HBO Max, the streaming platform will let go 70 employees, that is, about 14 per cent of its workforce.
These job cuts come as a result of the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery that happened last year, that is, 2021.
David Zaslav, CEO and president, Warner Bros. Discovery — now the parent company of HBO — is resorting to these cost-cutting measures, which are going to impact the casting, international, acquisitions as well as reality programming departments.
The move will reportedly help save billions post merger, which can then be used to create a new company structure, which will also ensure that there are no redundancies in the future.
There has been a reshuffle also, as part of the changes and as part of the attempts to save and protect the majority of HBO Max’s scripted content. The restructuring follows the official merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. about three months ago. AT&T reportedly received $43 billion in cash and debt. However, a debt burden of $53 billion still exists and the Company is now trying to cut costs to save $3 billion in 2023.
When news of the intended layoffs began appearing a few weeks ago, fans were afraid that original scripted shows would be cancelled. The rumours of cancellation of shows were further fuelled by the announcement of the shelving of ‘Batgirl’, which was completed at an expense of about $70 million.
