iWorld
Discovery Plus app launches on Amazon Fire TV
MUMBAI: Discovery Plus is catching on with passionate communities across the country appreciating and enjoying the world-class content across 40+ genres such as Science, Adventure, Food, Lifestyle among others. In addition to being available on Android, iOS and on the desktop & mobile web, Discovery Plus is now also available on Amazon Fire TV. Within a week of the launch on Amazon Fire TV, Discovery Plus proved its mettle in the living room screen experience by netting an impressive 41.3 minutes per subscriber* per day.
Discovery Plus also augmented its content to celebrate the launch with a collection of new ‘Big Screen Delight’ titles dropping every day of the week. Over the last week, Discovery Plus dropped marquee content specials including NASA and SpaceX: Journey To The Future, Carter’s War, Space Launch: America Returns To Space, How The Universe Works and Expedition Asia with Ryan Pyle. Additionally, starting today audiences can now stream Nature’s Strangest Mysteries Solved, Mythbusters and season 10 of the very popular show Gold Rush on their Fire TV devices.
Discovery Plus, emphasizing the big-screen delight experience, launched a new marketing campaign that will run across all 14 Discovery network channels as well as on all key digital platforms. Discovery Plus is also amplifying spends on performance marketing to ensure that all enthusiasts are aware of new platforms debut on Amazon Fire TV.
“One of the foremost demands put forth by ardent fans of Discovery+ has been met with the launch of our app on Fire TV. Our tremendous engagement on FireTV bears testament to that. Besides the convenience of consuming the largest repository of premium real-life entertainment content across devices, our audiences have loved the experience of watching Discovery+ on big screen and that’s what this launch on Fire TV allows us to provide. Our marketing campaign too builds on this simple, yet critical insight,” Discovery digital South Asia business head Issac John said.
“Our endeavour has been to offer Fire TV customers the widest selection and a frictionless way to discover their favourite content. Discovery Plus indexes a vast range of content about our planet, its rich culture, history, flora and fauna as well as the contribution of science and technology in the evolution of the human race. We are excited to add this selection to Fire TV customers in India,” Amazon Devices India head Parag Gupta said.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
