The Hollywood strikes may be over, but the entertainment industry continues to face turmoil.
On top of the writers' and actors' walkouts that shut down almost all film and TV production for several months in 2023, the business is going through a retrenchment that started in 2022 when Netflix lost subscribers for the first time, causing Wall Street to sour on streaming. The box office hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic, and advertisers are cutting back , leading companies from Disney to Netflix to Amazon to make wide headcount cuts.
The motion picture and sound recording industries shed 44,000 jobs from May to October, when employment stood at 436,000 jobs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry has shrunk by 26% as the strikes accelerated a contraction in employment that was already underway since its 2022 peak, according to a study by Otis College of Art and Design, which is the first in a series with the Otis College Report on the Creative Economy.
"Netflix missed their numbers, and Wall Street woke up," said Paul Hardart, director of NYU Stern's entertainment, media and technology program, in a November interview. "The narrative fundamentally shifted. Now we're going into this contraction."
A wide range of companies and employees have been impacted, from entertainment giants to independent production companies to Hollywood talent agencies.
Most recently, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish said on January 25 the company would cut an unspecified number of jobs as it adjusts to "current realities" and focuses on its biggest franchises. The company also is speculated to be in deal talks with various players.
Amazon announced on January 10 that it's laying off "several hundred" employees across Prime Video and Amazon MGM studios. NBC News also made layoffs in January, and NBCU's music division has announced plans for cuts in the first quarter.
Most in Hollywood anticipate continued cost-cutting in 2024 to include additional staff reductions. Growth prospects are uncertain, but companies are sure to please Wall Street when they slash expenses.
Consider: Disney's share price got a bump after a November earnings call where CEO Bob Iger raised his target for cost cuts to $7.5 billion — those cuts will include significant layoffs at Pixar later this year, TechCrunch first reported. Warner Bros. Discovery's stock plunged 19% after it reported greater than expected losses and admitted it wasn't sure when the advertising market would recover.
More consolidation among the legacy media companies and independent production companies is widely expected, which often entails job cuts.
Joanna Sucherman, who places high-level execs at the likes of Disney, NBC, and Fox through her company JLS Media, told Business Insider late last year that she expected hiring to resume in 2024, but slowly. Entertainment companies will get back to staffing up, but the jobs will be in stronger growth areas like gaming, streaming, and advertising, more than in filmed entertainment programming.
"The business is going to look different," she said.
Here are the entertainment companies, listed alphabetically, that have made layoffs in recent months.
This article was originally published on November 16 and has been updated with new information. Alison Brower contributed to an earlier version.
Amazon: January Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Nadia Sinh in Prime Video's "Citadel." Prime VideoAmazon told staff in January it's laying off "several hundred" employees across Prime Video and Amazon MGM studios. The cuts follow smaller ones in 2023, when it laid off under 1% of its global communications staff, which included roles in Amazon Studios, Prime Video, and Music, Deadline reported, and a reduction of about 100 at Studios and Prime Video in April. Companywide, the tech giant has announced 27,000 in cuts in the past year.
Anonymous Content: OctoberTalent management and production company Anonymous Content laid off 8% of its staff, or around 13 people, in October, Variety reported. Areas impacted included representation, television, motion picture, literary, media rights, and branded entertainment. Anonymous is known for shows including HBO's long-running "True Detective," Rami Malek-starring "Mr. Robot," and Emmy-winning comedy "Schitt's Creek," and such films as "The Revenant" and Oscar-winner "Spotlight."
Earlier in the year, Anonymous CEO Dawn Olmstead and COO Heather McCauley exited the company.
CAA: AugustCAA, arguably Hollywood's starriest talent agency, laid off 60 staffers in August, Deadline first reported, with cuts coming from multiple departments and many junior agents impacted. Sources told Deadline that strategic decision-making about cuts began before the Hollywood strikes halted dealmaking as well as production; they came one year after CAA closed its acquisition of ICM Partners, a combination that eliminated about 100 jobs.
CBS: DecemberCBS laid off ad-sales staffers in its group of 28 TV stations as part of a long-term restructuring, Deadline reported. The report noted that cuts come as CBS parent Paramount Global has faced challenges in its advertising business, with TV media ad revenue declining 14% in its most recent quarter.
DreamWorks Animation: OctoberAbout 70 positions, representing 4% of staff, were cut at DreamWorks Animation in October. The move was part of a strategy shift away from producing all films fully in-house, Cartoon Brew reported. The iconic studio has "Trolls Band Together" opening in theaters November 17 and has family-oriented series "Curses!" streaming on Apple TV+.
Entertainment One: DecemberEntertainment One, a production company based in Toronto, was reportedly to cut about 10% of staff in December, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed on Monday. It follows an earlier layoff in June of about 20% after Hasbro, a popular toy manufacturer, moved to sell eOne's television and film departments to Lionsgate in a deal valued at $500 million. Hasbro bought eOne in 2019.
EOne has been involved in a number of projects ranging from the popular Showtime series "Yellowjackets" to family-friendly brands like Peppa Pig. Hasbro will retain the rights to Peppa Pig and several other animated properties.
Hasbro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fifth Season: August "The Lost Daughter" on Netflix. YANNIS DRAKOULIDIS/NETFLIX © 2021The film and TV production company formerly known as Endeavor Content laid off 30 people, or about 12% of its workforce, across executive and administrative roles. The company cited the twin Hollywood strikes for the August cuts. Fifth Season is known for films "In the Heights" and "Just Mercy" for Warner Bros., Oscar nominated "The Lost Daughter" for Netflix, and 14 Emmy-nominated "Severance" for Apple TV+.
Moonbug Entertainment: OctoberThe studio behind the kids' hit CocoMelon laid off about 30 people, or 5% as part of production cuts and restructuring, Bloomberg reported. Moonbug was one of the studios acquired by Blackstone-backed Candle Media in recent years as part of a trend by private equity to capitalize on the rise of streaming video.
NBCUniversal: November and JanuaryNBCUniversal cut close to 50 staffers in November, Variety reported, with the majority of the layoffs hitting the company's streamer, Peacock. A company insider told Variety the cuts were part of a strategic restructuring and that many of the roles would be filled. NBCU has seen pockets of layoffs over the past two years, cutting from its ad sales teams in January and previously eliminating roles at E! Entertainment and ot her divisions.
More recently, NBC News saw between 50 and 100 layoffs in January, Puck News first reported, a small percentage of the network's 3,500 staff. NBCU's music division, Universal Music Group, announced plans to make cuts during the first quarter of this year. Bloomberg reported those layoffs would number in the hundreds; the company has some 10,000 employees. UMG CEO Lucian Grange had teased his "cut to grow" plans during an October earnings call.
Netflix: NovemberThe leading streamer hasn't been immune to layoffs, most recently cutting a handful of drama and overall deals execs in November, Deadline reported, following a reduction in its animation department and restructure of its business division, leading to the departure of senior lawyers. The streamer cut around 450 people in 2022 after its subscription growth stumbled early that year.
Roku: November Roku, Nasdaq sign ReutersThe streamer and device maker laid off more than 300 people, or about 10%, after reporting a net loss of $108 million in 2Q, TechCrunch reported. The November cuts followed a staff reduction of 200 in March. The company, which is driven by advertising, also lost its ads chief Alison Levin to NBCUniversal that same month.
Spotify: DecemberMusic streaming giant Spotify will reduce its headcount by roughly 17% as company leadership seeks to ensure the media brand is "right-sized for the challenges ahead," according to an announcement posted December 4 on its website.
CEO Daniel Ek acknowledged in the post that the decision would be "incredibly painful for our team" and blamed macro factors for the painful decision that would affect "many smart, talented, and hard-working people."
Impacted employees — informed via one-on-one conversations with HR representatives — are set to receive on average roughly five months of severance pay, compensation for accrued and unused vacation time, healthcare benefits during the severance period, and immigration and outplacement career support, Ek wrote.
The news might have taken some company watchers by surprise, Ek conceded. For the third quarter of 2023, Spotify in its most recent financial disclosures reported more than $3.5 billion in revenue, compared to about $3.04 billion during the same timeframe last year. Year to date as of September 30, the company reported almost $9.6 billion in revenue, up from about $8.6 billion during the same period in 2022.
Starz: NovemberThe premium cable network and streamer in November laid off more than 10%, or about 67 people, and exited the UK and Australia as it prepares for its future as a standalone company, CNBC reported. Lionsgate acquired Starz for $4.4. Billion in 2016, but the company is planning to spin Lionsgate off as its own publicly traded entity this year.
Tidal: DecemberThe music-streaming service that's majority owned by the Jack Dorsey-led digital-payments company Block has laid off more than 10%, or about 40, staffers, including some curation team members that build playlists, Bloomberg reported. The cuts are part of Block's goal of capping its employment at 12,000, Variety reported. Tidal was formed in 2015 by Jay-Z and acquired in 2021 by Square.
UTA: OctoberTalent agency UTA saw a small round of layoffs in October, representing less than 1% of staff, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The cuts followed a similar headcount reduction in February at the company, which has been on a big run of acquisitions in recent years, scooping up talent and literary agencies Curtis Brown and Fletcher & Company, strategic advisory firm MediaLink, and executive search firm James & Co.
Warner Bros. Discovery: August Jennifer Coolidge in "The White Lotus." HBOThe entertainment giant in August laid off marketing pros at its Max streamer, the latest in a series of widespread headcount cuts that WBD has enacted to justify the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. Reports put the latest reduction in the double digits.
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