Add Walt Disney Studios and Lionsgate to the companies laying off staff. Disney’s will be roughly 5% largely in the distribution area with other areas impacted as well. Lionsgate laid off less than 20 people as part of a reorganization affecting home entertainment and service areas. And, Viacom No. 2 Phillippe Dauman said this about Paramount Pictures signalling what may be layoffs there: “As the home entertainment stream is challenged, fewer DVDs are being sold, so you have to review your home entertainment overhead. That’s adjusting to the business model. We’re very focused on that. We continue to work on the overhead there.”
Phillippe Dauman is the highest paid CEO in the nation —– yet they are laying people off…..fucking greedy crook
Wow – the Lionsgate Home Ent team is already so lean and mean, I can’t imagine how they could have any less staff.
I wonder if anyone is going to study whether the internet may be picking up the slack. I prefer to watch my prime time shows on the internet (Dancing with the Stars, 20/20 & America’s Next Top Model, among others). There is usually a delay from the actual air date but LESS commercials.
I love it when CEOs talk about layoffs as “reducing overhead” as if cutting people off from their jobs is some technical, impersonal action. I realize that overhead means different things beyond just labor, but the employees all know what the guy is talking about. Oh well, I guess this is just a day in the life of our new reality.
so who’s out at disney?
Remember when everyone said Mars Needs Moms won’t be a blip on Disney corporate profits…well, it is one big blip with Disney studios.
The 250 plus layoffs will cover far more than Home Video. It is quite difficult to absorb a TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR LOSS for any business. Sure, Home Video will be the valid excuse, but these cut backs at Disney and other studios will not be limited to Home Video.
just guessing…
On the bright side, at least the CEOs will get their bonuses as by-product of the layoffs. So much for trickle-down theory. Looks like 250 people at Disney just got trickled on!
Right on GREED! How many millions do these schmucks need to make at the expense of hard-working stiffs? How do these guys sleep at night – oh wait, they sleep juuuuuuuust fine.
Seems like many studio heads believe that Home Entertainment can be mined for overhead with ease. It’s always an interesting business case on what to do with a declining industry. The biggest mistake one can do is to cut-by-the-numbers, forgetting that the DVD business is still a multi-billion dollar cash cow. In this time of rapid technological transformation, changing consumer behavior, and greater uncertainty, you need your smartest people figuring out how to hold on to as many billions as you can, for as long as you can.
While cutting overhead aggressively, they need to make sure they don’t hasten the decline of the business and make the projections more rapidly self-fulfilling. Home entertainment will be a cash cow for a long time. Don’t cut so deeply that you hurt it, or you’ll lose more than the people you laid off. You’ll also drive all the top talent away.
…and the rich get richer.
Disney lost my DVD business when they started putting out DVD/Blu-Ray versions…and the Blu-Ray versions had the best extras. I was NOT going to buy a Blu-Ray player just to buy Disney stuff. So now that I’ve got the basic Disney classics on DVD – Snow White, Pinocchio, Lady and the Tramp, Fantasia – I’m satisfied. If I want to watch something Disney-related that’s more recent, I have my Roku.
Plus, Disney disgusts me now. Robert Iger is a freaking fool. He thinks non-Disney creations – puppets and superheroes – are going to save the studio. Disney just isn’t Disney anymore.
…and it begins! Burn, baby, burn!!!
In the future, me thinks there will be no more DVD/CDs/Blue-Rays, etc. All the studios will release their own home entertainment product via their own web sites, or cable VOD.
Goodbye ITunes (although they may get a bypass through earned trailer releases, instead of paid content), Hulu, and Amazon.
Of course, I could be wrong, but if not, thousands of jobs shall be lost forever and ever…