Amazon is cutting hundreds of jobs from its Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios division, according to an internal memo obtained by TheWrap from the company.
The layoffs were announced on Wednesday by division leader Mike Hopkins. The job cuts will impact a small percentage of those working for the division.
“We’ve taken significant steps towards our long-term vision of making Prime Video the first-choice entertainment destination for customers worldwide, and I’m proud of everything we’ve accomplished as a team to date,” Hopkins wrote.
“Our industry continues to evolve quickly and it’s important that we prioritize our investments for the long-term success of our business, while relentlessly focusing on what we know matters most to our customers,” he continued.
“Throughout the past year, we’ve looked at nearly every aspect of our business with an eye towards improving our ability to deliver even more breakthrough movies, TV shows, and live sports in a personalized, easy to use entertainment experience for our global customers. As a result, 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,” Hopkins noted.
Those impacted by the layoffs in the Americas will be contacted on Wednesday. Impacted employees living in other regions will be made aware by the end of the week. Amazon will be providing packages to laid off employees that will include separation payment, transitional benefits as they apply to the employees’ country and external job placement support.
“Our prioritization of initiatives that we know will move the needle, along with our continued investments in programming, marketing and product, positions our business for an even stronger future,” Hopkins noted before adding that Prime Video remains the most popular benefit for Amazon Prime members.
The move comes as Prime Video has invested heavily in some content that underperformed, particularly with “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and “Citadel.” Both shows are currently in production on second seasons.
It’s also worth noting that Prime Video is currently riding the massive success of “Reacher” Season 2, which launched in December to quickly become the most-watched title of 2023. And 2024 will see the launch of the highly anticipated video game adaptation “Fallout,” Donald Glover’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and a new season of Prime Video’s hit series “The Boys.”
The company has already faced significant layoffs. In March of 2023, Amazon announced it would be laying off 9,000 jobs in addition to the 18,000 layoffs the company previously announced in January of that year. That March cut marked the second largest round of layoffs in the company’s history. Those layoffs impacted employees in Amazon’s cloud computing unit AWS, its advertising business, the gaming platform Twitch and the company’s PXT organizations, which handle functions such as human resources.
Prime Video and Amazon Studios also laid off around 100 employees in 2023. At the time, that cut represented roughly 1% of the company’s roughly 7,000-employee workforce.
Though Amazon first offered a subscription video offering in the form of Amazon Unbox in 2006, Prime Video didn’t offer original programming until it debuted a series of pilots in 2013. A year later, the streamer premiered Joey Soloway’s “Transparent,” which became the first show produced by a streaming service to win a Golden Globe for Best Series.
As for MGM Studios, the storied media company was acquired by Amazon in 2021 for $8.45 billion. The subsidiary’s biggest film properties remain “Rocky” and “James Bond,” but they also produced George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat,” Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” and Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction.” Most recently, the television division of MGM produced “Fargo” and “The Voice.”
The Hollywood Reporter was the first to report this story.
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