Warner Bros. Discovery cuts around 70 jobs at HBO Max

After rumors swirled that Warner Bros. Discovery would be announcing a massive restructuring for HBO Max, the company has reportedly eliminated some jobs — though not nearly as many as had been feared. Warner Bros. Discovery is cutting around 14 percent of staff, or about 70 jobs, that had been under the purview of HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys, according to Variety.

HBO Max fans had reason to worry about worse cuts — Warner Bros. Discovery shelved Batgirl earlier this month (reportedly for a tax write-off) and has quietly pulled several HBO Max-exclusive films off the service. Some of the eliminated positions are reportedly focused on HBO Max’s reality unit, which overlapped with Discovery’s own reality team following the completion of WarnerMedia and Discovery’s multibillion-dollar merger in April. Warner Bros. Discovery is also planning to replace HBO Max and Discovery Plus with one combined service next summer, and Discovery’s reality arm will head up that programming for that, CNBC reports.

HBO Max’s casting, acquisitions, and business affairs teams are also among those affected by the cuts, according to Variety and CNBC. Warner Bros. Discovery didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Warner Bros. Discovery will be competing in an increasingly crowded streaming space. Paramount Plus just announced a deal with Walmart that will bundle the Paramount Plus Essential tier with Walmart Plus subscriptions. Disney announced last week that it will be introducing an ad-supported tier of Disney Plus and that Disney Plus and Hulu would be getting steep price hikes in December. And Netflix is working on an ad-supported tier of its own, though it won’t have everything at launch.