Warner Bros. Television Group has laid off 82 staffers across its unscripted and animation departments in another round of cuts at Warner Bros. Discovery.
As reported by Variety, Warner Bros. TV Group chairman Channing Dungey sent a memo to employees on Oct. 11 announcing the layoffs. The memo also explained that the company would opt not to fill 43 vacant positions, leading to a total loss of 125 jobs. This makes up 26% of Warner Bros. TV Group's total workforce.
This news came shortly after Warner Bros. TV Group, which acts as the production arm for The CW and DC Comics as well as the distribution arm of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and HBO, opted to shutter Stage 13 and end the Warner Bros. Television Workshop. The layoffs include consolidations in Warner Bros. Unscripted Television. Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna Barbera Studios will still exist, though Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios will merge their development and main production teams. According to the reports, output for Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and HBO Max will remain the same.
"These are challenging times in the world at large, and a tumultuous time in our industry," Dungey wrote in the memo. "For this kind of change to hit so close to home is incredibly difficult. But my hope is that these changes, made with an eye to a more focused business strategy, will strengthen and stabilize our company, maintain our great creative output, and better position us for continued future success."
This announcement comes after reports that Warner Bros. Discovery was prepared for another round of layoffs at the company. While it was unclear when exactly the cuts would take place, it was reported by insiders that layoffs would begin in October. "Everyone was given financial targets going into Q4... Those targets include head counts, and October was always the expectation for the ax to fall," an insider stated.
The merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery in April has resulted in several changes to the company, including layoffs, the removal of Warner Bros. titles from the streaming service and the cancelation of upcoming HBO Max exclusives like Batgirl. However, Warner Bros. Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav revealed plans to expand HBO Max's content library overall, with a focus on increased "content" and overall "quality." It has also been reported that the streaming service's recent content purge saved the company "tens of millions of dollars."
HBO and HBO Max lost 70 employees, totaling 14 percent of its staff, in a wave of layoffs in August, including high-level executives. Further reports suggest that the downsizing and restructuring are part of Zaslav's efforts to save $3 billion after the company's net loss of $3.4 billion in the merger.
Source: Variety