Warner Bros Discovery is laying off 29 people in Europe over the next 15 months as part of its move to phase out HBO Max original programming for the region.
Top executives affected, the company confirmed, include Johnathan Young, HBO Max EMEA’s vice president of original programming and production for Central and Eastern Europe; Christian Wikander, vice president and commissioning editor of original programming for the Nordics; and Annelies Sitvast, head of unscripted original production.
The remaining layoffs are expected to come from those executives’ teams.
Antony Root, HBO Max EMEA’s UK-based head of original programming, informed staffers of the layoffs and is thought to be one of the executives staying in his post.
Warner Bros Discovery will continue to invest in local European commissions and acquisitions through its local linear and streaming teams, but will no longer produce streaming-only content.
News of the staff cuts comes less than two weeks after HBO Max culled its US-based international originals team and six weeks after the streamer halted the production of original content in the Nordics, Central Europe, Netherlands and Turkey.
Since the merger of Discovery and Warner Bros, which launched HBO Max two years ago, company chief David Zaslav has said the new media giant is planning to cut spending across its global footprint by $3bn.
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