Star Trek’s parent company, Paramount Global, begins reorganization amid layoffs.
Streaming was not the answer everyone thought it’d be. With investors now wanting their money back after years upon years of lending many parent companies are trying to shore up their budgets to start returning borrowed money. Just about every major streaming service that we know has been operating at a loss heading into 2022.
With the war in Ukraine, inflation, concerns over the economy, declining ad revenues, and the mounting writer’s strike, many major companies are beginning to tighten their budgets. Many streaming services are ending expensive shows that aren’t bringing in major viewers and laying off staff to help save money so that they can become profitable.
Paramount Global wanted Paramount+ to start turning a profit in 2024 but that seems unlikely at this point. Not only due to everything going on outside of their bubble but also due to their own stock taking a hit.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Showtime CEO of the now combined Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studio announced that Paramount Global is laying off 25% of its domestic crew. This is due to McCarthy coming up with cost-saving measures. These measures include merging all of their owned studios into one group, and all of their network staff into one. The network staffing will see nine groups get merged into one, which is where a bulk of the layoffs will be coming from.
Paramount Global employed about 24,500 staffers at the end of 2022, and now it looks like over 6,000 are out of a job.
How will the Paramount Global cuts affect Star Trek?
Warner Bros Discovery, Disney, and Paramount Global have all laid off thousands of people over the last few weeks. But most of these people seem to be on the business side of things. The creative types seem to be ok, for now, assuming studios don’t try to get revenge on those striking.
Moreover, these cuts aren’t directed at Paramount+, yet. While the streaming service has had its budget slashed in recent months to help them become profitable, there isn’t any concern that properties like Star Trek have been affected.
At least as of right now.