Zee slashes staff count at tech centre by half

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE) has terminated 50% of its Technology & Innovation Centre (TIC) staff in Bengaluru to optimise costs and boost its operating margin, the company said in a statement.

ZEE has also restructured the TIC and streamlined its scope of work following the board's guidance. The ZEE board had recently asked the management team to reduce TIC expenditure by 50% from ₹600 crore for FY25.

Under the new structure, the TIC plans to enhance its content creation, distribution, and monetisation processes by utilising technology-driven tools to gain deeper consumer preferences.

Speaking on this decision, Zee Entertainment CEO Punit Goenka said, «We are laser-focused on creating exceptional content that is rich and engaging for our viewers… To achieve this, we need a blend of a creative approach, detailed consumer insights, and futuristic technology solutions. The core and streamlined team at TIC will now only focus on enabling and empowering us in this process of content creation, distribution, and monetisation.»

In line with ZEE's goal of reaching 20% operating margin, the board had also asked the management to cut down losses from five verticals — Margo Networks (Sugarbox), Teleplay & Zindagi, Hipi, Weyyak, and English cluster of linear TV business.