iWorld
Netflix reinforces focus on post-production, holds virtual Q&A session for editing community
MUMBAI: It's no wonder that streaming giants across the globe are trying to strengthen their business in India as the country has amongst the highest consumption of online video in the world. Streaming giant Netflix had hosted a first-of-a-kind workshop on post-production in Mumbai last October and recently it held a virtual Q&A session for the editing community in India with Emmy Award-winning editor Stuart Bass on 30 April. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings promised Rs 3000 crore for content in India in 2019-20. Hence, the streaming giant is not overlooking the training requirement of the local creative community as well.
Bass, who has worked for iconic shows like The Wonder Years, Arrested Development, The Office, and Pushing Daisies along with his long-time assistant editor Preston Rapp, shared his insights with over 100 participants from India and South East Asia. Primarily editors were part of the session along with assistant editors, post-production supervisors, writers, showrunners and/or directors.
The conversation focused on best practices in editing for complex episodic storytelling, how it differs from editing feature films, editing for different genres and the latest editing technologies. Even with the number of original content flooding the ecosystem, the country has limited experience in editing for series which requires a different approach from a creative, logistical, and management perspective. Hence, skills in editing for series will become increasingly relevant as India produces content at scale.
“We’re seeing a flourishing of stories from India across multiple genres and for every mood and member of the family. As more episodic series are made in India, there is a desire for best practices in long format storytelling. We were thrilled to see the response to the session led by an editor as prolific and experienced as Stuart Bass. We are grateful to the Indian creative community who, despite this difficult time, joined us and made this an incredibly insightful session that ranged from in-depth creative discussions to the technical aspects of editing for series,” Netflix post-production director Vijay Venkataramanan said who also moderated the session.
The streaming service has significantly upped its investment in Indian stories and storytellers. Netflix has announced over 50 productions in India. Its recent releases include Guilty, She, Jamtara- Sabka Number Aayega, Yeh Ballet has gained enough word of mouth. Even Chris Hemsworth-starrer Extraction was released on Netflix with dubs in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu indicating its ambition to engage viewers across the country.
“We've seen a big growth in viewing in India, and have had great success on our local originals there as well. Most recently was She and Guilty and a few others that have really been driving a lot of engagement in local content on our India service, and they also are big fans of our global original content like Lacasa de Papel was a huge hit in India for us, as well as most of our other originals that we have out of the US. So we're growing the business of licensed original international domestic across the board content and content taste,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in an earnings call after q1.
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.
