By Gavin Boyle
Paramount announced plans to cut roughly 1,000 jobs, paring down its workforce as it undergoes a major overhaul to its operations.
“When we launched the new Paramount in August, we made clear that building a strong, future-focused company would require significant change – including restructuring the organization,” Paramount’s new CEO David Ellison wrote in a memo sent out to the company. “We want to be as open and direct as possible about the reasons behind these changes.”
“In some areas, we are addressing redundancies that have emerged across the organization. In others, we are phasing out roles that are no longer aligned with our evolving priorities and the new structure designed to strengthen our focus on growth,” the memo continued. “Ultimately, these steps are necessary to position Paramount for long-term success.”
Related: How Paramount’s Skydance Media Merger Will Shake Up the Studio
The majority of these cuts hit the linear TV business, with long time executives at multiple legacy TV networks being let go. CBS News, for example, accounted for roughly 100 of the company’s layoffs. Another set of layoffs is expected to occur in the coming weeks, with roughly 1,000 other employees being let go – amounting to 10% of the company’s workforce prior to new Paramount’s restructuring.
These cuts come as Paramount looks to save $2 billion in costs through workforce reduction. As these cuts impact longtime executives, everyone at the company is on edge about what is to come in the next several weeks.
“It’s a bloodbath,” a Paramount executive told Variety after the cuts were announced. “I don’t know who’s going to be left to do the work.”
The way Skydance is going about its restructuring after acquiring Paramount may also give clues into the future of other companies as well. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans to sell its linear TV assets after spinning them off into a new business. Multiple companies, however, are looking to buy the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery in an effort to beat others to the punch. Comcast, Netflix and Paramount are among the companies who have submitted bids to buy out Warner Bros. Discovery.
“While we could still foresee Comcast bidding for WBD now…to push Paramount’s price higher, as they did in the Disney/Fox battle, the problem for Comcast now is two-fold: the Trump administration is not favorable to Comcast, whereas the administration is quite fond of the Ellison family (who controls Paramount), and the Ellison family has massive wealth to raise their bid, which would be impossible for Comcast/Roberts family to match,” explained LightShed Partners Analyst Richard Greenfield
“While WBD investors may hope for competitive bids from Netflix, Amazon or Apple, we do not believe any are likely to bid and even Comcast will be hard pressed to actually bid knowing they almost certainly cannot win,” Greenfield added.
As the fallout from the streaming wars begins to really hit linear TV, it is interesting to see how the industry evolves and how legacy media companies are forced to make difficult decisions.
Read Next: Is Netflix Going to Snag Warner Bros. Discovery?
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