Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto and Ashish Chandra; Editing by Sonia Cheema
World
India’s Reliance Jio launches Netflix subscription on prepaid plans
Aug 18 (Reuters) – Reliance Jio Infocomm said on Friday it has launched a Netflix subscription on prepaid plans, a move that could intensify competition among domestic telecom companies as well as help the video-streaming provider find other avenues to make money.
Jio, the telecom arm of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), said that around 400 million prepaid customers will have the option of availing a Netflix subscription through two packages, each valid for up to 84 days.
One will be priced at 1,099 rupees ($13.23), providing access to Netflix on mobile platforms, and the other for 1,499 rupees, which will give access to a basic package for large screens, Jio said.
Jio’s peers, Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS) and Vodafone Idea (VODA.NS), provide subscription to Netflix rival Walt Disney’s (DIS.N) India streaming service Disney+ Hotstar through prepaid bundled plans.
“Partnership with Jio will give more customers access to this exciting line-up of Indian content as well as some incredible stories from around the world,” said Tony Zameczkowski, vice president of APAC partnerships for Netflix.
The deal comes amid Netflix looking for new ways to make money as it faces signs of market saturation in the United States, with efforts including limits on password borrowing and a new ad-supported option.
Disney+ Hotstar, which topped India’s streaming market between January 2022 and March 2023 with a 38% share of viewership also plans to limit password sharing in the country, Reuters reported in July.
Disney, Netflix, Amazon (AMZN.O) and JioCinema are hugely popular in India, which is set to grow into a $7 billion market for the sector by 2027, according to Media Partners Asia.
Earlier in July, Jio had announced the launch of a 4G-feature phone in an attempt to reach people who have not yet migrated to smartphones.
($1 = 83.0797 Indian rupees)
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Protesters demand Armenian prime minister's resignation after border villages ceded to Azerbaijan
Thousands of protesters gathered Thursday in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over his government’s decision to hand over control of border villages to Armenia’s long-time rival Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars since the Soviet Union collapsed and Armenia said in April that it would return the villages to Azerbaijan. That decision came after Azerbaijan in September waged a lightning military campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority ethnic Armenian region inside Azerbaijan. That caused tens of thousands of people to stream into Armenia, sparking demonstrations as protesters called for the prime minister to be ousted.
Protesters led by a senior cleric in Armenia’s church walked a distance of around 100 miles from villages near the border with Azerbaijan to Yerevan where they gathered Thursday in Republic Square.
ARMENIA’S PRIME MINISTER IN RUSSIA FOR TALKS AMID STRAIN IN TIES
Videos shared on social media showed thousands of people waving Armenian flags. A senior Armenian cleric said a prayer and told the protesters he gave Pashinyan one hour to resign, blaming him for the loss of Armenian territory.
Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan told protesters they should “engage in peaceful acts of disobedience,” if Pashinyan did not listen to their demands.
Pashinyan visited Moscow Wednesday and held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid spiraling tensions between the estranged allies. The meeting took place a day after Putin began his fifth term at a glittering Kremlin inauguration which the Armenian leader did not attend.
Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted Thursday by Russian state news agency Tass as saying the two leaders had agreed to the removal of Russian forces from some Armenian regions.
In brief remarks at the start of the talks, Putin said that bilateral trade was growing, but acknowledged “some issues concerning security in the region.”
Pashinyan, who last visited Moscow in December, said that “certain issues have piled up since then.”
Armenia’s ties with Russia, a longtime sponsor and ally, have grown increasingly strained after Azerbaijan waged its military campaign in September to reclaim the Karabakh region, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatists’ rule there.
Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh after the previous round of hostilities in 2020 of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, has rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.
The Kremlin, in turn, has been angered by Pashinyan’s efforts to deepen ties with the West and distance his country from Moscow-dominated security and economic alliances.
While Pashinyan was visiting Moscow, Armenia’s foreign ministry announced that the country will stop paying fees to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-dominated security pact. Armenia has previously suspended its participation in the grouping as Pashinyan has sought to bolster ties with the European Union and NATO.
Russia was also vexed by Armenia’s decision to join the International Criminal Court, which last year indicted Putin for alleged war crimes connected to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Moscow, busy with the Ukrainian conflict that has dragged into a third year, has publicly voiced concern about Yerevan’s westward shift but sought to downplay the differences.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov conceded Tuesday that “there are certain problems in our bilateral relations,” but added that “there is a political will to continue the dialogue.”
World
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy fires head of state guard over assassination plot
Ukrainian state security said earlier this week that they unearthed an assassination plot including two state guards.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired the head of the state guards following allegations that two members were involved in a plot to assassinate the embattled Ukrainian head of state.
Zelenskyy dismissed former leader of the state guards Serhiy Rud on Thursday, after the state security service (SBU) said earlier this week that it had unearthed an assassination plot against Zelenskyy and other important officials. A successor for Rud has yet to be named.
The SBU said that the assassinations were meant to be a “gift” for Russian President Vladimir Putin as he was sworn in for a new term in office on Tuesday.
The SBU said that the two men, both colonels in the state guard, had planned to take Zelenskyy hostage and later kill him.
Other key officials, including SBU head Vasyl Maliuk and Kyrylo Budanov, the military intelligence agency’s head, were also said to be targets of the failed effort.
Moscow has not commented on the allegations by the SBU, which alleged that the two bodyguards had passed on sensitive information to the FSB, Russia’s security service.
It is not the first assassination effort that the Ukrainian leader has faced down, stating last year that at least five Russian plots have been foiled since the war began.
Zelenskyy’s administration has faced growing difficulties in recent months, and has shaken up some key staffing positions as progress in the country’s war against Russia stalls out and officials face accusations of corruption.
In February, Zelenskyy named Oleksandr Syrskyii as the new army chief after dismissing General Valerii Zaluzhny from the position.
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