Paramount Global Says It Will Take $1B Charge Related To Layoffs And Content Strategy Shifts

Paramount Global expects to take a $1 billion charge in the current quarter due to ongoing programming shifts and the layoffs it announced earlier this month.

CFO Naveen Chopra delivered that outlook during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts. The company is “making a variety of important changes to our global workforce and content strategy,” he said. “These moves reflect decisions we’ve made to transition our business and enhance our future value proposition. They will also result in a programming and restructuring charge in Q1, which we currently expect to be approximately $1 billion.”

The company has been increasingly “optimizing and sharing” programming across streaming and linear TV, Chopra noted. “We’re also focused on using the collective power of Paramount Global to unlock synergies more broadly. This mindset enables headcount cost reduction, including the action we announced earlier this month.”

The company announced on February 13 it was eliminating nearly 750 domestic positions, or about 5% of its domestic workforce. That move will generate about $200 million in annual run rate cost savings, Chopra said, with the majority of that benefiting the TV Media division and general corporate expenses. “We will continue to optimize our compensation expenses throughout the course of 2024,” he said.

Paramount Global reported mixed results in the fourth quarter, with revenue coming up short of Wall Street expectations due to advertising weakness and the impact of the Hollywood strikes. One bright spot included the company’s declaration that it expects to turn a profit in its domestic streaming business by 2025. Investors have been pressuring Paramount shares, in large part because of concerns about streaming losses and a lack of guidance about when it might start to become profitable.