Amazon is laying off “several hundred” workers at Prime Video and MGM Studios — the latest bloodbath for a Hollywood streamer as consumers hammered by the Biden economy continue cutting back on streaming subscriptions.
The layoffs are expected to hit both Prime Video — Amazon’s streaming entertainment service — as well as Amazon MGM Studios, the company’s TV and movie studio that has put out a number of expensive duds including The Rings of Power series, which cost an estimated $1 billion.
U.S. staff who will be impacted by the cuts will be informed on Wednesday and in most other regions by the end of the week, according to a Reuters report. Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, told employees in a memo Wednesday that the layoffs would impact “several hundred” workers.
The layoffs comes as Prime Video is set to role out advertising to its previously ad-free service. The decision to insert commercials into movies and TV shows has been slammed by many consumers who see it as the latest example of streaming shrinkflation — getting less product while paying the same amount.
As Breitbart News noted, more and more Americans are canceling their streaming services as they struggle to pay for basic necessities like food, energy, and rent thanks to President Joe Biden’s economic policies that have caused overall consumer prices to spike to unprecedented levels.
In addition, streamers are seeing high levels of consumer churn, with subscribers cancelling after just a few months, maybe to re-join months or years later, creating more financial instability for an already unpredictable industry.
Streaming entertainment has become a money pit for legacy Hollywood studios as they seek to play catch-up to Netflix. The studios are spending billions of dollars pumping out content, most of which is failing to connect with viewers.
Even Netflix has had a rough time, enacting a brutal round of layoffs in 2022.
Like other major Hollywood streamers, Amazon’s Prime Video has pursued a left-wing political agenda under Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Prime Video censored the 2020 Republican National Convention by refusing to offer a live stream of the multi-night event. The service livestreamed all four nights of the Democratic National Convention the week before.
Amazon laid off 9,000 employees last year across its businesses, following a round of cuts that eliminated 18,000 jobs before that.
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