Paramount Global, which said it plans to eliminate 15% of its U.S. workforce, began the first of three waves of layoffs on Tuesday.

The company said 90% of the job eliminations will be completed by the end of September, with the downsizing process continuing through the end of the year.

Paramount, struggling as its linear networks lose value, is in the process of being sold to Skydance Media.

“The industry continues to evolve, and Paramount is at an inflection point where changes must be made to strengthen our business,“ Paramount’s three co-CEOs, George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins, said in a memo. “And while these actions are often difficult, we are confident in our direction forward. We understand that you may have questions about next steps, and while we may not be able to provide all the answers at this time, we will continue to update you on our progress.”

Paramount announced the layoff plan during its second-quarter earnings call last week. The cutbacks are part of an effort to reduce costs by $500 million. Skydance plans to realize additional cost savings.

The company said the job eliminations would focus on what it calls redundant functions and streamlining corporate teams.

“We know that having to part ways with teammates whose contributions have been instrumental to our success is incredibly hard. In partnership with our HR leaders, we are committed to providing support to employees transitioning on from Paramount and to our teams who will need to adapt to these changes,“ the memo from the CEOs said. “During this time, we ask that everyone please be mindful of how this news may affect your colleagues and offer support to those who need it.”

Hearst Television laid off dozens of employees last week from its streaming service Very Local, according to the Penske showbiz trades.

The Very Local platform, which offers a blend of live news, weather and original series, has faced increasingly tougher competition from fellow streaming services in recent years.

Also Read: Hearst Media Production Group Licenses More Content to Samsung TV Plus

Traditionally, local TV stations have relied on advertising and local programming to attract customers. Now, many viewers opt for free streaming services like Tubi and Spectrum News Plus, which offer local news for free, often with a wider range of content.

Very Local, which launched in 2021, aimed to cater to local audiences and connect viewers through live news and original content from Hearst and its stations.

But despite offering 24-hour access to local news across 26 U.S. media markets, Very Local has struggled to gain footing in a competitive streaming landscape.

A representative from Hearst was not immediately available for confirmation and comment. 

Paramount Global said it will begin to dismiss about 800 employees as part of a cost-cutting move to boost profits at the media company.

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish signaled that layoffs were coming last month, warning that the company would be streamlining operations and reducing the size of its workforce.

Tuesday morning, in a memo to staff obtained by B+C, Bakish said “today we will begin the difficult process of saying goodbye to some of our valued colleagues across Paramount.”

“I am confident this is the right decision for our future,” Bakish’s memo said. “These adjustments will help enable us to build on our momentum and execute our strategic vision for the year ahead — and I firmly believe we have much to be excited about.”

Bakish’s memo didn’t say how many people would be affected by the layoffs. Sources familiar with the situation put the number at about 800, or 3% of the company’s workforce.

Much of the buzz around Paramount lately has involved the company being acquired. RedBird Capital and Skydance Media have been looking to buy a controlling interest in Paramount from National Amusements, the Redstone family holding company.

Media entrepreneur Byron Allen has also made a $30 billion offer to buy Paramount.

In his memo, Bakish pointed out some recent successes at Paramount, including airing a record-setting Super Bowl on CBS.

“We’re launching a big slate of new and returning primetime programming on CBS, and last night marked the return of Jon Stewart to The Daily Show,“ Bakish said. “We continue to release films, like Bob Marley: One Love this week, which reinforce our heritage as one of Hollywood’s most iconic movie studios.

“We should all take time this week to support one another — our colleagues who will be impacted, as well as our teams remaining — in adjusting to this change,” he said. “Speaking personally, I want our entire team to know that I am committed to sharing updates when we’re able to.”

The E.W. Scripps Co. dismissed about 10 members of its national advertising sales staff on Monday.

Scripps  confirmed that positions were eliminated, saying that the moves were part of a strategic reorganization the company announced in January.

"Scripps is establishing a revenue structure that better reflects the rapidly changing needs of the business," a spokesperson said. 

The move also followed Scripps naming former NBCU exec Brian Norris as chief revenue officer in August.

TV advertising sales have been challenged this year. In the third quarter, Scripps Networks reported an 8.5% drop in revenues and a sharper drop in profits to $49.7 million.

Staffers were laid off from Scripps sales offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Eliminated roles included sales managers and support staff.

One source said targeted employees were asked to leave their offices immediately and their email accounts were locked.

Ahead of its separation from parent Lionsgate, premium network and streaming service provider Starz plans to reduce its staff of 670 employees by more than 10%.

News of the layoffs came in a memo sent to staffers by Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch on Friday, followed by a company-wide town hall meeting.

“As difficult as it is, with many of our employees being impacted, we are making these changes to align our organization with the growth areas of the business and to prepare us for our next chapter as a standalone company,” said Hirsch in the memo, obtained by CNBC. 

Starz will also end business operations in the U.K. and Australia, following its recent exit from Latin America. The departures were announced in Lionsgate’s August earnings call — Lionsgate Entertainment CEO Jon Feltheimer called it a “move towards focusing the service on the U.S., the UK, Canada and Australia.”

Departing the U.K. will scale down Starz’s operations and prepare it for a potential merger with another U.S. media asset. 

Lionsgate acquired Starz in 2016, when TMT titan John Malone's Liberty Media sold the media venture to the Canadian “mini-major” for $4.4 billion in assets and stock. 

Of course, it didn’t take Lionsgate long to figure out that pay TV distribution is hard right now and building streaming scale might be even harder. In May of 2022, it announced that it would spin off Starz, hoping to cull greater value from the asset.  

Scheduled to depart from Lionsgate in September of this year, the divestment of Starz was delayed due to Lionsgate’s $500 million acquisition of Hasbro’s eOne and this year’s Hollywood guild strikes. 

Lionsgate itself, meanwhile, quietly cut nearly 10% of its workforce, nearly 150 full-time employees at the beginning of 2023 as part of a $43 million deal to sell a partial interest in StarzPlay Arabia. Lionsgate now plans to divest Starz sometime in 2024.

“What has been instrumental to our successful transition from a linear-only business into the new digital world has been our laser focus on the changing environment, anticipating what lies ahead and adapting the organization to succeed in this disruptive environment,” Hirsch said in his memo. “It’s why we continue to stand out as one of the only profitable premium networks.”

But Starz doesn’t have anywhere near the market value it had back in 2016. So Lionsgate has been cutting overhead to try to make the asset more attractive to buyers. 

In September, Starz went on a bit of a programming purge. 

Wrestling drama Heels, comedy Run the World and dramedy Blindspotting all found themselves on the chopping block. Also cut was The Venery of Samantha Bird, which had yet to finish production on its first season.

Dropping four series in quick succession wasn't a small move for Starz, which doesn't have much in the way of scale. 

Starz ended last quarter with 12 million domestic streaming subscribers and about 20 million total customers, including those who pay for traditional pay TV. The company typically focuses on female and Black audiences with series like Black Mafia Family and P-Valley.

Lionsgate shares rose 7% on Friday. The company is set to report its third-quarter earnings Thursday.

Lionsgate will report its fiscal second-quarter earnings on November 9.

Nielsen said it is reducing its global workforce by about 9%.

The audience measurement company said that the cuts were part of “an effort to bring costs in line with our revenues and ensure the company’s strength for the future.”

Nielsen added that it will “continue to prioritize areas that will drive innovation and the future of cross-media measurement.”

Last year, Nielsen was acquired for $16 billion by a consortium of private-equity investors at a time when it was facing competition from a number of new rivals looking to use big data to measure video viewing.

Also Read: Nielsen: VAB Complaints About Measuring Amazon’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ Are ‘Misleading and Inaccurate’

Nielsen’s own plan to use big data has faced delays. It’s big data product was rolled out last week, but for measurement purposes only and not recommended for transactions. Nielsen is working on getting accreditation from the Media Rating Council for its big data methodology.

After the acquisition, several senior Nielsen executives left the company and it restructured its management, creating a new audience measurement division.

NIelsen said it is offering severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance to make the transition as smooth as possible for impacted employees.

Roku said it will lay off 10% of its staff in a new round of cost-cutting.

In addition to reducing headcount, Roku said it will cut expenses by consolidating office space, reducing outside services expenses and limiting new hires.

The streaming company also said it will be conducting a strategic review of its content portfolio. Like other media companies, it plans to remove content now available on its streaming platforms.

Roku previously laid off 200 staffers in March, about 6% of its headcount. The new round of layoffs is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Also Read: Roku Shares Surge on 11% Q2 Revenue Spike

Roku said it expects to take an impairment charge of $160 million to $200 million related to its decision to stop using certain office facilities. 

The company will also take a charge of $55 million to $65 million in connection with removing licensed and produced content from its streaming platform.

In addition, there will also be a charge of $45 million to $65 million in connection with the staff layoffs, including severance and benefits.

Also Read: Roku’s Chris Larson: ‘We Spend Roughly $1 Billion a Year on R&D. It's Taken Us 15 Years to Get Here. To Say You're Going To Spend $200 Million and Catch That in 6 Months Is a Lot of Bravado’

Excluding the restructuring and impairment charges, Roku said it expects third-quarter revenue to be between $835 million and $875 million with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $20 million to $40 million.

A year ago in Q3, Roku reported revenue of $761 million and a loss in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $34.4 million.

 The cuts should translate into higher earnings in 2024, Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall said.

“We think implied adjusted EBITDA could exceed $300 million for ‘24,” Cahall said.

Turner Classic Movies general manager Pola Changnon is leaving the network amid a round of impending  Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs across its television networks, including TCM.

Changnon, a 25-year veteran of TCM, was named general manager of the network in 2020. WBD chairman and chief content officer, U.S. Networks Group Kathleen Finch has appointed former TCM head and Adult Swim, Cartoon Network Discovery Family and Boomerang president Michael Ouweleen to oversee the network, according to published reports.

[Ouweleen] has full support across WBD, and we look forward to welcoming Michael back to the TCM team,” Finch said in a WBD memo. 

Changnon’s departure comes as Warner Bros. Discovery this week reportedly begins a round of layoffs within its television networks division, which could affect executives from such high-profile networks as TNT, TBS, truTV, TLC and Discovery, according to sources. Fans of TCM on Twitter are fearing the worst might happen to the commercial-free movie network, which recently had a big part in celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Warner Bros. studio. 

The Walt Disney Co. this week is starting to implement the layoff of 7,000 employees planned by CEO Bob Iger as part of his effort to bolster profitability at the company.

Employees impacted in the first of three waves of layoffs are being contacted over the next four days, Iger said in a memo to staff.

The next round of layoffs will happen in April. That will be the largest round of staff reductions.

The company expects to complete the layoffs before the beginning of summer, Iger said, adding that the company aims to make to process “supportive and smooth.”

Iger announced plans to restructure the company and cut costs during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in February. At the time, Disney was under pressure from an activist investor who wanted it to take steps to boost profits and raise the prices of Disney shares.

“As I shared with you in February, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our overall workforce by approximately 7,000 jobs as part of a strategic realignment of the company, including important cost-saving measures necessary for creating a more effective, coordinated and streamlined approach to our business,“ Iger said in the memo. “Over the past few months, senior leaders have been working closely with HR to assess their operational needs, and I want to give you an update on those efforts.

“The difficult reality of many colleagues and friends leaving Disney is not something we take lightly,” he continued. “This company is home to the most talented and dedicated employees in the world, and so many of you bring a lifelong passion for Disney to your work here. That’s part of what makes working at Disney so special. It also makes it all the more difficult to say goodbye to wonderful people we care about.”

Iger asked staffers who aren’t impacted by the layoffs to continue delivering exceptional entertainment to audiences and guests around the world. 

“I want to acknowledge that there will no doubt be challenges ahead as we continue building the structures and functions that will enable us to be successful moving forward,” he said. “I ask for your continued understanding and collaboration during this time.”  

Disney shares were trading at $94.93, up nearly 1%,  in midday trading Monday. ■

In the latest belt-tightening move in the TV industry, streaming giant Roku said it would be eliminating about 200 employee positions.

“Due to the current economic conditions in our industry, we have made the difficult decision to reduce Roku’s headcount expenses by a projected 5%, to slow down our OpEx growth rate,” the company said in a statement. “This will affect approximately 200 employee positions in the U.S. Taking these actions now will allow us to focus our investments on key strategic priorities to drive future growth and enhance our leadership position.”

Earlier this month, during its third-quarter earnings report, Roku said that platform revenue — largely from ad sales — dropped to $670.4 million from $673.2 million in the second quarter. 

The company’s streaming device business is also under pressure.

Overall company revenue fell $3 million in the quarter.

The news sent the company’s stock down 20%.

Other companies, including Warner Bros. Discovery, have noted that the ad market has turned down, something that will make it tougher for struggling media companies to make their fourth-quarter numbers without additional cutbacks. ■

It’s been quite a season of transformation at Netflix, but I hadn’t quite understood how much of a shift the company has been undergoing until I started playing with a couple of numbers tucked amid Netflix’s latest round of layoffs. 

Those layoffs, according to an internal memo obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, totaled 316 humans, which the company said was 3% of its workforce. Simple math (though admittedly, when it comes to journalists, math is never simple) says 3% means that was 316 layoffs out of about 10,000 employees. 

Also read: Netflix Cuts Another 316 Workers

That’s not a huge slice of a multi-billion-dollar company but it’s … not great, especially for the hundreds of lives disrupted by the sudden end of dozens of high-paying, previously needed positions. 

More generally, it means Netflix, by its own accounting, has something like 9,700 workers. Just six short months ago, at the end of 2021, Netflix filings said the company had 11,300 workers.

So, where did the other 1,600 jobs go? The difference between 11,300 and 9,700 is a lot, a drop of more than 14% in less than half a year, or roughly one in seven employees. 

Netflix has a notoriously rigorous up-or-out culture that pays employees extremely well, but quickly sends them out the door with a nice severance package if they don’t, in some fashion, measure up. 

But even with the turnover that can be attributed to that HR policy, we can specifically track back to only 641 reported layoffs since March. The other 1,000 disappeared jobs were approved positions the company didn’t fill when someone left.

The cuts come at a time when the company is already doing plenty, and planning to do more as it spends a projected $17 billion this year on content.  

It already runs 40 production centers around the world that find, produce and deliver local content to more than 220 million subscribers in more than 190 countries. And the company is creating an ad-supported tier (a whole new business), and may dive into live-streamed events (a new business) and more thoroughly into longer theatrical releases with far more substantial marketing budgets (a very old business to be done in a very different way). It also launched a video game division last year that is acquiring developer studios and titles. 

You can see where some of the money the company spends is going. I was at one of Netflix’s sleek Hollywood office towers this past week, for an advance screening of The Gray Man. The spy thriller from the Russo Brothers, who created four of the biggest Marvel Avengers movies for Disney, marks the most expensive swing yet by Netflix to create a new franchise. 

I won’t break embargo with details about The Gray Man, which has a limited theatrical release in two weeks and debuts on Netflix a week after that, on July 15. But suffice it to say, you can see seemingly every nickel of the $200 million they spent onscreen, as an all-star cast zips across locations on multiple continents amid roaring mayhem of the highest craft. 

It’s not the only highlight of the summer release schedule either. 

One of Netflix’s durable hits, The Umbrella Academy, returned last week, and the second half of Season Four of another of Netflix’s greatest hits, Stranger Things, debuts Friday. The company’s putting a lot of terrific stuff on screen. But turns out, going forward they’re going to be doing that with a lot fewer people. 

In fact, Netflix’s workforce is now barely larger than it was at the end of 2020, when the early months of the pandemic complicated hiring, recruiting and retention. The employee count grew by its lowest rate in five years, though by a still-notable 9.3%, to 9,400 workers.

Now, the company has quietly gone through a near-complete reset of operations, even as it moves into a string of new initiatives while continuing to spend all that money on new shows. 

Company executives have been busily reassuring glum agents, production companies and stars that they intend to keep spending on all kinds of projects. And they want to create more big event projects, like The Gray Man, Stranger Things and The Umbrella Academy. 

But here are the key questions of Netflix’s Great Reset: What’s not getting done, amid all the new and old initiatives, when you get rid of about one in seven of your employees? And will customers notice? Should be a fun summer. ■

As expected, Netflix laid off another 316 employees Thursday, around 3% of its global workforce, as the streaming company attempts to stop the bleeding after abrupt halts in customer and revenue growth. 

According to the Hollywood Reporter, which intercepted an internal staff memo, 216 of the workers were based in the U.S., with the rest in Europe and the Middle East (53), Asia-Pacific (30) and Latin America (17).

“Both Ted and I regret not seeing our slowing revenue growth earlier so we could have ensured a more gradual readjustment of the business,” read a note sent to staff on Thursday from Netflix Co-CEO's Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos.

The layoffs followed an initial round of 25 staffers let go in April (who worked for Netflix's advertorial platform Tudum), and a round of about 150 mostly U.S.-based marketing staffers in May. 

Bloomberg said an additional 150 contract workers were let go at some point, as well. 

According to Deadline, the latest cuts included executives at the director level involved with original series production. Among them were Sebastian Gibbs and Penelope Essoyan in drama series; Negin Salmasi in spectacle and event TV; and Naketha Mattocks, Brad Butler, Alison Haskovec and Caroline Mak in the family films unit.

“We know these two rounds of layoffs have been very hard for everyone — creating a lot of anxiety and uncertainty," the staff memo added. "We plan to return to a more normal course of business going forward. And as we cut back in some areas, we also continue to invest significant amounts in our content and people: over the next 18 months, our employee base is planned to grow by ~1.5K to ~11.5K." 

On the dark afternoon of Tuesday, April 19, Netflix reported its first global customer loss ever for the first quarter, as well as revenue growth that dipped below 10% after a run of 30%-plus expansion. Netflix said that it expects to lose another 2 million customers in Q2.

However, company has pledged not to trim a content budget that will match last year's $17 billion. ■

Netflix confirmed that it laid off approximately 150 mostly U.S.-based workers, with the streaming company directly tying the job cuts to its decelerating revenue growth.

“As we explained on earnings, our slowing revenue growth means we are also having to slow our cost growth as a company," Netflix said in a statement to Deadline, which broke the news. "So sadly, we are letting around 150 employees go today, mostly U.S.-based. These changes are primarily driven by business needs rather than individual performance, which makes them especially tough as none of us want to say goodbye to such great colleagues. We’re working hard to support them through this very difficult transition."

According to Deadline, the job cuts included some employees in the executive ranks tied to original series production. 

The layoffs represent only around 1.3% of Netflix's global workforce of around 11,000 staffers. 

On April 19, Netflix stock dropped 35% in after-hours trading, after the company reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers globally in the first quarter, as well as marked deceleration in revenue growth.

At the time, Netflix also said that it predicted continued subscriber recession -- a loss of another 2 million subscribers is projected for Q2. CFO Spence Neumann said the company would be "pulling back on some of our spend growth across both content and non-content."

Earlier this month, Netflix laid off 25 editorial staffers tied to its recently launched arts and culture blog Tudum.

There had been some indicators that Netflix, which is projected to spend around $17 billion on content this year, might continue business as usual. Also on Tuesday morning, for example, it was reported that the company is spending $350 million to re-up its deal with its go-to visual effects house, DNEG. 

But there have also been other signals that a pause is occurring. For example, Netflix's just-revised "Culture Memo" now includes language about spending company funds responsibly. ■

Sinclair Broadcast Group is laying off approximately 5% of its workforce, the company announced Wednesday.

Sinclair cited the impact of the pandemic on the company as the reason for the layoffs, saying "we are currently undergoing enterprise-wide reductions across our workforce, including corporate headquarters, to ensure we are well-positioned for future success."

The company recently reported fourth-quarter earnings, seeing higher profits despite a 7% drop in revenue. In reporting its Q4 earnings, Sinclair also announced it had acquired the remaining 73% interest in ZypMedia for an undisclosed amount. 

Also Read: CEO Chris Ripley Likes Sinclair’s Gamble on Local Content

Read Sinclair's full statement on the layoffs below:

"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be felt across all sectors of the economy, something that can have a profound impact on a company as diversified as ours. From local businesses and advertisers to distributors and partners, no component of our business’s ecosystem has been fully shielded from the impact of the global pandemic. In response to this, we are currently undergoing enterprise-wide reductions across our workforce, including corporate headquarters, to ensure we are well-positioned for future success. These reductions represent approximately five percent of our workforce."

Content company Entertainment One, about a year after being bought by toy maker Hasbro in a deal valued at about $3.8 billion, cut between 50 and 60 workers in its TV and Film divisions on Tuesday. 

The news was first reported by Deadline.com. 

Also Read: Hollywood’s Streaming Makeover: What Shoe Drops Next?

According to a memo obtained by Deadline and confirmed by the company, TV and Film president Steve Bertram notified employees of the layoffs Tuesday. In the memo, Bertram spoke of the ongoing shift toward “greater control and creative stewardship” of the TV and Film business, adding that it was in response to the disruption of the traditional studio model by tech companies, accelerated by the pandemic.

Bertram continued that as a result, about 10% of the TV and Film workforce were let go, and the company is speaking with other employees about possible changes to their roles.

Reports estimated that eOne has about 1,200 employees globally, with about half of those workers housed in TV and Film production, meaning between 50-to-60 workers were likely affected worldwide.  

“These team members have delivered outstanding work and demonstrated a staunch devotion to eOne throughout their respective tenures and we are immensely grateful to them all,” Bertram wrote, adding that departing workers will receive severance and healthcare packages.

“To those departing today and over the next few weeks, I want to thank each of you for your contributions to eOne and offer both my assistance and that of our senior leaders as you think about the future,” he added.

EOne produces movies, TV shows and music. In the TV space, it produced kids fare like Peppa Pig, Power Rangers and Transformers; broadcast shows like The Rookie and Designated Survivor and scripted and unscripted cable shows like Hell on Wheels for AMC Networks, Streets of Compton for A+E Networks, and Growing Up Hip Hop for WE TV.  

Hasbro paid about $3.8 billion in cash for eOne in December 2019. The purchase was expected to unlock film franchise opportunities for Hasbro toy lines and plans to produce projects based on Dungeons and Dragons, My Little Pony, Power Rangers and the board game Risk had been announced earlier last year.

EOne shut down its German theatrical distribution business in October according to reports and in 2019 stopped direct theatrical distribution in Australia and New Zealand. In May, it hired former HBO programming executive Michael Lombardo to head up its TV division. Lombardo left HBO in 2016 and spent several years as an independent producer.

The E.W. Scripps Co. said it will start moving its Katz digital multicast networks on March 1 to the TV stations it acquired when it bought Ion Media.

Also Read: Scripps Goes National By Buying Ion for $2.65 Billion

Scripps also announced that it is cutting 120 jobs across its corporate and national networks units. The company said it expects to realize $500 million in cost savings over the next six years by combining Ion’s operations with its own.

The Ion Television Network will continue to be broadcast on the primary channel of Scripps’ 48 Ion station, but the company said it will shut down Ion Plus, Qubo and Shop Ion, which had been airing on multicast channels, effective Feb. 28.

Also Read: Burgess Ponders What He’ll Do After Selling Ion Media

One of the reasons Scripps bought Ion Media for $2.65 billion in September was so it could stop paying stations to broadcast the Katz Network, which are Bounce, Court TV, Court TV Mystery, Grit and Laff.

Also Read: No Retrans, No Problem for Scripps’ Ion Deal

“The distribution expansion of the Scripps multicast networks through ION’s broadcast spectrum is the first major step in our realizing the tremendous synergies of the ION transaction,” said Scripps CEO Adam Symson. “National Networks president Lisa Knutson and her team are working quickly and effectively to uphold Scripps’ commitment to executing our plan. Once again, Scripps is doing what we said we would do.” 

Scripps closed its purchase of Ion earlier this month.

Hollywood entertainment executives could be pardoned for feeling a bit worn out by late 2020, given all they’ve gone through for, really, three years: multiple mega-mergers, endless restructuring, numerous streaming launches, broken business models, huge new competitors, even the long-overdue reckonings over inclusion, representation, #MeToo and #BLM. 

On top of all that, this year’s pandemic walloped the town. Some beloved entertainers and behind-the-scenes crew died. Dozens of productions were disrupted, leading to cancellation of some series and idling thousands of workers. The theatrical window slammed shut. 

Not incidentally, doing everything from home lit a rocket engine under the town’s grinding transition to streaming, the mode of distribution that will dominate its future. A respite from all this would be lovely, no doubt. 

Bad news for the battered, however: The rollercoaster of reformation that has sent Hollywood careening into the future isn’t likely to pull into the station anytime soon. 

So, what’s the next shoe to drop as Hollywood lurches into 2021? Here’s some highly informed speculation on next year’s most likely trends: 

> More Consolidation. MGM got a jump on this trend when news seeped out that it’s for sale, again. The storied studio is a ghost of its glory days, but has several useful assets: more than 4,000 movies, a thriving TV production unit and 10,000 hours of episodic content. That’s a nice package, though not necessarily equal to the $7.5 billion MGM’s board reportedly is seeking. But if they can’t get that price now, when would they ever? That said, further consolidation talk inevitably turns to the usual suspects -- AMC, Lionsgate, maybe Cinedigm -- but maybe also mid-sized powers Discovery and ViacomCBS. Both are launching their version of an encyclopedic SVOD service, but neither is big or broad enough to credibly muscle into the top tier. Where does that leave them long term? For that matter, what about Fox, as the Murdochs contemplate a post-Trump world with only AVOD powerhouse Tubi and a very niche Fox News SVOD service in place? On the hardware side, how long will it take Amazon to buy out Vizio, TCL or another TV maker for its Fire TV platform? That sort of trick would be right out of the Jeff Bezos World Domination Playbook. Would Apple (new Apple TV 4K reportedly coming), Alphabet (watch out for its revived Android TV/Google TV push) or even an invigorated Roku make a big play for market share on the device side?

> More Distribution Windows. We’ve seen at least three flavors of early-release strategies for features on streaming services without any clear winner yet. Next year should clarify some key questions: Do day-and-date releases of big movies drive signups, reduce churn, and build long-term ARPU, like WarnerMedia hopes? What’s the right price for a premium VOD release like Disney’s Mulan? What will theater chains agree to, whenever they’re back in operation, beyond the NBCU-AMC deal?

> Fewer Theaters. Speaking of theaters, expect quite a bit fewer theater screens operating at the end of 2021 than the nearly 41,000 that NATO counted in March. Regardless of any short-term government bailout, theatrical exhibition needs to restructure for the streaming future, too. That means fewer, better screens with plenty of amenities. It likely means diversifying facilities into multi-purpose entertainment centers, with esports arenas, VR experiences, dining and drinking, and special events  programming. It also means right-sizing the number of screens for what likely will be fewer mid-range films (which now are heading straight o streaming). And it means accounting for collateral damage caused by the collapsing retail and mall sectors. Whenever going to movie theaters becomes imaginable again, there should be plenty of big movies to watch. The question is how long will it take to get to that point, and which theaters will still be alive? 

> Different Deals. When WarnerMedia announced its ground-shaking decision to day-and-date its 2021 film slate, the first question many in Hollywood had was what about the profit participants? Warner will have to do a lot of cleanup (and payout) with talent, agents and managers, and co-production partners such as Legendary. But that rip-the-bandage-off approach also leads to a broader shift, away from the giant roulette wheel that blockbuster projects have been in recent years. It’s a model Netflix has been perfecting for years, and everyone else likely will edge toward something similar in coming years. That means bigger upfront payments, no syndication or international rights to sell, and less upside or downside.

> More Snipped Cords, More AVOD. Financial exigencies will force many households to join the cord-cutting that’s already reduced cable household penetration to its lowest level in a couple of decades. Services such as Tubi, Xumo and Pluto TV should be big beneficiaries, serving up wads of free, familiar programming that feels a lot like cable, without the overhead.

> Beat-Up Broadcasting. Broadcasting was always headed to a down cycle in 2021, especially after 2020’s record election ad spending. But big media companies will continue to shift their best shows to streaming. That will hollow out their broadcast and surviving basic cable networks, which will increasingly feature formula sitcoms and procedurals, mixed with news, sports and unscripted productions. That will only encourage viewers to seek out other sources of entertainment. 

> More Bundles, Skinny And Otherwise. Virtual MVPDs, or “skinny” bundles, were supposed to capture those cord-cutters. The bundles typically aren’t so skinny anymore, but continue to add subscribers seeking a part-way solution. Expect to see other kinds of bundles arrive in 2021, featuring collections of streaming services that can’t break into the top tier of must-haves. Which is to say, just about everyone but Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and probably Peacock. Disney, of course, is already bundling, aggressively marketing Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus. More such deals will follow.

> More International Flavor. To get bigger, the big services need to reach  beyond the United States, where the market is already headed toward saturation. One hot market is India, where Disney, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Netflix already have a wide range of interests. With Indian household incomes already at one third of U.S. levels, and more mobile accounts than the U.S. has residents, you can begin to understand the opportunity. The downside: Hollywood-only product isn’t enough to attract tens of millions of subscribers in India or elsewhere. Local audiences want local content, too. Netflix is buying and making content around the world. When will everyone else join the party?

Stop me if you’ve seen this horror show a few times already: major Hollywood studio eliminates a tranche of film and TV jobs, in areas such as distribution and marketing, and declares itself “streaming first.” 

The latest episode in what’s becoming a long-running Hollywood series is a “bloodbath” of layoffs hitting Disney’s General Entertainment Content and Walt Disney Television divisions, as well as at National Geographic. Several senior executives were among the 100 or so sent out the door, largely from such usual targets as publicity, marketing, scheduling and media planning. 

The layoffs came days after Hulu’s Head of Originals, Craig Erwich, took over at ABC, too. That was seen as yet another signal of Disney’s “streaming first” intentions. Elsewhere, what had been Touchstone Television (nee Fox 21) was folded into 20th Television, with yet another long-time executive sent “back to producing.” 

And indeed, it was telling that among layoffs were the formerly dedicated teams handling scheduling for broadcast network ABC and cable net Freeform. At this rate, the two units’ dedicated staff will consist of a single half-time janitor charged with turning out the lights after the final layoffs. 

But if the scripts are getting tiresome, it’s not likely this series gets cancelled soon. Hollywood has been building toward this for at least three years, beginning with a string of big consolidations as media companies scaled up to better compete against digital giants Apple, Amazon and, especially, Netflix. 

Those deals—Disney/Fox/Hulu, AT&T-Time Warner, Comcast/Sky, Viacom-CBS—generated an initial series of layoffs and departures, as companies tried to realize some smidgen of the “synergies” they typically over-promised to investors.  

For instance, Disney’s $71.5 billion acquisition of much of 21st Century Fox, which closed in March 2019, set off a near-Darwinian cull of employees from both companies. Survivors included several of Fox’s star TV executives, including Peter Rice and Dana Walden, who displaced their Disney equivalents.

It’s worth noting that Rice and Walden head the two units that experienced many of this week’s Disney layoffs. But they’re hardly alone in presiding over epic downsizing/restructuring/right-sizing in Hollywood.   

WarnerMedia has had its own lengthy string of layoffs and cuts since AT&T bought it, then had pay down $150 billion in debt while building out its 5G mobile network. 

The merged company has laid off hundreds, closed some non-core units and sold others. And it’s still cleaning out the cabinet, slashing staffing at branded-content/influencer-management shop Fullscreen, and shopping popular anime service CrunchyRoll. 

Also read: HBO Max and The Great Movie Window Shutdown

But the more notable WarnerMedia restructuring started in August, a few months after Jason Kilar took over as CEO. Weeks after his arrival, HBO Max launched in mid-pandemic to desultory subscriber interest and widespread brand confusion. Ever since, Kilar has been sandblasting silos and barriers between the many Warner units, sending out the door hundreds of employees and a phalanx of prominent executives such as WarnerMedia Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, who had been bumped up to that august position during the previous round of cuts.  

Greenblatt’s old stomping grounds, NBCUniversal, has been doing its own streaming-first restructuring, and so too has ViacomCBS as it prepares to launch a rebranded, more mountainous Paramount Plus streaming service. 

Disney, of course, is facing even more challenges than any of its Hollywood competitors. The non-entertainment divisions that helped inure it from traditional ups and downs in TV and film were particularly vulnerable to the pandemic. Parks, cruise lines, live events, sports programming, consumer products, all were hammered even as the movie business effectively shut down. 

As it is, Disneyland remains closed in Southern California, and Disney executives signaled additional park furloughs are coming on top of the 28,000 laid off in September. 

And for those who grew up in the 1990s, or whose children did, the week held one final episode featuring the town’s most common story line: the closure of Radio Disney. 

The syndicated radio operation defined the Millennial child’s music universe in the era of Britney Spears, Justin Bieber and Backstreet Boys. Now, like so much else that defined Hollywood the past 30 years, it’s gone. 

Amid all this, it’s hard to see what ends The Cut Show. Companies must keep slowly extracting themselves from legacy businesses in film, broadcast and cable as those sectors shrink, while competing for market share in the world of streaming. 

Those challenges will only sharpen as a result of the week’s other big news: WarnerMedia’s decision to release all 17 of its 2021 films—including blockbusters such as Dune, The Matrix 4, Suicide Girls 2 and Godzilla vs. Kong—simultaneously to theaters and HBO Max. That likely will force the rest of the town to get even more “Streaming First.”

In fact, there’s only one Hollywood job sector likely to see significant growth in coming months: the HBO Max stunner reportedly was announced without telling WarnerMedia  production partners, deal participants or theater operators ahead of time. A lot of people may be calling their lawyers.

AMC Networks said that it expects to have severance costs of $20 million to $30 million during the fourth quarter as a result of reducing its staff by 10%, eliminating about 100 employees.

The company said the layoffs were part of a restructuring plan designed to streamline operations.

“The plan is intended to improve the organizational design of the company through the elimination of certain functional areas of the company,” AMC said in an SEC filing Thursday.

Related: Canoe, AMC Go Addressable Across Comcast, Charter Homes

CEO Josh Sapan addressed the layoffs during a virtual town hall on Wednesday.

Like others in the television industry, AMC is shifting its focus to its streaming services and consolidating its cable networks. Earlier this year, Sarah Barnett, president of the AMC Networks Entertainment Group left the company and last month WE tv general manager Marc Juris departed. Neither executive was replaced.

Eariler this month, AMC reported that third-quarter net income fell 47% to $62 million, with revenue dropping 9% to 954 million.  

Layoffs continued at Comcast’s NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS, with a new group of people losing their jobs at the companies on Wednesday.

For NBCU, the staff cuts were the result of a restructuring announced earlier this year that combined all of the company’s TV and streaming assets. 

Related: WarnerMedia Begins Laying Off U.S. Staffers

The latest group were in the company’s entertainment networks group, where about 5% of the division were let go. 

Related: ESPN To Lay off 500

Still to come are job reductions within the entertainment content units headed by recently named Susan Rovner, who this week restructured her leadership team.

At ViacomCBS, about 100 people were dismissed as the company continues to manage last year’s merger of Viacom and CBS. The reductions came from all parts of the company.

ViacomCBS has promised Wall Street that it will manage to extract $800 million in annual cost synergies as a result of the combination.

AT&T’s WarnerMedia today began letting staffers know if their jobs are being eliminated as part of a reorganization during a pandemic and recession.

The number of layoffs was not immediately known.

AT&T acquired Time Warner two years ago and many of its top managers left as it consolidated units and tried to pivot its TV business from cable to streaming, with a focus on converting HBO to HBO Max.

Jason Kilar, the former CEO of Hulu, was brought in to run WarnerMedia. In a memo on Tuesday, Kilar apologized for the bad news many staffers will receive, and for taking too much time to deliver the news.

Related: Reading the WarnerMedia Tea Leaves

“Today, we have arrived at a number of difficult decisions that are resulting in a smaller WarnerMedia team. This is a function of removing layers and the impact of consolidating previously separate organizations. Starting today in North America, we will be sharing which jobs are being eliminated and which roles have changed,” Kilar said in the memo. “We are continuing to review proposed changes in other countries across our non-US businesses, the timing of which will vary according to local regulatory requirements.”

Kilar said he will hold a town hall at the company Wednesday afternoon to answer remaining staffers’ questions.

“While I anticipate that organizationally, things will settle down materially in the weeks and months to come (we’ve worked hard to make this a process with a beginning, middle and an end), I don’t want to suggest that our future is static. Rather, our future is about inventing ever better ways to move the world through story…which entails embracing change. I have every confidence in this world class team to do just that,” he said. 

“To our colleagues who are leaving, I wish there were words to lessen today’s pain. Your contributions are a permanent part of this great company and today's news does not change that. I am extremely thankful for all that you have done for this team and this mission. I hope that at some point you will look back on all of it with immense pride,” he said.

Here is Kilar's Memo:

November 10, 2020

Team-

This is a very painful email to write. And for a number of you reading this, I realize it will be even more painful to receive. For this, I am sorry.

In August, I first shared news about how we were going to meaningfully change the organizational structure of WarnerMedia (which entailed, among other items, simplifying how we organize our entertainment studios, elevating HBO Max, and consolidating our commercial activities into one organization). Many of you have patiently waited to hear how the reorganization would affect you personally, which is both uncomfortable and stressful. Reducing this period of uncertainty was one of the many reasons we pushed so hard to get through this work as quickly and as thoughtfully as possible, although it probably didn’t feel fast enough. I want to thank you all for continuing to contribute your best, despite this challenging period and the additional pressure of everything else that has been going on in the world.

I’ve previously shared how critical it is for us to evolve how we operate in the context of best serving customers. As I mentioned a few months ago, this entails simplifying how we are organized, partnering with the very best storytellers, and leaning into world class product and technology as we share our stories directly with audiences across the globe. Our journey entails continuing to excel in our large, core businesses while at the same time investing in emerging businesses where we have the opportunity to meaningfully delight customers.

Today, we have arrived at a number of difficult decisions that are resulting in a smaller WarnerMedia team. This is a function of removing layers and the impact of consolidating previously separate organizations. Starting today in North America, we will be sharing which jobs are being eliminated and which roles have changed. We are continuing to review proposed changes in other countries across our non-US businesses, the timing of which will vary according to local regulatory requirements. Nothing about this is easy. But please know, these reductions are not in any way a reflection of the quality of the team members impacted, nor their work. It is simply a function of the changes I believe we must make in order to best serve customers. For those impacted, we will be offering severance and healthcare packages, in addition to professional services and team member assistance programs.

While I anticipate that organizationally, things will settle down materially in the weeks and months to come (we’ve worked hard to make this a process with a beginning, middle and an end), I don’t want to suggest that our future is static. Rather, our future is about inventing ever better ways to move the world through story…which entails embracing change. I have every confidence in this world class team to do just that.

Please join me in a Town Hall tomorrow at 2:00pm ET/11:00am PT where I will try and answer as many of your questions as possible. You can start to send your questions here.

To our colleagues who are leaving, I wish there were words to lessen today’s pain. Your contributions are a permanent part of this great company and today's news does not change that. I am extremely thankful for all that you have done for this team and this mission. I hope that at some point you will look back on all of it with immense pride.

Until then, please stay well and safe.

Jason

The Walt Disney Co.’s sports juggernaut ESPN will reduce its workforce by about 500 people, network president Jimmy Pitaro said in a memo to employees Thursday, the latest division in the company to feel the sting of COVID-19.

ESPN has about 6,000 employees, so the reductions work out to about 8% of its total workforce. News of the layoffs comes as Disney prepares to release its fiscal Q4 results on Nov. 12.

“For some time, ESPN has been engaged in planning for its future amidst tremendous disruption in how fans consume sports,” Pitaro said in a statement. “The pandemic’s effect on ESPN clearly accelerated our thinking on all fronts. Today, as a result of these circumstances, we informed our employees that we have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce to create a more agile, efficient organization.

“We are parting ways with many exceptional teammates, all of whom have made important contributions to ESPN,” Pitaro continued. “These are not easy decisions, and we will work hard to make their transitions easier. We will move forward in a manner that will allow us to continue to best serve sports fans.”

According to the memo -- first reported by the New York Post --  ESPN will eliminate 300 positions and 200 jobs currently open won’t be filled. It is the latest round of layoffs from the entertainment giant, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. Earlier in the week, Disney said it would lay off an additional 11,400 workers at its Florida theme parks by the end of the year. 

According to sources familiar with ESPN, there is no specific timing for the layoffs, but the network is communicating them to employees now and they will have a period of time before their last day with the company. In its report, The Post said on-air personnel would be spared, but the paper added that it has kept a keen eye on contracts, allowing some to expire. 

The layoffs are the latest of several personnel moves that Disney has made since the pandemic took hold in March, including reducing executive salaries, furloughs and other cost cutting mergers. But in his memo, Pitaro alluded that those moves weren’t enough. 

“We have, however, reached an inflection point,” Pitaro said in the memo. “The speed at which change is occurring requires great urgency, and we must now deliver on serving sports fans in a myriad of new ways. Placing resources in support of our direct-to-consumer business strategy, digital, and, of course, continued innovative television experiences, is more critical than ever.”

The full memo sent to employees follows:

Dear colleagues,

As you know, we value transparency in our internal dialogue, and that means in both good and challenging times. After much consideration, I have some difficult organizational decisions to share. We will be reducing our workforce, impacting approximately 300 valued team members, in addition to 200 open positions.

Today is hard because ESPN has always been — and will always be — fortified by its fantastic people. Teamwork, dedication, spirit and grit have built this place and are what make ESPN special. 

Prior to the pandemic, we had been deeply engaged in strategizing how best to position ESPN for future success amidst tremendous disruption in how fans consume sports.  The pandemic’s significant impact on our business clearly accelerated those forward-looking discussions. In the short term, we enacted various steps like executive and talent salary reductions, furloughs and budget cuts, and we implemented innovative operations and production approaches, all in an effort to weather the COVID storm.

We have, however, reached an inflection point. The speed at which change is occurring requires great urgency, and we must now deliver on serving sports fans in a myriad of new ways. Placing resources in support of our direct-to-consumer business strategy, digital, and, of course, continued innovative television experiences, is more critical than ever.

However, building a successful future in a changing world means facing hard choices. Making informed decisions about how and where we need to go – and, as always, in the most efficient way possible - is by far the most challenging job of any leadership team. And, while it must be done looking through a business lens, it also must be done with great respect and genuine concern for people.  

We are parting ways with some exceptional team members - some of whom have been here for a long time – and all of whom have made important contributions to ESPN. We’re very grateful for all they’ve meant to us, and I assure you we are taking steps to make their transitions easier.

I am proud of the people at ESPN. Together, we have overcome tremendous challenges and adversity over these past several months and please know that the decisions and plans executed today were not made lightly. They are, however, necessary and I am convinced that we will move forward and effectively navigate this unprecedented disruption.

Our Human Resources and Communications teams will continue to keep you posted on any updates, and you’ll be hearing more detail about our future direction in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you have questions about anything outlined in this note, please do not hesitate to raise them with your leadership team or HR Business Partner.

With gratitude,

Jimmy

WarnerMedia is preparing a restructuring that according to reports will cut costs by more than 20% and result in the loss of "thousands" of jobs to help offset the continued negative impact of the pandemic on its businesses. 

WarnerMedia, the content arm of telco AT&T that includes such iconic brands as HBO, HBO Max, TBS, TNT and Warner Bros., is preparing a  massive restructuring to reduce costs in the wake of the pandemic, which has decimated its operations, especially those reliant on advertising, subscriptions and box office receipts.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the restructuring is expected to begin in the coming weeks and will affect "thousands" of WarnerMedia employees at its studios and cable TV channels like HBO, TBS and TNT.

The moves come just a few months after a management shakeup that saw the departure of WarnerMedia Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt and several executives in August. Those changes also involved layoffs and came just months after former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar came on board as WarnerMedia CEO. Kilar was named to the position in April, replacing John Stankey, who became CEO of parent AT&T.  

The pandemic and the shift toward streaming media has poked holes in advertising sales across the industry. WarnerMedia has also been a part of that shift, launching the HBO Max streaming service on May 27 and placing much of its future growth hopes in that side of the business. 

WarnerMedia confirmed the restructuring, but would not offer details as to how many employees would be let go or what divisions would be affected. In a statement the company acknowledged the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the industry. 

“Like the rest of the entertainment industry, we have not been immune to the significant impact of the pandemic,” WarnerMedia said in a statement. “That includes an acceleration in shifting consumer behavior, especially in the way content is being viewed. We shared with our employees recently that the organization will be restructured to respond to those changes and prioritize growth opportunities, with an emphasis on direct-to-consumer. We are in the midst of that process and it will involve increased investments in priority areas and, unfortunately, reductions in others.”

AT&T chief financial officer John Stephens said layoffs and management changes at its WarnerMedia unit are a “refocusing” at the content division, and not because of “needed" adjustments at its new streaming service HBO Max.

WarnerMedia launched HBO Max on May 27 to a fairly tepid response -- about 87,000 downloads of its mobile app on Android and iOS devices on its first day, compared to 10 million for rival Disney Plus. Later the parent company claimed 4.1 million people activated the streaming service after its launch. 

But last week WarnerMedia underwent a massive management shakeup, with WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct to Consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt and HBO Max chief content officer Kevin Reilly ousted among a flurry of other executives. In addition, reports surfaced Monday WarnerMedia would lay off about 600 workers across its HBO, Turner and Warner Bros. divisions. 

The moves come a few months after AT&T said it named former Hulu founder Jason Kilar as CEO of WarnerMedia, replacing John Stankey, who at the time was promoted to president and chief operating officer of AT&T. Stankey was named AT&T CEO in July. 

Other media giants are preparing to streamline their streaming businesses as well. NBCUniversal said earlier this month that it will reorganize its TV and streaming units. 

At the virtual Oppenheimer Technology, Internet & Communications Conference Tuesday,  Stephens said that the changes at WarnerMedia was an effort to “super hyper-focus” its management around its direct-to-consumer efforts, allowing all groups within WarnerMedia to “speak with one voice.”

Stephens acknowledged the restructuring also would reduce costs, allowing for a streamlining of back office and support functions, but added that WarnerMedia would invest those savings “into continuing to provide the best content out there.”

“I view it as more of a refocusing of the company,” Stephens continued, adding that the changes should be seen as a “transformation of making things better, not because we needed to adjust anything, but rather because we’re striving to get even better than the launch was…”

Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit has begun a substantial round of layoffs that could mean the loss of more than 1,000 jobs in the middle of a pandemic.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the layoffs are expected to be less than 10% of NBCU’s 35,000 full-time employees. Jobs are being cut in nearly all parts of the company, including its TV channels, movie studio and theme parks.

NBCU reported profits of $1.6 billions in the second quarter, down 30%, as revenues fell 25.4% to $6.1 billion.

During the company’s earnings call, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell announced plans to restructure the businesses under Mark Lazarus, who was named chairman, NBCU Television and Streaming, in May. 

“Mark is finalizing a new structure that will demonstrate the unique way we intend to manage this business going forward,” Shell said. “We will announce the structure soon.”

Responding to a Wall Street Journal report that Quibi would soon be conducting layoffs, its top-level managers published a memo this morning reassuring a staff that the startup is “in good financial position.

“Nothing has changed since our last company meeting two weeks ago,” read the memo, sent from Quibi’s movie-mogul founder, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and its Silicon Valley celebrity CEO, Meg Whitman.

“As we said in that meeting, we will look for ways to tighten our belt. We are not laying off staff as a part of cost saving measures. We’ve recently added a dozen new Quibi employees.”

The memo, which was obtained by entertainment trades including The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, said that Katzenberg, Whitman and the rest of Quibi’s senior executive staff would take 10% pay cuts.

Quibi is backed by $1.75 billion in venture capital, and it said it has sold out its first-year sponsorship inventory worth $150 million. But the service has been slow to gather subscribers since its April 6 launch, accumulating a reported 1.6 million of them, many on a free three-month promotion briefly available in April. WSJ, which reported on the Quibi staff meeting several weeks ago, also said Quibi advertisers are looking for breaks from their original payment agreements.

Also Read: Quibi’s Blue Chip Advertisers Looking to Revise Deals

Katzenberg notably blamed the slow start on trying to launch a streaming service enabled only on smart phones in a market where consumers have all been quarantined in their living quarters. But in that meeting two weeks ago, Quibi brass collectively conceded that their content mix may have been off-target, relying too much on scripted shows. Bloomberg reported last week that Quibi has already begun altering its programming slate, with a renewed focus on a reality lifestyle genre that appeals to older women.

Also Read: Quibi Appealing to Older Female Demo, Rejiggers Programming Slate

“We are excited about the future,” Katzenberg and Whitman insisted Wednesday. “As we shared in our most recent company meeting, the best is yet to come. We are confident in Quibi and the work that you are creating every day.”

Meanwhile, Katzenberg and Whitman also disputed a New York Post Page Six report that said Quibi staffers were unhappy that Reese Witherspoon had reportedly made $6 million to narrate a low-rated nature documentary, Fierce Queens.

“We are pleased with the performance of Fierce Queens,” the memo said. “The talent compensation was utterly inaccurate. We are grateful for Reese’s continued support of Quibi."

ViacomCBS this week laid off 300 to 400 staffers as part of a restructuring that followed the year-end merger of CBS and Viacom and the COVID-19 epidemic that is impacting the company’s ad revenue and stalling production.

The layoffs mostly took place at former CBS units, including the entertainment, news, studio, sports division and the company’s local stations.

Viacom’s cable brands went through a similar round of layoffs in late April.

In a memo to staff, CBS CEO George Cheeks said “we are in the proces of restructuring various operations, and unfortunately, this means there are layoffs.”

ViacomCBS promised Wall Street $750 million in synergies--or cost reductions--as a result of the merger.

“There are several reasons for today’s events. First, in some cases, this is part of our continued integration of operations following the merger with Viacom. You probably have read about recent employee actions at the ViacomCBS cable brands and other cross-company groups,” Cheeks said in the memos.

“Second, these moves are in response to the ongoing and transformative changes happening in the media business, as well as circumstances from the unprecedented pandemic that we continue to navigate,” he said. “We’ve already seen new and creative ways that we’ve adapted to these changes, and that evolution needs to continue.”

In Chicago, CBS’s TV station WBBM laid off about a dozen staffers,  including legendary investigative reporter Pam Zekman, according to Chicago media maven Rob Feder. Also losing their posts were morning news anchor Erin Kennedy, sports anchor Megan Marwick, meteorologist Megan Gloros and reportsers Mike Puccinelli and Mai Martinez.

.

Altice USA is seeking out construction and tech workers willing to sign up for voluntary layoffs that would begin on May 12, in an effort to cut costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a memo sent to employees, Altice USA Technical Services is asking for field service workers in New York state to volunteer for layoffs.

“As you know, earlier this week we shared that we’re seeing consumer behavior affecting field service expectations as well as local conditions and restrictions in our communities impacting some of our construction efforts such as FTTH [fiber-to-the-home] because of state restrictions, municipality closures impacting permitting, and availability from 3rd parties such as utilities due to resource constraints,” the memo stated. “This is causing us to have to make difficult decisions regarding our workforce which will require us to lay some employees off. As we are making these decisions we thought we would first seek to understand if there is anyone within FS [field services], OSP [outside plant], or on FTTH (Long Term Assignment from FS or OSP) who would like to volunteer for consideration to be laid off from the company. The layoff would be effective as of May 12, 2020."

Altice USA confirmed that its Altice Technical Service unit is offering a voluntary option for some techs, field service and outside plant workers to receive severance or remain in their current roles.

According to some former employees, Altice USA is offering those workers who agree to be laid off a severance package that includes two weeks of pay for every year of service and three months of health care coverage.

Like other cable operators during the pandemic, Altice USA has had to lay off workers as shelter-in-place and social distancing orders have taken hold. Altice hasn’t revealed how many workers it has had to let go, but has said it was a small percentage of its total workforce. According to its 10-K annual report, Altice USA has about 10,700 workers.

According to reports, Altice USA closed the Los Angeles studio for its Cheddar streaming news operations in April, resulting in some layoffs. 

 About 700 Altice USA workers are represented by two unions -- the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. CWA represents about 300 Altice USA workers in Brooklyn, N.Y., more than 100 workers in Westchester County, N.Y., and 52 workers in Beckley and Logan, W. Va. IBEW represents about 100 Altice USA workers in Oakland, N.J., and about 126 workers in Nassau County in New York. The CWA local in Westchester is currently in talks with the company to avoid laying off 16 workers at that facility and hopes to reach a deal soon.

“We are currently in negotiations to mitigate the layoffs with Altice and hope to have a workable solution in the near future,” CWA said.

According to some people familiar with the company, Altice USA has laid off about 200 workers in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut areas, which works out to be less than 2% of the total workforce. It couldn’t be determined how many, if any, were let go in its Suddenlink territories in the Midwest, Southeast and Western parts of the country.

In a statement, Altice USA said that it is “well positioned” in the current environment, given the increased reliance on its networks and services. In the first quarter, Altice USA lost about 42,000 video customers and gained 50,000 high-speed Internet subscribers, both ahead of analysts’ expectations.

“At the same time, the pandemic and its impact on society have prompted us to evaluate the way we do business, including how we are managing our workforce to best support the immediate needs of our customers while also preparing for how we will operate in the future as consumers’ needs evolve,” Altice USA said in a statement. In the past several weeks Altice US has offered premium pay to customer-facing, contact center and news field employees and created a $10 million community relief program to help assist local communities during the pandemic.

“Regretfully, we also made the difficult decision to lay off a small percentage of employees, and while these decisions are never made lightly, we are providing severance and our full support to impacted employees,” Altice continued in the statement. “We communicated to these employees in mid-April.”

CommScope has laid off approximately 160 employees across its Home Networks division, as sales of one of the unit’s primary products, pay TV set-tops, decline. 

Chatter among current and former CommScope employees on TheLayoff indicates that CommScope’s entire video customer premises equipment (CPE) staff based Horsham, Pennsylvania has been let go. Layoffs among CommScope Home Networks employees in San Diego have also occurred, according to message board postings. 

"CommScope continuously monitors evolving marketplace conditions as a matter of business practice,” the Hickory, N.C.-based CommScope said in a statement emailed to Next TV Tuesday. “We review our entire business to make our organization lean and agile, and to leverage global growth opportunities. Across the industry, there has been a significant decline in service provider investment in video programs, as the result of continued reduction in PayTV subscriptions, increased competition from over-the-top services, and the transition to lower-cost video devices.

CommScope, Technicolor and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) servicing the pay TV set-top business are under pressure from video cord cutting affecting their cable, satellite and telco operator clients. These customers lost more than 5 million linear TV subscribers in 2019.

Concurrently, the days of the multi-tuner, multi-gigabyte DVR set-top are on the wane.

With what remains of their video businesses, CommScope’s operator clients are moving to OTT-centric models that utilize, in many cases, consumer grade video streaming devices such as Roku and Amazon Fire TV. Proprietary set-tops, meanwhile, have in other instances been reduced to thin-client devices running Android TV middleware. 

CommScope got into the video CPE business in 2018 with its $7.4 billion purchase of Arris. 

“Home network space is a significant challenge this year as operators and carriers continue to deal with material subscriber losses,” noted CommScope CFO Alexander Pease in February, projecting a 20% sales decline for Home Networks sales in 2020. 

“We are taking steps to reduce our current workforce in our Home Networks segment to instill greater efficiency, cost-competitiveness and focused innovation in areas with long-term growth opportunity,” CommScope added in its statement. "We plan to lead in the transformation of the digitally connected home, leveraging our core skills in systems, software, and hardware to create and connect a device ecosystem that enables new services and solutions, transformational consumer experiences, and profitable new business models. We are committed to positioning Home Networks to be a healthy, competitive business moving forward."

Charter Communications pledged Sunday in a blog post that it would not lay off or furlough workers at least for the next 60 days, in response to the economic turmoil surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Charter Charter employees have stepped in and stepped up, ensuring our customers stay connected when it matters most,” Charter said in the April 19 blog post. “Our employees are our greatest resource, and to reinforce our commitment to them in this uncertain time, we are announcing that for the next 60 days no employee will be laid off or furloughed.”

Companies in every business sector have had to lay off and furlough workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. On April 19, The Walt Disney Co. stopped paying “non-essential” workers, mainly at its theme parks and consumer products divisions, to save money. According to some reports, Disney will save about $500 million by furloughing up to 100,000 workers. 

Charter, which has about 95,000 workers across the country, said it is expanding call centers and creating new employment in El Paso, Texas (350 new jobs), Rotterdam N.Y. (200 new jobs) and Kansas City (185 new jobs). That news comes shortly after the company said it would raise the minimum wage for its workers from $15/hour to $20/hour over the next three years.

Related: Cable's Corona Conundrum 

The company added in the blog that it has invested nearly $40 billion over the last five years in new technology, training, tools, trucks, new call centers network upgrades, buildings, labs, product development, set top boxes, WiFi routers and modems, and news channels.

“All of this was done to provide superior customer service, the best network, and a company built for the future,” the company said.

Charter isn’t the only cable company to commit to no layoffs. Earlier in the month Mediacom Communications said it would not layoff workers at least through May 31.

World Wrestling Entertainment said it has initiated a string of cost-cutting measures, including worker furloughs and executive pay cuts, in an effort to shave $4 million per month in expenses amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a press release WWE said it has undergone an extensive evaluation of its operations in the past several weeks as the coronavirus has impacted nearly every business segment in the country. As a result, WWE said it would implement several short-term measures to reduce costs and improve cash flow, including:

• Reducing executive and board member compensation;
• Decreasing operating expenses;
• Cutting talent expenses, third party staffing and consulting;
• Deferring spend on the build out of the company’s new headquarters for at least six months.

Related: Trump Puts WWE in Major League Conversation

WWE said it also would furlough a portion of its workforce immediately, but declined to say how many workers would be affected. The company added that it believes the furloughs “will be temporary in nature.”

The company also said that it has come to terms with several wrestlers to release them from their contracts, including stars like Kurt Angle, Drake Maverick (James Curtin), Curt Hawkins (Brian Myers), Karl Anderson (Chad Allegra), Luke Gallows (Drew Hankinson), Heath Slater (Heath Miller), Eric Young (Jeremy Fritz), EC3 (Michael Hutter), Aiden English (Matthew Rehwoldt) and Lio Rush (Lionel Green).

“We wish them all the best in their future endeavors,” WWE said in a press release.

[embed]https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1250477978657665024[/embed]

The moves, especially the decision to suspend construction on its new headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut,  are expected to improve cash flow by $140 million. WWE said it has substantial financial resources -- including available cash and debt capacity of about $500 million -- to weather the economic storm created by the coronavirus pandemic.

The news comes just a few days after the XFL, the alternative football league that was the brainchild of WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, filed for bankruptcy protection. In those documents, it was revealed that WWE owns a 23.5% interest in the XFL. 

WWE said it would offer further details when it reports first quarter results, expected on April 23.

Dish Network has confirmed that it will cut its 16,000-member workforce amid the COVID-19-related economic slowdown.

It's unclear as to how many employees will be let go.

Even before the this latest recession, Dish, which lost 511,000 satellite TV subscribers last year, was already facing a wrenching transition. The Englewood, Colo.-based telecom company is seeking to take assets cut loose amid the $31 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, and blend them with its own sizable spectrum holdings to create a fourth major U.S. wireless company, rich in 5G services.

“The pandemic has forced us to take a closer look at every aspect of our business, at our work volumes, our areas of focus and investments, and the performance of our team members,” chief executive officer Erik Carlson told employees in an internal memo, which was was published by TheLayoff.

“I want you to hear directly from me that we’ve made a series of difficult decisions to reevaluate parts of our business, particularly within In Home Services,” he added. “We are committed to entering the wireless business, bringing full, standalone 5G to America, and delivering unparalleled innovation that will benefit U.S. consumers. And we will continue to focus on enhancing and deploying Dish TV, Sling TV, Dish Media, Smart Home Services and other core products and business lines. We’ll hire for the strategic needs of today and tomorrow so that we have the Best Team, regardless of the circumstance.”

It’s already known that Mitch Weinraub, who led Dish’s AirTV product development team, has left the company. Light Reading, which was first to report on Weinraub’s departure, was told by Dish that the recently hired Jon Lin, who moved over from CBS Interactive, will assume his responsibilities.

The Android TV-based AirTV product line of OTT devices debuted in 2017 as an extension of Sing TV virtual MVPD service. But it’s unclear what kind of foothold, if any, AirTV has in the competitive OTT device market. 

Dish Network has confirmed that it will cut its 16,000-member workforce amid the COVID-19-related economic slowdown. 

It's unclear as to how many employees will be let go. 

Even before the this latest recession, Dish, which lost 511,000 satellite TV subscribers last year, was already facing a wrenching transition. The Englewood, Colo.-based telecom company is seeking to take assets cut loose amid the $31 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, and blend them with its own sizable spectrum holdings to create a fourth major U.S. wireless company, rich in 5G services. 

“The pandemic has forced us to take a closer look at every aspect of our business, at our work volumes, our areas of focus and investments, and the performance of our team members,” chief executive officer Erik Carlson told employees in an internal memo, which was was published by TheLayoff.

“I want you to hear directly from me that we’ve made a series of difficult decisions to reevaluate parts of our business, particularly within in-home services,” he added. “We are committed to entering the wireless business, bringing full, standalone 5G to America, and delivering unparalleled innovation that will benefit U.S. consumers. And we will continue to focus on enhancing and deploying Dish TV, Sling TV, Dish Media, Smart Home Services and other core products and business lines. We’ll hire for the strategic needs of today and tomorrow so that we have the Best Team, regardless of the circumstance."

Updated: Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen had pledged to spend round $10 billion to build a 5G network that covers 70% of the U.S. by 2023. The New York Post reported today that those plans could be in jeopardy, given the sudden state of the U.S. economy. 

“I think whatever rosy projections Charlie had are now very questionable,” said a source who expected to be part Dish’s lending group, to the Post. “There is no financing to build a telecom network.”

Meanwhile, it’s already known that Mitch Weinraub, who led Dish’s AirTV product development team, has left the company. Light Reading, which was first to report on Weinraub’s departure, was told by Dish that the recently hired Jon Lin, who moved over from CBS Interactive, will assume Weinraub's responsibilities. 

The Android TV-based AirTV product line of OTT devices debuted in 2017 as an extension of Sing TV virtual MVPD service. But it’s unclear what kind of foothold, if any, AirTV has in the competitive OTT device market. 

The Walt Disney Co., one of the media companies hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, will begin furloughing non-essential workers on April 19.

Disney did not say which divisions the layoffs will include. The company has about 223,000 employees worldwide, according to its latest annual report. Of those, about 177,000 work in its Disney Stores and theme parks which have been shut down for weeks as the coronavirus pandemic has banned large gatherings. Disney parks in Asia have been closed since February and parks in the U.S. have been shut down since March.

Disney shares were down about 3% ($3.16 per share) to $93.81 each in afternoon trading April 3.

In addition, Disney has had to suspend production of several TV shows and movies during the pandemic.

“Disney employees have received full pay and benefits during this time, and we’ve committed to paying them through April 18, for a total of five additional weeks of compensation,” the company said in a statement Thursday. “However, with no clear indication of when we can restart our businesses, we’re forced to make the difficult decision to take the next step and furlough employees whose jobs aren’t necessary at this time.”

The furloughed workers will continue to receive health benefits and Disney said those that have unused vacation time can use that during the furlough period. Once furloughed, workers also would be eligible to receive an extra $600 per week in federal compensation as part of the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill, as well as state unemployment benefits.

Here’s the full statement from Disney:

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on our world with untold suffering and loss, and has required all of us to make sacrifices. Over the last few weeks, mandatory decrees from government officials have shut down a majority of our businesses. Disney employees have received full pay and benefits during this time, and we’ve committed to paying them through April 18, for a total of five additional weeks of compensation. 

However, with no clear indication of when we can restart our businesses, we’re forced to make the difficult decision to take the next step and furlough employees whose jobs aren’t necessary at this time. The furlough process will begin on April 19, and all impacted workers will remain Disney employees through the duration of the furlough period. 

They will receive full healthcare benefits,plusthe cost of employee and company premiumswill be paid by Disney, and those enrolled in Disney Aspire will have continued access to the education program.Additionally,employees with available paid time off can elect to use some or all of it at the start of the furlough period and, once furloughed, they are eligible to receive an extra $600 per week in federal compensation through the$2 trillion economic stimulus bill, as well as state unemployment insurance.

A day after it announced its deal to sell a majority stake to Canadian programmer Anthem Sports and Entertainment, AXS TV has laid off at least 40 employees, including most of the workers in its Dallas office as the ink barely dried on the transaction.

Anthem agreed to buy a majority stake in AXS TV and HDNet Movies, two cable networks owned by internet guru Mark Cuban, for an undisclosed sum on Sept. 9. AXS TV and HDNet Movies have about 100 employees. But according to The Wrap, quoting Anthem spokesman Bob Gold of PR firm Bob Gold & Associates, about 40 people were let go, mostly in redundant positions to those at Anthem and that those layoffs were in the works for about six months.

Multichannel News had attempted Tuesday to confirm rumors that AXS TV had let go about 40 employees, but Anthem and its PR firm would not confirm the number at the time.  

The Wrap reported that in addition to most of the Dallas office being let go, about one-quarter of employees at AXS TV offices in Los Angeles were jettisoned, as were most of its team in Denver.

At least two relatively high profile executives were on that list -- long-time cable publicist Cindy Ronzoni and New Japan Wrestling executive producer and AXS TV VP of business and legal affairs Adam Swift, who tweeted about their departures yesterday.

[embed]https://twitter.com/cindyronzoni/status/1171211398044475392[/embed]

Wrestling fans have also been on top of the transaction, with wrestling.com citing the closure of the Dallas office Tuesday. 

[embed]https://twitter.com/AdamMSwift/status/1171520962702897153[/embed]

The Wrap reported that about one-quarter of employees at AXS TV offices in Los Angeles were let go, and most of its team in Denver.

[embed]https://twitter.com/marc_raimondi/status/1171558035791024131[/embed]

Verizon has laid off 7% of workers in its oft-reconfigured and rebranded digital media business, accounting for around 800 employees.

"These were difficult decisions, and we will ensure that our colleagues are treated with respect and fairness, and given the support they need," said Guru Gowrappan, Verizon Media's CEO, in a letter to employees. "I want to be clear that we will continue to scale, launch new products and innovate. We are an important part of Verizon.”

The move marks an unfortunate end of an expensive plan by Verizon to transition from a wireless and wireline focused telecom into a media giant that could compete with Google and Facebook for digital ad money.

Related: Verizon Clears Capital for 5G Investment by Laying Off 10,400 Workers

Along the way, Verizon purchased AOL for $4.6 billion, and Yahoo! for another $4.48 billion. In December, Verizon took a $4.6 billion write-down, acknowledging that its Oath Brands—the initiative wrought by the pricey acquisitions—had failed.

These tough moves don’t mark the end of the line for Verizon in the media business. The company is reportedly still high on components like Yahoo-branded news, sports, finance and entertainment portals, which remain vital content assets under new priorities that built around 5G mobile networks.

Verizon Digital Media Services is reportedly still a priority as well.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Verizon Media Group had 12,845 employees when it purchased Yahoo! in 2017. It had 11,385 at the end of 2018.

Verizon’s retrenchment comes as AT&T begins to integrate Time Warner Media into its longterm wireless broadband distribution plan, and Comcast ingests U.K. satellite TV company Sky to also transition into a global media power. 

Acton, Mass.-based video software and services vendor SeaChange International announced another round of layoffs following a fiscal second quarter revenue decline of 30.4% to $11.9 million.

The company’s losses in the quarter nearly quadrupled to $8.3 million, as customers held off on renewing SeaChange software subscriptions.

“Some transactions that we expected in Q2 did not happen during the quarter and were delayed,” said SeaChange CEO Ed Terino at Wednesday’s investment analyst call. (Transcript courtesy of Seeking Alpha.) “These delays resulted from customers moving more slowly on video platform investment decisions because there was little urgency to make an upgrade or expand their video platform and our customers opted to prioritize other investments outside of their video delivery ecosystems.”

SeaChange didn’t specify how many workers are affected, but the company said it would save around $6 million from a restructuring that would involve mostly staff cuts and be completed by the end of the company’s third fiscal 2019 quarter.

From 2016 through this year, SeaChange more than halved its workforce, from around 660 employees to approximately 300. And as noted by Light Reading—which was the first to report on SeaChange’s staff cuts—the company moved software coding operations from the Philippines to Poland.

Terino did identify some green shoots. SeaChange booked two transactions that “were significant in revenue” but came in too late to be counted against the Q2 bottom line.

“We also booked $1 million in advertising software and equipment with the Tier 1 telco that needed to expand their advertising platform due to the growth of their advertising activity,” he said.

“In addition, we expect Liberty Global will make additional purchase related to their one back office initiative in the second half of fiscal 2019. We also have several PanoramiC opportunities in the second half of fiscal 2019,” Terino added. 

Charter Communications is shuttering customer service centers in Detroit and Indianapolis, impacting the jobs of at least 140 workers.

The operator notified workers in two customer care centers on June 28, giving them two months notice of the expected Aug. 28 office closures.

Charter reps say the reorganization is part of a strategy of consolidating customer care activities into larger call centers. 

Related: Charter to Shed 258 Accountants, Finance Workers in North Carolina

“An important part of Spectrum’s strategy for providing better customer service is larger call centers, where we can deliver information, training and technology to our representatives much more efficiently,” the company said in a statement. “At the same time, we know this is a difficult time for our employees in location affected by this decision. We are working directly with them to provide comprehensive severance benefits, including salary continuation, health insurance and outplacement services.”

In the Detroit suburb of Livonia, the customer support unit at 14525 Farmington Road will close, with 60 workers laid off. Charter will not, however, close the entire office.

The same strategy is being plied to Charter’s office at 3030 Roosevelt Ave. in Indianapolis, where 84 customer care workers will lose their jobs.

In Grand Rapids, 51 sales employees were impacted by a separate shuttering in June. Many of those workers have been repositioned, Charter said.

When it closed on its purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in 2016, Charter said it would repatriate approximately 20,000 customer care jobs from overseas.

“Our customers are contacting us less, which means that they're having less service issues, service disruption, less billing related calls, less retention related calls,” Charter CFO Christopher Winfrey conceded during Charter Q2 earnings call last month. 

Univision said Friday that it will reduce its overall workforce by about 6%, part of an effort to make the struggling broadcaster more competitive.

The layoffs, which would number about 240 of Univision’s 4,000 employees, are the latest in several changes at the company. Last week it said it was exploring the sale of its Gizmodo Media Group, which includes several online properties like Gizmodo, Jezebel Deadspin, Lifehacker, Splinter, The Root, Kotaku, Earther and Jalopnik, and The Onion. The Onion portfolio includes The Onion, Clickhole, The A.V. Club and The Takeout. 

A handful of top executives have left the company in the past several months, starting with CEO Randy Falco in March, and followed by chief content officer Isaac Lee and chief revenue officer Tonia O’Connor earlier this month. Falco was replaced as CEO by former Media General chief Vincent Sadusky in June. 

“We have concluded a company-wide strategic review aimed at reorienting our operations to ensure we are positioned to most effectively compete in an evolving media marketplace,” Univision said in a statement. “We are implementing a plan to rejuvenate and reenergize the company with a rededication to our core mission of serving the US Hispanic community. As part of this plan we are both reducing our workforce in various divisions around the company, as well as adding resources and capabilities to strengthen our core business. While it is extremely difficult to lose valued employees, we are confident that our actions – along with our previously-announced process to explore the sale of the Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion portfolio – will enable us to focus on and invest in our core assets, which is necessary to ensure we remain the leading and unwavering voice, advocate and source of information for the Hispanic community.”

The Walt Disney Co. could start issuing pink slips at its flagship cable sports channel ESPN on Wednesday, and according to several reports the layoffs could be larger than expected.

According to a report in the Washington Post, ESPN is expected to start jettisoning employees on Wednesday in a continuing effort to keep down costs. But the number of workers affected could be larger than the 40 to 50 people expected back in March, with some reports saying as many as 70 TV/radio anchors, reporters, analysts and online writers could get the axe in the coming days and weeks.

ESPN declined comment.

This wouldn't be the first round of layoffs for the Worldwide Leader in Sports. In 2015 ESPN laid off about 300 behind-the-scenes workers. 

Pay TV networks have been hit hard as consumers have increasingly cut the cord or switched to less expensive – and less sports intensive – skinny bundles. According to Convergence Research Group, U.S. pay TV customers declined by 2.05 million in 2016 – nearly double the 1.16 million lost in 2015 – and are expected to shed another 2.11 million this year.       

ESPN has been clobbered over the past few years, shedding millions of subscribers as consumers have opted out of pay TV all together or drastically reduced their video packages. According to March Neilsen Universe estimates, ESPN was in 87.4 million homes, down 748,000 from January.

This round could include some fairly prominent on-air personalities, according to reports, although none were named. According to a report in Monday’s Sporting News, some workers have approached the company offering to take pay cuts to stay while others have received buyouts to release ESPN from long-term contracts.

EchoStar Corp. confirmed that “fewer than 100” of about 4,000 employees were recently laid off amid shifts in the market.

“EchoStar implemented a small reduction in force in late January, in response to recent changes in the marketplace,” Michael T. Dugan, CEO and president of EchoStar, said in a statement. “This reduction in force has impacted fewer than 100 of our nearly 4000 employees. We came to this decision after a careful review of our options, realizing a number of good people would be affected.”

The Denver Post reported first reported of the recent reduction in force, noting that another 1,800  EchoStar employees were moving to corporate cousin Dish Network following an early announced asset transfer.

That transaction, completed today, includes a transfer of certain DBS assets, including a 10% stake in Sling TV from EchoStar and control of EchoStar’s set-top box business.

RELATED: Dish to Consolidate EchoStar DBS Assets

The Post also said EchoStar confirmed that it terminated two office leases last year – one near its Denver area headquarters, and a sublease in Atlanta.

Dish and EchoStar have not confirmed an earlier report, corroborated by industry sources, that they are ceasing the manufacturing of standalone Slingboxes, the iconic place-shifting device whose functions are now integrated in some Dish set-top/receivers and has been obviated in part by the emergence of video apps that run on mobile and TV-connected devices. EchoStar recently shut down “Sage By Hughes,” a do-it-yourself home security/automation product.

RELATED: Sling Media Halts Slingbox Manufacturing: Report

The asset swap comes years after the company split itself into Dish Network (for the pay TV business) and the EchoStar unit, which included the set-top and equipment business.

Dish CEO Charlie Ergen discussed the logic of the original split during the company’s Q4 earnings call last month.

“We had a theory on where we thought the market was going to go,” he said. “Some of those theories didn't turn out to be exactly right.”

One aim was to have EchoStar, as a separate company, sell set-tops to cable operators and into other industries.

That product suite, marketed under the “Aria” brand, failed to gain much traction, and EchoStar eventually scrapped the idea of selling boxes and user interfaces to cable operators.

RELATED: EchoStar Shutting Down U.S. Cable Set-Top Unit

Frontier Communications is cutting about 1,000 jobs across its 29-state footprint amid a reorganization that follows the company’s acquisition of Verizon’s wireline operations in California, Texas and Florida in April.

The workforce reduction, which includes cost savings, is also coming alongside a reorg in which Frontier is creating commercial and consumer business units.

“On Tuesday we announced a restructuring that is a meaningful and necessary next step toward realizing the full potential of our increased scale following the recent Verizon transaction,” Frontier said in a statement. “We are focusing our field staff on operational excellence and centralizing other support functions.  These changes will unfortunately impact approximately 1,000 valued Frontier employees across our 29 state footprint—employees who have made significant contributions to the organization.   Impacted employees will be notified over the next several weeks.”

Daniel McCarthy, Frontier’s president and CEO, noted on the company’s Q3 call on Tuesday (Nov. 1) that Frontier, prior to the Verizon wireline asset acquisition, had been organized around a regional structure, with each having its own resources for areas such as marketing, finance, engineering and human resources.

According to a memo from McCarthy posted by DSL Reports (a Frontier official validated its contents),  the new structure, which will include seven geographic operating areas each led by an SVP of operations, becomes effective December 1.

Per the memo, those SVPs will report to Ken Arndt, EVP of customer operations, succeeding John Lass, who intends to retire in 2017 and will lead a centralized Commercial Sales team on an interim basis. Cecilia McKenney, meanwhile, will head up Frontier’s centralized sales team focusing on consumer and small business.

“Our focus in the consumer market has not changed,” McCarthy said. “We will pursue opportunities aggressively in all of our Fios markets,” he added, noting that Frontier is expanding its Vantage product footprint and working toward a relaunch in legacy Fios areas.

RELATED: Frontier Fires Up ‘Vantage’ Brand

On the video side, Frontier expects to roll its Vantage TV product to three markets and 150,000 homes this year.  Frontier has initiated a plan tolaunch IP-based video service to more than 40 markets, representing about 3 million homes, over the next three to four years.

Frontier lost 92,000 video subs in Q2, giving it a total of about 5.07 million. It also shed 99,000 broadband subs, for a total of 4.4 million.

Frontier posted Q3 revenues of $2.52 billion, down $84 million versus the previous quarter.

Its revised annualized cost synergy target is $1.4 billion, up from the $1.25 billion outlined in its Q2 report. 

Cisco Systems announced Wednesday a reorganization plan that will result in the elimination of up to 5,500 jobs, or 7% of its workforce --  far fewer than the 9,000 to 14,000 that CRN reported on Tuesday.

Cisco said the reorg will help it “optimize our cost base in lower growth areas” and invest more in “key priority areas” such as security, the Internet of Things, collaboration, and next-gen data center and cloud products and technologies.  Cisco, which is also shifting focus as customers move toward software-based off-the-shelf platforms and away from purpose-built hardware, said it will “take action under this plan” in Q1 of its fiscal 2017.

Cisco posted Q4 revenues of $12.6 billion, up 2%, on net income of $2.8 billion, or 56 cents per share. Revenues excluded Cisco’s service provider video CPE business. Cisco sold its set-top and CPE business to Technicolor late last year.

Q4 revenues at Cisco’s Service Provider Video unit dipped 12%, to $444 million, and represented just 4% of total revenues in the period.

Cisco expects Q1 revenues to be down 1% to up 1% year-on-year, with GAAP earnings of 42 cents to 47 cents.

Cisco shares were down 37 cents (1.20%) to $30.35 each in after-hours trading Wednesday.

Cisco Systems plans to cut up to 14,000 jobs, or 20% of its global workforce, in the “next few weeks,” CRN reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources close to the company.

Cisco’s been asked to comment on the report, but CRN said the company has already offered early retirement packages to employees.

Update: Cisco declined to comment.

CRN said the cuts will range from 9,000 to 14,000 employees, and will come as Cisco shifts its focus and skillset to support the move toward more virtualized, software-defined networks and away from purpose-built hardware.

Cisco is scheduled to post fiscal Q4 results Wednesday (August 17). The company, which sold its CPE business to Technicolor in late 2015, posted Q3 revenues of $12 billion, up 3% year-on-year, and said it expects Q4 revenue growth of up to 3%.

Cisco, helmed by CEO Chuck Robbins since July 2015, announced it would cut 6,000 jobs, or 8% of its global workforce, in August 2014, a year after the company laid off about 4,000 workers.

Earlier this year, Cisco expanded its service provider organization amid a broader reorganization.

Intel Corp. said Tuesday it will cut 12,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, by mid-2017 amid a reorganization in which data centers and the Internet of Things (IoT) businesses become the chipmaker’s “primary growth engines.”

Intel, a key supplier of silicon for DOCSIS cable modems, gateways and set-top boxes, said the workforce reduction will occur through a combo of voluntary and involuntary departures and “re-evaluations of programs.”  Most of those actions will be relayed to employees over the next 60 days, with some spilling into 2017, the company said.

“We expect to realize over half of the total workforce reduction by the end of this year,” Stacy Smith, Intel’s CFO and EVP, said on yesterday’s earnings call.

Intel said the reorg is expected to result in $750 million in savings this year and an annual run rate savings of $1.4 billion by mid-2017. As a result, Intel will also post a one-time charge of approximately $1.2 billion in the second quarter.

Intel said the changes are being made to amid an initiative to “accelerate its evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices.” It said data centers and IoT delivered $2.2 billion in revenue growth last year, and made up 40% of revenue and the majority of operating profit, largely offsetting declines in the PC segment. Intel said it saw the PC total addressable market drop 10% from 2013 to 2015.

About 40% of our Intel’s revenue and 60% of its margin comes from areas other than the PC sector, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said on the call.

“It's time to make this transition and push the company over all the way to that strategy and that strategic direction. So that's why we wanted to do it now,” he said.

He also said the restructuring will enable Intel to invest in the aforementioned growth areas. “[W]e are going to continue to double down, focus on those.”

As investments go, they will focus on “thin-and-light devices,” Krzanich said, but added that Intel will also “push even harder on high-end gaming systems, which are growing at a very fast rate.”

For Q1, Intel posted earnings of 54 cents per share, up 20% from a year ago, on revenues of $13.8 billion, up 8% versus a year ago. 

As part of plan to boost profits and focus its business, Yahoo announced a streamlining effort that will include the sale of “non-strategic” assets and a workforce reduction of 15%, or about 1,600 jobs.  

Yahoo said it’s exploring the divestiture of assets that include non-strategic patents and  the sale of some real estate, believing that the efforts will bring in between $1 billion to $3 billion in cash.

The expected workforce reduction is being paired with the shutting down of five offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid, and Mila. Most of those changes will occur in Q1 2016, but will be complete by the end of 2016.  Yahoo expects to end the year with 9,000 employees and fewer than 1,000 contractors, a move that will save $400 million in annual expenses.

Yahoo also said it is pushing forward with previously announced plan for a reverse spin, with a separation of its Alibaba stake a "primary focus." 

Yahoo also outlined other parts of its strategic growth plan, noting it will prioritize its user base of more than 1 billion monthly active users.

On the consumer end, Yahoo’s business will consist of three platforms: Search, Mail and Tumblr;  and four verticals: News Sports, Finance and Lifestyle.

For advertisers, it will lean on two “core offerings”: Gemini (search and native ads), and Brightroll, the programmatic ad platform Yahoo acquired in November 2014.

Additionally, Yahoo will refine its focus on mobile search, calling it the company’s’ “biggest opportunity” in that part of its business.

Yahoo will also invest more in its Mavens (mobile, video, native and social) strategy, noting that revenues from that segment reached $1.6 billion in 2015, a 45% increase.

Among its simplification efforts, Yahoo, which recently shut down the Yahoo Screen streaming service, will “consolidate some Digital Magazines under one of our four core verticals, while others will be shut down. It will also exit some legacy product areas including games and smart TV.

"Today, we're announcing a strategic plan that we strongly believe will enable us to accelerate Yahoo's transformation," Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, said in a statement.  "This is a strong plan calling for bold shifts in products and in resources. We are extremely proud of the billion dollar plus business we have built in mobile, video, native, and social. Our strategic bets in Mavens have enabled us build an entirely new, forward-leaning business of tremendous scale and growth in just three years. The plan announced today builds from that achievement and will dramatically brighten our future and improve our competitiveness, and attractiveness to users, advertisers, and partners."

"The Board is committed to the turnaround efforts of the management team and supportive of the plan announced today. We have tremendous respect for the thousands of Yahoos who work very hard to make the world a better place," added Maynard Webb, Yahoo's chairman of the board. "The Board also believes that exploring additional strategic alternatives, in parallel to the execution of the management plan, is in the best interest of our shareholders. Separating our Alibaba stake from our operating business continues to be a primary focus, and our most direct path to value maximization. In addition to continuing work on the reverse spin, which we've discussed previously, we will engage on qualified strategic proposals."

Yahoo announced the plan as it issued Q4 2015 results. It posted Q4 revenues of $1.27 billion, up from $1.25 billion in the year-ago quarter, and earnings of 13 cents per share. Analysts were expecting 13 cents on $1.19 billion in revenues. 

Yahoo shares were down 41 cents (1.41%) to $28.65 each in after-hours trading Tuesday. 

21st Century Fox is seeking to cut $250 million in expenses this year and is looking to employees for voluntary buyouts and greater cost efficiencies.

In a memo to employees Monday, Fox Networks Group CEO Peter Rice said the company needs to "adjust, adapt, and organize for the future," adding that the company will be "undertaking some structural changes, increasing investment in some parts of the company while making cost reductions in other areas."

In the past 18 months Fox has reorganized Fox Sports; expanded FX Networks and combined its ad sales teams;  created National Geographic Partners; and, most recently, restructuring its international channels.

"As the next step in this reorganization, colleagues who fit a specific set of criteria will be offered a generous benefit package if they decide to voluntarily resign from the company, effective May 23, 2016," Rice wrote in the memo. "Colleagues who are eligible for this offer will receive a confidential email in the next few hours with specific terms and benefits. Again, the program is completely voluntary."

Just how many employees will be affected remains to be seen but reports suggest that the reductions are not expected to be heavy. Other programmers have weathered staff reductions to cut costs in the wake of ad revenue declines and ratings pressures, including Viacom and Time Warner's Turner Networks.

Sprint Corp. is cutting 2,500 jobs, roughly 7% of its workforce, according to multiple media reports.

The reduction comes amid the wireless carrier’s plan to reduce costs by as much as $2.5 billion, a move that will also involve the closing of several call centers, according to Bloomberg, adding that word of the reduction was delivered to employees on Friday (January 22).

The cuts include 574 jobs at Sprint's Overland Park, Kan., headquarters, per CNBC. The Kansas City Starfirst reported of the layoffs

“We are in the process of significantly taking costs out of the business so the transformation of the company will be sustainable for the long-term,” the company said in a statement to Bloomberg. “We are leaving no stone unturned as we work to eliminate up to $2.5 billion of costs from our business. Unfortunately, as we’ve said over the past several months, the effort to reduce our costs would impact all areas of our business, including jobs.”

Sprint also announced fiscal Q3 results on Thursday, announcing net operating revenues of $8.1 billion, down 10% year-over-year, but up 2% versus the previous quarter.

Sprint also posted a net loss of $836 million (21 cents per share), narrowed from a year-ago loss of $2.4 billion (60 cents per share).

Spring said it added a net 366,000 postpaid phone subs in the quarter, and that postpaid churn for the period, at 1.62%, was its lowest ever for a third quarter. Total net adds in Q3 were 491,000, down from 967,000 in the prior year quarter.

In November, Sprint hatched a promotion that offered 50% off to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless customers who switched to Sprint.

“It’s clear from our quarterly results that we are making great progress on achieving our goals,” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, in a statement. “Revenue has stabilized, costs are coming out faster than expected, postpaid phone net additions were the highest in three years, postpaid churn was the lowest-ever for a third quarter, and the network is performing at best-ever levels.”

Last month, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said his company was talking to wireless carriers, including Sprint, about possible agreements for a hybrid WiFi-cellular phone product. Comcast activated its Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement with Verizon in October. Comcast also has an MVNO agreement with Sprint. 

Virgin Media, the U.K.-based MSO owned by Liberty Global, plans to cut 900 jobs over the next two years in order to streamline while also pushing ahead on growth strategies, according to media reports.

“Over the last three years Virgin Media has been transformed,” Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media’s CEO said in a statement to The Guardian and other media outlets. “We’re expanding, investing and growing our business. The proposed reorganisation will give us an even sharper focus on the customer, network expansion and business growth.”

Even as Virgin Media looks to cut back in redundant areas (it has not said which parts of the company will be affected the most by the reductions), it said its overall workforce of 23,000, including outsources and overseas staff, will rise from 23,000 to 25,000 this year. About 13,600 workers are directly employed by the company, The Telegraph noted.

A continuing focus at Virgin Media will be “Project Lightning,” a £3 billion plan that calls on the MSO to extend its broadband network to an addition 4 million premises over the next five years.

Last November, Liberty Global announced “Liberty 3.0,” an initiative that aims to make the company more efficient and “super charge” its growth rate.

“This is a massive transformation program designed to streamline our operating model, accelerate our growth and drive even greater efficiency through the business,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said at the time, stressing that the program “is not just a cost-cutting exercise,” but one that will tackle everything from revenue growth, customer engagement and churn.