September 25, 2024
The Paramount+ streaming platform has reportedly begun staff layoffs as the flagship direct-to-consumer service grapples with the previously-announced 15% companywide Paramount Global personnel downsizing.
The layoffs primarily hit the streamer’s marketing and communications team, which included the departures of SVP of communications Morgan Seal, SVP of entertainment publicity Amanda Cary, and SVP of talent relations, events and awards Deva Kehoe, among others. The three had more than 30 years combined at Paramount.
Other streaming executives cut included four-year veteran Tina Koyanagi-Rosener, senior director of Paramount+ scripted originals content strategy, while her six-person department was also let go. Rosener’s team worked with studios and production surrounding original Taylor Sheridan series, the “Star Trek” universe, “SEAL Team” and new series “Criminal Minds: Evolution,” among others.
The layoffs follow last week’s departure of Erin Calhoun, senior communications executive at Paramount Streaming and Showtime.
Paramount Global, which has been acquired by Skydance Media for $8 billion, in a deal expected to close in 2025, initiated the layoffs in an attempt to achieve $500 million in annual cost savings.
The media company, which reported a $6 billion TV asset write-down in its most-recent fiscal quarter (ended June 30), posted DTC operating income of $26 million on revenue of $1.88 billion. That compared with an operating loss of $424 million on revenue of $1.66 billion in the previous-year period.
Paramount+ lost 2.8 million subscribers from the previous quarter (ended March 31) to end the period with 68 million subs. The sub loss was due to the planned exit from a bundle agreement in South Korea. Year-over-year, the streamer gained 7 million subs from 61 million in Q2 2023.
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