How is Paramount Global celebrating its Super Bowl ratings victory on CBS? By laying off hundreds of employees.
Paramount Global — which owns CBS, Paramount Pictures, Pluto TV, Comedy Central, BET, and numerous other media properties — is set to begin laying off around 800 employees, or 3 percent of its workforce on Tuesday, according to an internal memo from CEO Bob Bakish that was first obtained by Deadline.
Workers losing their jobs will be notified Tuesday. “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 reportedly wrote in the note.
For the Super Bowl on Sunday, CBS scored 123.4 million viewers across television and streaming platforms — a significant increase from last year’s tally of 115.1 million.
CBS charged advertisers $7 million per commercial. Among the takers was China’s online marketplace Temu, which purchased airtime for three commercials that ran multiple times during Sunday’s big game.
The layoffs aren’t a surprise. As Breitbart News reported last month, Paramount Global was planning to get rid of “hundreds” of employees across nearly all of its divisions. Meanwhile, acquisition rumors continue to swirl around Paramount, with David Ellison’s Skydance among those reportedly circling.
The cuts represent the latest Hollywood bloodbath following layoffs at other media giants, including Disney, NBCUniversal, Amazon MGM Studios, and Universal Music Group.
Hollywood is feeling the squeeze on multiple fronts. Households continue to cut the cord by the millions while the advertising market is still in the doldrums due to poor consumer sentiment tied to President Joe Biden’s economic policies.
Consumers are cutting back on discretionary expenses, like entertainment, as the cost of food, energy, insurance, rent, and other essentials continues to skyrocket under Biden.
Last year, Paramount slashed 25 percent of its employees across multiple media properties. As part of the reductions, it shut down MTV News.
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