Zee Entertainment lays off 50% employees at Bengaluru's tech unit

Zee Entertainment Enterprises has laid off 50 per cent of its staff at its Technology & Innovation Centre (TIC), Bengaluru in order to optimise its resources, the company said in a statement. The company did not disclose the number of employees at the Centre who were laid off.

The plan will optimise the resources and arrive at a cost-effective structure to drive continued growth for the company, it said. The centre will now maintain a sharper focus on enhancing the overall content creation, distribution and monetisation process for the company by utilising technology led tools to gain deeper insights into consumer preferences, the statement said.

“We are laser focused towards creating exceptional content that is rich and engaging for our viewers. We have a huge responsibility on our hands to live up to the expectations of billions of viewers across the globe and we will continue to win their hearts. To achieve this, we need the blend of a creative approach, detailed consumer insights and futuristic technology solutions," Punit Goenka, MD and CEO of ZEEL, said. “The core and streamlined team at TIC will now only focus on enabling and empowering us in this process of content creation, distribution and monetization,” Goenka added.

The statement said frugal approach, optimal utilisation of resources and sharper focus on quality content are the key tenets of the approach undertaken by the company’s management, under the guidance of its Board, chaired by R. Gopalan.

In January this year, Japan's Sony Corporation called off the merger of its India unit with Zee Entertainment which would have created a $10 billion media giant in the country. The company recently announced the strategic realignment of its revenue vertical, which is now being directly driven by Goenka.