Netflix has initiated a wave of layoffs today, with around 150 of its 11,000 employees being terminated as the company reels from disappointing financial results in the first quarter of the year — reports Deadline.
The news comes just a couple of days after the streamer updated its company culture guidelines, encouraging employees who disagree with its content to quit. It looks like Netflix has now decided to start showing people the door on its own.
“As we explained on earnings, our slowing revenue growth means we are also having to slow our cost growth as a company. So sadly, we are letting around 150 employees go today, mostly US-based,” a spokesperson for Netflix told Deadline.
“These changes are primarily driven by business needs rather than individual performance, which makes them especially tough as none of us want to say goodbye to such great colleagues. We’re working hard to support them through this very difficult transition.”
According to sources, a significant percentage of those laid off belonged to Netflix’s creative department, across both film and TV, and several were even among the executive leadership.
Rumours suggest that Sebastian Gibbs and Penelope Essoyan in Drama Series, Negin Salmasi in Spectacle and Event TV, as well as Nathan Kitada, Fidan Manashirova, Naketha Mattocks, Brad Butler, and Caroline Mak, are all leaving the company.
Downsizing has been expected at Netflix ever since the company reported a slowdown in revenue growth and its first drop in subscribers in more than a decade during Q1. The company’s global subscriber base lost 200,000 users during the quarter, and it expects to lose another 2 million subscribers in Q2.
News of Netflix’s Q1 results sent shares plummeting 25%, and the stock price has been on a downtrend ever since.
Gone are the days of extravagant budgets and unbridled spending at Netflix. The streamer will have to start pinching pennies if it wants to regain its footing in the industry. Netflix last month said it plans to enforce more financial discipline across its operations and focus on content quality rather than quantity.
The company is gearing up to introduce a new ad-supported subscription tier with a lower price later this year, and live streaming is also in the works behind the scenes.
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The price has gone up so much that its no longer a no-brainer to subscribe for many people. Their VPN restrictions and change of heart on sharing subscriptions isn’t helping either. People are rethinking the value proposition now.
Hyperproduction inevitability ends up in garbage or ends up being garbage. Netflix lost it for me when the few good shows became even more difficult to find because they were buried by so much garbage. And as a course correction they are now going to focus on quality of the content, rather than quantity? Shouldn’t that have been the approach from the beginning? People watch shows because of their quality, not because there are so many of them.
Easy way to get popular; LOWER YOUR PRICE YA DUMB COMPANY. Just buy movies and tv content, we don’t want your new made by Netflix; funded by the people series. 😑
It costs more to buy shows. Why do you think they’re making them instead? Also, content makers are keeping their shows for their own services now.
Netflix can invest i. Quality all it wants: if it doesn’t stop cancelling incomplete shows, no one will watch them anymore because it isnt worth the emotional investment