Today during the Stream TV Show, Amy Kuessner, who is Executive Vice President, Content Strategy & Global Partnerships at Paramount Streaming opened up about Paramount’s streaming plans in the world of cord cutting. During the panel on the Future of Content Partnerships, when talking about Pluto TV’s ability to get content from other parts of Paramount. During that question, Amy Kuessner said that Paramount’s CEO Robert M. Bakish has made streaming the main focus of Paramount.
She went on to talk about how making streaming the main focus has helped open up content for Paramount+ and Pluto TV. For example, it has helped bring older Paramount content to Pluto TV. It has also helped the company focus its efforts on Pluto TV and Paramount+.
Back in May, it was reported that Paramount would be laying off 25% of its staff across the board at its cable TV networks. This includes staff at Nick, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, CMT, Smithsonian, TV Land, Logo, and Pop TV. Paramount also announced that MTV News would be shutting down as well.
In a memo to staff Paramount Media Networks, President Chris McCarthy said: “However, despite this success in streaming, we continue to feel pressure from broader economic headwinds like many of our peers. To address this, our senior leaders in coordination with HR have been working together over the past few months to determine the optimal organization for the current and future needs of our business.”
“As a result, we have made the very hard but necessary decision to reduce our domestic team by approximately 25%,” McCarthy said. “This is a tough yet important strategic realignment of our group. Through the elimination of some units and by streamlining others, we will be able to reduce costs and create a more effective approach to our business as we move forward. Today we will notify employees whose positions are being impacted with leaders communicating the news directly to those teams/or individuals. These meetings will be followed by individual 1:1s with our HR partners.”
Paramount stopped saying exactly why laying off 25% of its traditional network staff will help the future needs of its business. Though with this news about the shift in focus to streaming, you can see how Paramount is looking for ways to put more efforts behind Pluto TV, Paramount+, and more.
Paramount will also be compressing its TV networks into one team. Now Nick, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, CMT, Smithsonian, TV Land, Logo, and Pop TV will all operate as a single unit. Most of these cuts will come from the consolidation of all these networks into a single team reducing staffing needs, according to Variety.
This all comes as we have seen record growth of cord cutting and a declining ad market affecting cable networks and streaming services alike. Recently Lionsgate laid off 3% of its staff, Roku laid off 200 employees, and Disney is cutting 7,000 jobs across all areas of its company. These are just a few of the cuts happening right now in entertainment.