As the company prepares for a new equity plan, Paramount Global announced on Tuesday that it would be shuttering one of its television productions in addition to a significant round of workers reduces aimed at eliminating nearly 2, 000 work by year’s end.
In a note to staff members, Paramount Co-Chief Executive George Cheeks wrote,” A short time ago, we informed the team at Paramount Television Studios ( PTVS ) that the studio would stop operating at the end of the week.
The Paramount Television Studios produces such streaming shows as” Reacher” for Amazon Prime Video,” The Spiderwick Chronicles” for the Roku Channel,” 13 Reasons Why” for Netflix and” Station Eleven” for Warner Bros. Discovery.
The bank’s larger broadcast production arm, CBS Studios, may maintain its activities and may take responsibility for Paramount TV’s series of shows.
” This is not a decision based on how PTVS performed”, Cheeks explained in the statement. The need to simplify our business led to this decision, according to the spokesperson.
Last week, company leaders announced they would reduce Paramount’s U. S. based workforce by 15 % in an effort to save$ 500 million in annual costs. The leaders announced on Tuesday that affected people may be notified in three stages, with the first phase “beginning now and going through the end of the year” in three phases.
” We expect 90 % of these actions to be complete by the end of September”, Co-Chief Executives Brian Robbins, Chris McCarthy and Cheeks wrote in a memo that went out early Tuesday morning.
As part of the theater shutdown, up to 30 people are anticipated to leave. Since late 2022, the two main television producers have worked to organize operational activities and major departments including cast, production, law and finance. The innovative teams remained individual. David Stapf has long run CBS Studios, which produces” Star Trek”, “NCIS”,” Survivor” and” Elsbeth”.
For the past six decades, Nicole Clemens served as president of Paramount Television Studios.
Paramount Television Studios is closing, but our attitude will continue to be enjoyed by international audiences for years to come, Clemens wrote in a word to the team. ” We’ve cemented our reputation by shepherding some of the most important, award-winning, and critically acclaimed exhibits in the streaming era”.
Broadcast stations like CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central are a part of Paramount Pictures, which is also home to the storied Paramount Pictures movie theater. It has been having trouble for years as the cable Television package failed, causing its most reliable source of income to decline: cord development costs. The bank’s programs, again among the strongest in the industry, have lost a lot of appeal to younger viewers.
Controlling investor Shari Redstone made the decision to sell the business her family has controlled for almost 35 years as the agency’s price continued to decline over the past year. Last month, a team led by technical heir David Ellison , reached an$ 8 billion deal , with Redstone and some board members to get the battered business.
Ellison’s Skydance Media, along with RedBird Capital Partners and Ellison’s parents, Larry, the co-founder of technology giant Oracle Corp., are poised to assume command in the first quarter of next year. But first, officials may review the deal.
Ellison’s proposed Paramount acquisition is a two-step approach. Second, his party will purchase the Redstone mother’s holding business, National Amusements Inc., which would give the family an leave from the film company after more than 80 years. The late tycoon Sumner Redstone acquired the corporation, then known as Viacom, in 1987. Seven years later, he added the prominent Paramount film studio.
The Skydance offer now earmarks$ 2.4 billion to buy National Amusements. According to the experienced resources, the Redstone home would eventually accumulate about$ 1.7 billion after paying off the loan.
Paramount completed a previous round of layoffs a few months ago, which saw the reduction of about 800 positions.
Late last week, Paramount alerted investors that it took a$ 6 billion write-down on its cable television networks business,  , in yet another sign , that Hollywood is reckoning with the ongoing deterioration of the traditional television business.
” The , industry continues to evolve, and Paramount is at an inflection point where changes must be made to improve our company. And while these activities are often tough, we are comfortable in our direction ahead”, Robbins, McCarthy and Cheeks said in the letter.
Throughout the year, Paramount employees have been suffering as a result of business confusion. As the sales process inched ahead, the company’s president for seven decades, Bob Bakish, was bounced and the new team installed. But any respite was short-lived.
In June, Cheeks, McCarthy and Robbins signaled that deep cost cutting was imminent.
The layoffs come as CBS prepares to release its new fall TV schedule and the film studio struggles to keep its footing.
The executives said,” We know it’s very difficult to have to part ways with coworkers whose contributions have been very important to our success.”
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