- More than 200 million watched at least part of the Super Bowl on Sunday
- Paramount’s CBS netted extra ad revenue when the game went into overtime
- It comes amid widespread cuts across the tech and media industries this year
Paramount is laying off hundreds of employees, just one day after the company announced CBS’s blockbuster Super Bowl viewing figures.
Paramount Global – which owns the network – will lay off around 800 people, or around 3 percent of its workforce, CNBC reported.
Affected staffers will be notified today, chief executive Bob Bakish reportedly said in an internal memo to employees.
‘These adjustments will help enable us to build on our momentum and execute our strategic vision for the year ahead – and I firmly believe we have much to be excited about,’ he wrote in the note.
It comes just a day after CBS announced this year’s Super Bowl brought in 123.4 million viewers on Sunday night – making it the most watched telecast in history and the second-most watched US broadcast event behind the Apollo 11 moon landing.
This year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched telecast ever, helped by Taylor Swift’s support for her boyfriend Kansas City Chiefs boyfriend Travis Kelce
The Chiefs, flanked by support from Taylor Swift for her tight-end boyfriend Travis Kelce, defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in a gripping overtime win to merge victorious in the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
On CBS itself, 120 million people watched the game, which was the largest audience in history for a single network.
According to research company Guideline, CBS charged a record average $6.5 million for every Super Bowl commercial.
CBS also netted around an extra $35 million as the game went into overtime, Adweek reported.
Patrick Mahomes was named the Super Bowl’s MVP for a third time after beating the 49ers
CEO Bakish had previously warned in January of impending cuts, but did not specify how many employees would be let go.
Paramount will focus its resources on its ‘most powerful, resonant franchises, films and series’ and produce fewer local, international originals, Bakish had said, in an effort to ‘operate as a leaner company and spend less.’
Paramount Global owns a variety of networks including CBS, Paramount+, BET, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
The studio is home to film franchises such as Top Gun and Mission: Impossible, as well as the hit television show Yellowstone.
Affected staffers will be notified today, Paramount Global Chief Executive Bob Bakish reportedly said in an internal memo to employees
The layoffs come as the company considers merger and acquisition options from Skydance Media and Warner Bros. Discovery, according to CNBC.
Streamer Paramount+ also continues to lose money each quarter – despite the platform hiking the cost of its ad-free tier from $9.99 to $11.99 last year.
In the third quarter of 2023, the streaming service lost $238 million.
Overall, more than 34,000 workers have been let go from 141 tech companies worldwide so far this year, according to tracking website Layoffs.fyi.
Major media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and the Business Insider, have also cut jobs.
Paramount had about 24,500 full and part-time employees in 37 countries and about 5,800 project-based staff on its payroll as of the end of 2022, according to a regulatory filing.
