Mass media corporation 21st Century Fox on Monday asked staff for voluntary resignations as part of an effort to cut nearly $250 million from its TV network and film studio budgets this year.
According to reports from Variety and the Los Angeles Times, the cuts come as the company looks to compensate for increased programming and marketing costs that have been compounded by sinking ratings and advertising revenue. The company told Variety that the reductions will help 21st Century Fox remain “agile” and well-positioned to capitalize on future opportunities.
Fox is reportedly offering a “generous” severance package to employees who take it up on the offer to leave by the end of the current TV season in May. All job reductions will reportedly be voluntary, with other cost cutting measures to follow, the reports indicated.
Variety reported that the bulk of reductions were expected to come from the company’s television unit.
The news followed several recent successes from Fox.
On Sunday, the network’s live production of “Grease” drew in three times the network’s typical Sunday night audience with 12.2 million viewers. A week earlier the revival of cult favorite show “The X-Files” also proved a big draw for Fox, pulling in more than 16 million viewers.
In film, Fox-distributed movies “Kung Fu Panda 3” and “The Revenant” also raked up the largest box office takes over the weekend.
21st Century Fox will release its second fiscal earnings report at the start of next week.
During the quarter ended September 30, 2015, Fox’s total quarterly revenues slumped six percent year over year to $6.08 billion. During that quarter, Cable Network Programming revenues increased to nearly $3.5 billion from $3.2 billion the year prior, while Television revenues remained fairly flat and Film revenues fell to $1.785 billion from nearly $2.5 billion the year before.
