Thinus Ferreira
After Skydance's buyout, Paramount Global bosses say the coming retenchments - something that will very likely affect South Africa's Paramount Africa as well - will be "painful", although the company is no longer looking at selling off BET and will transition its pay-TV channels to video streaming.
On Wednesday evening, new Paramount CEO David Ellison and a few top executives, at a press event for some media in Los Angeles, took questions about the plans for Paramount Global under Skydance ownership.
David Ellison's LA press conference about the looming downsizing of Paramount came at the same time as Paramount Africa's event for some media and influencers in Bryanston, Johannesburg, for its upcoming new South African telenovela Black Gold from Black Brain Pictures.
Jeff Shell, Paramount president, told media that the coming Paramount Global retrenchments is "going to be painful".
"It's always hard, but we don't want to be a company that every quarter is laying people off. So, it is important for us to get done what we're doing in one big thing and then be done with it," he said.
Paramount Global has around 18 000 staffers remaining following brutal, almost constant cuts over the past few years.
David Ellison said the upcoming retrenchments and restructuring of the company could amount to saving of more than $2 billion. Under new ownership, it is however no longer looking for a buyer and to spin off TV channels like BET.
"In terms of specifics and timelines, we're in day 7, and I hope you can respect when we get there, we're going to talk to team members first before talking to anybody else," he said about the upcoming retrenchments.
About no longer looking to sell off BET and other channels, David Ellison said "It is our intention to keep the company together and invest in that lens."
Last month, Paramount shocked when Paramount Africa told staffers of the shocking decision that it's considering shuttering its entire localised operations and offices based in South Africa and Nigeria.
This also has implications for its traditional linear pay-TV channels like BET Africa, MTV Base and others, which are carried on MultiChoice's DStv platform.
After 20 years Paramount Africa might close down the local content operations it had established, together with its Bryanston building as part of Paramount Global's cost-cutting and downsizing.
Craig Paterson, Paramount Africa senior vice president and general manager, as well as Monde Twala, senior vice-president and general manager of Paramount Africa and lead of BET International, told Paramount Africa staffers last month that Paramount is considering shutting down local operations in Africa as the company "evaluates its pay-TV strategy and local channel footprint here in Africa".
"We are at a point in our journey where we are facing immense industry disruption. Our team is not immune to potential changes," they said.
"We understand the coming weeks may be tough and feel unsettling. Through it all, please know your efforts are valued beyond measure."
In response to a media query last month about the decision, Natalie Mdladla, Paramount Africa senior director of communications, said Paramount Africa declines to comment.
About the future of Paramount Global's struggling linear pay-TV channels, George Cheeks, Paramount's chairman of TV media divison, said at the press conference on Wednesday evening that it's "a super challenging business" and "we’re all seeing the pay-TV business shifting over to streaming".
"So there’ll be a lot of conversations about what iconic franchises we want to continue, shift maybe to streaming, etc. We're 7 days in, but I do feel like there's a lot to preserve there. There's a lot of great, iconic franchises."
Jeff Shell added that "You look at a brand like BET, which is a pretty strong brand that's going to be a pretty important building block of our of our streaming strategy" and that "We're thinking of them as brands that we have to redefine".
David Ellison said "Nickelodeon is also one of those. Kids and family is so important to the world, and making sure that we're doing the right thing for Nick and that whole cadre of content is critically important to us as well."
While Paramount never got around to launching Paramount+ in South Africa, Paramount's new owners will now look to integrate the different streaming options like BET+ and Pluto TV in the United States all into Paramount+, similar to what Disney has done with Disney+.
In South Africa, Paramount+ is a content tile on MultiChoice's Showmax video streaming service that MultiChoice runs in partnership with NBCUniversal.
