WarnerMedia to cut between 5-7 percent of employees

WarnerMedia announced Tuesday that it will cut up to 7 percent of employees as the company restructures around streaming service HBO Max, CEO Jason Kilar said in a company memo.

“Today, we have arrived at a number of difficult decisions that are resulting in a smaller WarnerMedia team. This is a function of removing layers and the impact of consolidating previously separate organizations,” Kilar said in the memo, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “Starting today in North America, we will be sharing which jobs are being eliminated and which roles have changed.”

The cuts could affect up to 1,750 of the company’s 25,000 employees.

The memo comes after several executives exited the company, including WarnerMedia Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt and TruTV, TBS and TNT President Kevin Reilly, all of whom left in August. Warner Bros. Entertainment cut more than 500 jobs between August and November.

Kilar told The Hollywood Reporter in August that the reorientation toward HBO Max would likely lead to cuts.

“Obviously there will be layoffs just given the nature of what we’re doing here,” he told the publication.

The streaming platform had just over 8.5 million users at the end of the third quarter of 2020. The platform has struggled to keep pace with its competitors due to ongoing licensing disputes with Roku that have prevented it from streaming through the digital media player.

“While I anticipate that organizationally, things will settle down materially in the weeks and months to come (we’ve worked hard to make this a process with a beginning, middle and an end),” Kilar wrote in the memo. “I don’t want to suggest that our future is static.”

Kilar, who became CEO in April after stints at Amazon and Hulu, is expected to directly address employees in a town hall meeting Wednesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.