ProSiebenSat.1 cuts around 400 jobs in Germany
The ProSiebenSat.1 media group wants to adjust its structures with the focus on the Joyn streaming platform. Hundreds of jobs will be cut in Germany. The news offering is not to be affected.
ProSiebenSat.1 plans to cut around 400 jobs in Germany this year. That would correspond to around one in ten jobs in the core entertainment business and in the holding company, a spokeswoman for the listed media group announced in Unterföhring near Munich on Tuesday.
The Group had announced a realignment after fully acquiring the Joyn streaming platform in fall 2022. ProSiebenSat.1 moved it to the center of its entertainment business.
According to the company, this will now be followed by a realignment of the organization, particularly in the Entertainment segment. The aim is "a more efficient structure, a competitive cost base and processes clearly geared to digital transformation," the Group announced.
Terminations to be avoided "as far as possible
The approximately 400 full-time positions are to be reduced in a socially responsible manner through a voluntary program. The company intends to avoid compulsory redundancies "as far as possible". For example, positions that become vacant will not be filled.
In the past, ProSiebenSat.1 significantly expanded its information offerings, building new studio space for programs for the ProSieben, Sat.1 and Kabel eins channels. Since this year, news has again been produced in-house; before that, it had been outsourced from Axel Springer's World purchased. The information division is not affected by the cutback plans, according to the company spokeswoman.
In its Austrian market, the Group plans to cut up to 35 jobs this year. It employs 550 people there.
Weak advertising market and many management changes
The job cuts come at an eventful time for the ProSiebenSat.1 Group, which operates TV stations and streaming services as well as Internet commerce and dating platform business. The advertising market has been weakening for some time. For the full year 2023, ProSiebenSat.1 management has so far forecast revenues of between EUR 3.95 billion and EUR 4.25 billion.
There was also a lot of change in the management team. In the fall of 2022, Bert Habets, who previously held top posts at competitor RTL, moved up to the top job. Rainer Beaujean left unexpectedly. Since then, the departure of board members in finance and entertainment has also been announced.
In addition, the actions of the Group's Management Board for the 2022 financial year were not approved by the shareholders; this is not expected to take place until 2023. The background to this is an ongoing internal investigation into possible discrepancies at the subsidiary voucher business Jochen Schweizer mydays. The aim is to review any misconduct in connection with regulatory issues at the subsidiary.
The Supervisory Board reserves the right to investigate claims for damages against Executive Board members, if necessary. According to ProSiebenSat.1, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) and the public prosecutor's office in Munich have been called in - neither authority recently gave specific details in response to a question from Deutsche Presse-Agentur. (SDA)
