Following Discovery's April acquisition of WarnerMedia, the changes are a part of a bigger Warner Bros. Discovery cost-cutting initiative. In the coming year, HBO Max and Discovery+ will merge to become one streaming platform.
According to people familiar with the situation, Warner Bros. Discovery is cutting 70 jobs at HBO Max, mostly from the division's reality, casting, and acquisitions divisions.
As HBO Max and Discovery+ merge to form one streaming service, Warner Bros. Discovery is making a stronger effort to avoid overlap by cutting jobs, which represents 14% of the personnel at the streamer. In April, Discovery completed the $43 billion acquisition of WarnerMedia. Synergies from the transaction worth $3 billion, according to CEO David Zaslav.
According to two of the persons, many of the workers who lost their jobs were a part of teams under the direction of former HBO Max chief content officer Kevin Reilly that did not fit into the new Warner Bros. Discovery organisational structure. In 2020, Reilly quit the organisation.
In order to create a new streaming service that will debut in the United States in the middle of 2023, Zaslav is fusing HBO Max and Discovery+. According to the sources, Discovery will supply the reality programming for that offering, eliminating the need for HBO Max's reality branch. As opposed to using internal staff, HBO frequently works directly with casting directors. It has also discontinued many of its so-called pay-one partnerships, through which it obtains licenced films, which were handled by its acquisitions department.
Business affairs, programming, and production are some of the other departments that are impacted, according to one of the people. According to the sources, no shows will be cancelled as a result of the job layoffs. The HBO Max scripted programmes and movies are unaffected by the job reduction.
