Paramount Global will lay off 3.5% of its U.S. staff, expanding its workforce reductions as the company contends with shrinking cable TV viewership and intense competition from streaming platforms.
The cuts were communicated to employees in a memo on Tuesday and could eventually affect some international roles, according to the note from the office of Paramount’s three co-CEOs. The job losses are on top of a 15% workforce reduction announced last August.“We are taking hard but necessary steps to further streamline our organization starting this week,” co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins said in the memo.The layoffs come as Paramount pitches its planned $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media, though that deal still needs regulatory clearance. The company’s shares have been battered by shifting media consumption trends as cable subscriptions erode and streaming giants like Netflix gain dominance.Paramount, which had 18,600 employees at the end of last year, is also grappling with a $10 billion lawsuit President Trump filed against CBS News, a Paramount unit, over a 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The media landscape’s generational upheaval shows no sign of slowing.
