Paramount begins lay-offs, with 800 employees to go

Paramount Global has begun the planned lay-offs of around 800 of its US based staff, with affected employees informed yesterday.

The cuts, which had been previously confirmed as impending by CEO Bob Bakish last month, amounts to about 3 per cent of the company’s total global workforce.

The redundancies were announced by Bakish in an internal memo on Tuesday, in which he told staff: “As we shared at Bob Live in January, returning our company to earnings growth is a top priority in 2024.

“This will require us to continue to grow revenue, while reducing costs. And unfortunately, part of streamlining costs means that today, we will begin the difficult process of saying goodbye to some of our very valued colleagues across Paramount.  We will be notifying impacted employees who are based in the U.S. by the close of business today.”

The announcement came just hours after Paramount-owned CBS revealed that its broadcast of Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII was the most-watched telecast in history, with 123.4 million viewers across TV and streaming platforms.

These latest cuts follow previous lay-offs and several restructures in recent months, including 120 exits as the company integrated the Showtime and Paramount+ brands, cutbacks at the Smithsonian Channel and the merging of the Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios teams.

Late last month, Bakish told staff that as a result of challenges including “a soft ad market, a volatile macroeconomic environment and two historic strikes,” Paramount “will continue to reduce our workforce globally.”

Focus on Hollywood hits

The company has also switched up its strategy to focus more tightly than ever on “Hollywood hits” and to produce fewer local, international originals as it seeks to drive earnings growth and profitability for its streaming services including Halo and Yellowstone SVOD Paramount+.

There has also been a swirl of sales talks circling Paramount Global, with its majority owner National Amusements reportedly listening to offers for its assets.

US media mogul and The Weather Channel owner Byron Allen made a $30bn offer to acquire Paramount last month, while Skydance and RedBird Capital Partners have reportedly held talks about acquiring the National Amusements stake, and Apollo Global Management is also reported to be considering making an offer.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Paramount chief Bob Bakish reportedly met up in New York City late last year to discuss a potential merger.

Paramount is valued at around $9bn and is contending with a debt pile of more than $15bn as, like many US studios pushing into D2C streaming, it has struggled to make Halo and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds service Paramount+ pay.