India's Zee cuts staff by about half at Bengaluru's Technology & Innovation Centre
March 29, 2024 at 11:32 am EDT
Share
BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Zee Entertainment on Friday said it has reduced the workforce at its Technology & Innovation Centre in Bengaluru by about half, following recommendations by a company-formed review panel to cut costs. The decision was made by the managing director and chief executive officer Punit Goenka, the company said. The committee, comprising company chairman R. Gopalan and audit committee chairman Prakash Agarwal, had suggested that Zee should substantially reduce losses in its businesses, including its English-language TV channels, and cut costs in other areas to meet a key profit target, the broadcaster said on Tuesday. The committee had also advised halving the costs at Zee's technology and innovation centre in fiscal 2025, from the 6 billion rupees ($72 million) a year back, the company added. Zee, besides being locked in legal battles over the failed Sony and cricket deals, has to also contend with new competition after Disney and Reliance merged their Indian media assets to create an $8.5 billion media behemoth.
($1 = 83.3410 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Ros Russell)
The Walt Disney Company is a media and entertainment group. Net sales (including intragroup) break down by activity as follows:
- operation of theme parks and hotel resorts (33.9%): operation, as of 01/10/2022, of 10 theme parks (35 hotels) located in the United States (Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort and Aulani; 6 theme parks and 23 hotels), France (Disneyland Paris; 2 theme parks and 7 hotels), Japan (Tokyo Disney Resort; 2 theme parks and 5 hotels), Hong Kong (Hong Kong Disneyland; 1 theme park and 3 hotels) and China (Shanghai Disney Resort; 1 theme park and 2 hotels). The group is also involved in cruise sales (Disney Cruise Line), travel organization (Disney Vacation Club and Adventures By Disney), design and development of parks and other real estate properties, and sale of consumer products (children's books, toys, game software, films, etc.);
- operation of TV and radio channels (33.4%): domestic channels (Disney Channels, ESPN, ESPN Radio, Freeform, FX Channels and National Geographic Channels) and international channels (Disney, ESPN, Fox, National Geographic and Star). The group is also developing film post-production and website operation businesses;
- video streaming (23.1%);
- audiovisual content production and distribution (9.6%): TV programs, animated films, TV series, music, live entertainment, etc.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Americas (81.5%), Europe (10.4%) and Asia/Pacific (8.1%).