways to access KFC, with ‘KFC to Your Car or Bike’, our aim is to offer safe and easy access to those who are already on the road for essential journeys or on their way home from difficult work shifts. It comes backed with our 4X safety promise – of sanitisation, social distancing, screening (of temperature) and contactless service. Through the use of the KFC app and digital payments, this service is easy, quick and completely contactless.”
KFC has upped its existing operational protocols with its 4X Safety promise. Intensified sanitisation at the restaurant includes all surface areas including tables, counters, doors, and door handles that are sanitized every 30-minutes. The delivery teams wash and sanitise their hands and bags after every order. All team members, including delivery riders, are regularly screened and undergo daily temperature checks, wear masks and gloves. With a limited menu on delivery, we are able to operate with a smaller kitchen team maintaining all norms of social distancing. Moving into a completely contactless delivery and takeaway approach means no contact between the delivery executive and the customer, with online payments as a recommended practice. The food packaging is further secured with a tamper-proof seal to ensure that nobody has touched or accessed the food from the time it was packed until delivered. As quality is key at KFC, the food is prepared with the utmost care and is it cooked at a high temperature of 170 degrees.
KFC to Your Car/Bike will be available across select restaurants. Contactless Takeaway will be available across all restaurants in the country. Consumers can order their KFC favourites on online.kfc.co.in or through the KFC app.
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.
