by Thinus Ferreira
Amazon is cutting hundreds of staffers worldwide, starting in North America, at its Amazon Prime Video streaming service as well as its Amazon MGM Studios American trade publications and Reuters report.
In 2023 Amazon got rid of over 27 000 workers and confirmed it will let several hundred more go.
"We've identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact," Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, emailed staffers on Wednesday.
Jennifer Salke, Amazon MGM Studios head, in an email told staffers that "like any organization, we continue to look deeply at our business, self-reflect on our strategies, and be insightful about our investments across Amazon MGM Studios, Prime Video and Freevee".
"While we will continue to make significant content investments and deliver a robust slate, it’s also important that we continue to focus on becoming more operationally efficient and coordinated in driving success across our business. As Mike shared this morning, we have made difficult decisions to eliminate some roles across Amazon MGM Studios."
She added "we have taken a deep look at our Local Originals business and are focusing our resources in the places where we believe they can have the largest impact for customers".
"All impacted employees in the Americas have been notified this morning (PST), and most other regions will be notified on these headcount reductions and changes in strategy by the end of the week."
"We are following local processes, which may include time for consultation with employee representative bodies, possibly resulting in longer timelines to communicate in some countries. I know this news is difficult and impacts you all in different ways."
"Change is always hard and decisions to lose valued employees are not ones we take lightly," Jennifer Salke wrote.
"As shared this morning, we remain very optimistic about the long-term future of Amazon MGM Studios and continue to make significant investments towards making Prime the most loved entertainment hub for customers globally."
"For those teams who have been impacted by these strategic changes and headcount reductions, I want to thank you all for the hard work and results you have driven for our business."
It's not yet clear how Amazon MGM Studios and Amazon Prime Video staffers in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa might be affected.
Amazon Prime Video plans to introduce and roll out its ad tier on 29 January to all Amazon Prime Video subscribers with advertisements which will appear in scripted programming for the first time. Subscribers who don't want to see ads will have to pay more for a higher subscription tier.
