iWorld
Amazon Prime Video India forays into live sports with New Zealand Cricket rights
KOLKATA: In its latest move, Amazon Prime Video has announced its first foray into live sports in India, with the acquisition of India territory rights for New Zealand Cricket through 2025/26. With this announcement Amazon Prime Video becomes the first Indian streaming service to secure exclusive live cricket rights from a major cricketing board.
Under the multi-year deal between Amazon and the New Zealand Cricket Board, Prime Video will become the one-stop streaming destination for all international cricket matches to be played in New Zealand for both men’s and women’s cricket, across ODI, T20 and Tests starting late 2021. The deal includes Team India’s tour of New Zealand in early 2022, and a second tour, the dates for which will be announced later. The rights for 2020-2021 season starting later this month is intended to be syndicated by Amazon.
The Indian men’s cricket team receives unrivalled support and unites fans across the entire country. With two highly-anticipated tours of the Indian team to New Zealand, over the next 6 years, cricket fans in India are in for a treat! The New Zealand men’s cricket team, also known as the Black Caps, enjoys world-wide popularity and is ranked No.3 in ODI and No. 2 in Test Cricket by the International Cricket Council.
“Over the last few years Amazon Prime Video has become the go-to destination for world class entertainment in India – be it our Amazon Original Series or the biggest blockbuster movies across languages,” Amazon Prime Video director & country general manager Gaurav Gandhi said.
“We are excited to add India’s most loved game – Cricket – to our content selection for our Prime Video customers, and we are thrilled to work with New Zealand Cricket on this endeavor as they have a strong, passionate and much-loved cricket team, and the cricketing rivalry between the two countries has been fantastic. We are happy to make this collaboration with New Zealand Cricket our first live sport offering in India, and are confident that our Prime members will be delighted with this initiative,” Gandhi added.
“This partnership with Amazon Prime Video is massive for NZC – we’re delighted and proud to be teaming up with such a famous and successful brand. As we’ve said before, the future of live sport is streaming and in Amazon Prime Video we have a partner right at the center of the industry; innovative, trend-setter and well-known for putting fans and subscribers first,” New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White said.
“One of NZC’s key goals is to extend our teams’ global reach and to build closer relationships around the world and, in terms of that particular objective, we don’t think we could be in better hands. India has always been important for viewership of NZC; no other country follows cricket like India, so it’s exciting to be announcing this agreement with India’s leading streamer,” he added.
The Indian territory New Zealand Cricket rights package is the latest in Prime Video’s growing line-up of live sports around the world including Thursday Night Football, the Premier League, ATP Tour Events, WTA, the US Open (tennis), UEFA Champions League, Autumn Nations Cup (rugby), and the Seattle Sounders FC. Fans can also subscribe to streaming services such as Eurosport, MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, and PGA TOUR LIVE through Prime Video Channels. This in addition to a selection of popular docuseries for sports fans, including The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team, which follows the Australian men’s cricket team during the 2018/2019 season, and Emmy-winning Amazon Original All or Nothing, among many others.
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.
