Report: HBO To Lay Off Over 150 Employees

Variety reports that HBO plans to lay off 150 employees as a cost-cutting measure.

A recent internal email sent from the CEO of HBO to other high-ranking officials was leaked to Variety. The letter discussed the layoffs necessary to keep the content provider moving forward. These will be the first layoffs of this kind for HBO in nearly ten years.

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Variety leaked the full letter, part of which can be seen below:

"We have a long history of tightly managing our overhead so that we’re able to maximize investment in the creation, distribution and marketing of content. We also shift resources when necessary toward areas with the greatest potential to drive revenue growth and to enhance our brand. We reviewed 2015 budgets and staffing plans with this in mind and reduced cost and redundancy wherever possible to preserve our ability to invest in our future. This will unfortunately include the elimination of some positions. Where relevant, your department head will share details with you in the weeks ahead."

These cuts come on the heels of parent company Time Warner making some cuts of their own. Of course, we’re used to Time Warner doing that stuff because Time Warner is always reshuffling its deck. HBO, on the other hand, has been one of the most consistent media enterprises for the last 40 years, which makes it real news when they lay off any staff.

Presumably the company is shedding some weight in anticipation for offering an online-only service within the next year or so. We can only speculate on that based on the timing, but it makes sense that the company would want its ducks in a row before it changes the structure of its business to further accommodate a move to streaming services.

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