iWorld
Vikram Bhatt’s LoneRanger taps Brightcove for TVoD service by mid-Nov
MUMBAI: A US video firm has started working with a Bollywood producer on a streaming service soon after developments in India where VoD services such as Amazon and Netflix tried to get a toehold in the OTT market through original content agreements.
Netflix, late last year, signed a deal with Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies to distribute the studio’s films. Shortly later, Amazon announced its own content agreement in India with Xilam Animation, making the former the exclusive streaming platform for kids’ shows such as “Zig & Sharko” and “Oggy & the Cockroaches.”
Brightcove, a provider of cloud services for video, has now partnered LoneRanger Productions to develop an over-the-top (OTT) service for the production company. The deal represents Brightcove’s maiden deal with a Bollywood production company.
LoneRanger is headed by Vikram Bhatt, a 30-plus year veteran of the Bollywood market and the director of classic films such as Ghulam, Raaz, and 1920. With its transactional video on demand (TVoD) OTT service, LoneRanger claims to deliver the best of its mystery and suspense content to consumers. The service is expected to launch in mid-November.
“Today’s viewing experience is as much about mobile delivery as it is about television. So, we have been looking for a partner that could help us revolutionise the user experience,” Bhatt said.
“Brightcove’s platform performance, player speed and technology stack were real differentiators in creating a service that was theater-like. We also wanted a vendor that could help us get to market quickly — able to stand up our service within weeks after signing the contract,” he added.
Brightcove CEO Andrew Feinberg said: “India has an enormous opportunity because of the explosive growth in online video in the region.
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.
