Paramount International CEO Bob Bakish stated Thursday that the corporate will proceed to scale back its world workforce “to function as a leaner firm and spend much less.” However there have been no additional particulars in a memo to workers obtained by Deadline following a “Bob Reside” city corridor this morning.
The corporate has three foremost strategic objectives going ahead: maximizing content material, driving streaming profitability, and “additional unlocking the ability of ONE PARAMOUNT.”
“Because it has over the previous few years, this does imply we’ll proceed to scale back our workforce globally,” the memo learn. “These choices are by no means simple, however are important on our path to earnings progress.”
Learn the complete memo beneath.
Deadline reported final weekend that cuts at Paramount have been set to affect tons of of workers throughout the corporate. The WSJ in December had pegged the layoffs at about 1,000, resulting in a fairly brutal interval of ready for staffers which is ongoing. Deadline heard senior executives had been given discount targets to hit to chop prices.
“Amid all this modification, it’s no shock that Paramount stays a subject of hypothesis. We’re a storied public firm in a intently adopted business. However I’ve at all times believed the perfect factor we will do is think about what we will management — execution,” Bakish wrote.
Under is the complete memo.
Crew, Earlier at present, we devoted the primary Bob Reside of 2024 to our strategic focus for the 12 months. Importantly, this imaginative and prescient builds on all this exceptional workforce completed in 2023 — and there’s no query we’ve made unbelievable progress. Final 12 months, Paramount+ continued to be one of many quickest rising paid streaming companies, and Pluto TV was essentially the most extensively distributed FAST service on the planet.
We had the #1 present on tv, 5 #1 field workplace debuts and the #1 broadcast community for the final season, to call only a few accomplishments. In these methods and extra, we’re unleashing the ability of our content material, which stays our mission it doesn’t matter what challenges we face. And now we have definitely confronted a couple of. As an business, we’ve confronted a mushy advert market, a unstable macroeconomic atmosphere and two historic strikes simply within the final 12 months. All whereas navigating the continued evolution of the streaming enterprise, as business sentiment and metrics for fulfillment proceed to shift. And we’ve been on our personal journey as an organization — to appreciate the complete potential of One Paramount as we transition our enterprise from linear to streaming, and proceed fine-tuning how we window and monetize our content material.
Amid all this modification, it’s no shock that Paramount stays a subject of hypothesis. We’re a storied public firm in a intently adopted business. However I’ve at all times believed the perfect factor we will do is think about what we will management — execution. Leaning into what’s working, whereas frequently adjusting to present realities.
So what does that imply for us in 2024? Our precedence is to drive earnings progress. And we’ll get there by rising our income whereas intently managing prices — a stability that may require each workforce, division and model to be aligned. Extra particularly, now we have three key methods to realize this:
1. Maximizing CONTENT with the largest affect. With regards to mass, fashionable content material, we’ve at all times punched above our weight. And, for our audiences and companions world wide, it’s turn out to be very clear that our Hollywood hits are the largest draw. So, in 2024, we’re focusing our assets on essentially the most highly effective, resonant franchises, movies and collection that carry out throughout platforms globally. As we refine our content material technique, this implies we’ll produce fewer native, worldwide originals for our platforms, aside from our main free-to-air networks in Australia, Argentina, Chile and the UK, the place we’ll proceed to have a robust pipeline of native content material. And we’ll proceed to maximise our world hits throughout a number of platforms and income streams – together with streaming, movie, TV and licensing – for the largest return on our funding.
2. Driving to STREAMING profitability. We’ve discovered loads since we launched Paramount+ practically three years in the past. As we stated final quarter, we anticipate that 2022 was our 12 months of peak funding, so we’re a 12 months forward of schedule on that essential metric. Given our continued push to streaming profitability, this 12 months we’ll lean even additional into massive markets just like the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, the place now we have a robust multiplatform presence, our US studio content material resonates greatest, and the place there may be the best income potential. In different essential markets throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia, we’ll proceed our market-by-market technique and faucet into the ability of our sturdy native partnerships, guaranteeing we’re working with the perfect mannequin to drive native scale and viewership, whereas managing prices. Globally, growing subscriber engagement and retention throughout our platforms may also be crucial priorities on our path to streaming profitability. So will driving income throughout promoting, subscriptions, and licensing – together with by means of our not too long ago introduced Paramount+ branded locations – whereas we proceed to function as effectively as we will and cut back prices.
3. Additional unlocking the ability of ONE PARAMOUNT. We’ve made loads of progress on this entrance, however there’s much more we will do to leverage the collective energy of our firm. Which means persevering with to collaborate throughout groups, time zones and capabilities on efforts like cross-promotion, revolutionary partnerships, information and insights and extra, to take advantage of out of our property and experience. As at all times, we’ll proceed to work to strengthen our tradition – prioritizing inclusion, worker and chief growth, and guiding our groups by means of change. Our One Paramount mentality won’t solely drive higher outcomes – it’ll additionally allow us to function as a leaner firm and spend much less. The place doable, we’ll look to increase our shared companies mannequin as we streamline operations.
Because it has over the previous few years, this does imply we’ll proceed to scale back our workforce globally. These choices are by no means simple, however are important on our path to earnings progress. We are going to proceed to be as considerate as we could be, talk when there may be info to share and help our groups all through. Should you didn’t get an opportunity to tune into at present’s Bob Reside, please accomplish that at any time when you may on Vimeo. There’s extra info there — and much more to return. Anticipate to listen to updates on our progress in opposition to this technique all year long. In some ways, 2024 would be the subsequent nice step in our transformation and we should evolve how we work to help that. I can’t emphasize sufficient how grateful I’m in your dedication, and the way proud I’m of all that this workforce continues to perform. In mild of all that we’ve achieved collectively, I’ve little doubt we’re as much as the duty.
Greatest, Bob
