The studio Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to go through more layoffs this coming summer season. According to Deadline, roles within Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable television division will be cut down, meaning cable networks under the Discovery name. The cuts within these various cable networks are being described as “pockets of refinement.” It is predicted that farther along this summer, more staff cuts will take place.
Cable networks, including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, and Science Channel, are just some of the cable networks under the Warner Bros. Discovery name. Food Network and HGTV are also within this realm, even though they are former Scripps networks. TBS, TNT, and truTV are Turner-branded networks that are also under Warner Bros. Discovery.
Kathleen Finch, the Chairman and Chief Contest Officer of US networks, stated during a keynote in February at a Realscreen conference in Austin, Texas, that amid combining businesses, there will be “tough” obstacles to overcome. She also stated, “When you go through a merger, you do sort of figure out how many layers we need. How much staff do we need? I’m not really running these networks as 30 individual teams, they’re clustered together, they’re put together with leaders at the top who really live and breathe that content. That’s not to say that the people that we lost aren’t amazing people, they are, we just had to have a restructure that has less people doing the jobs.” Gunnar Wiedenfels, the Chief Financial Officer, stated that “we’re done with that chapter” during the beginning of this year, especially in response to the getting rid of programs and films in order to continue to move “forward.” Within the last week, the sports division has faced a 50-role cut of Luis Silberwasser’s team.
Other studios like Disney and NBCUniversal are also among the others who, too, are laying off workers at a high rate.