The year 2025 marked a significant downturn for Hollywood’s film, streaming, television, and news sectors, as they continued to decline from their previously unassailable position as key pillars in American culture.
According to a report from The Wrap, the entertainment industry is expected to shed up to 17,000 jobs in 2025, which represents an 18% increase compared to the previous year.
In the news sector, around 2,254 jobs have been eliminated by November 2025 across various formats, but this figure is still lower than the 4,537 positions cut in 2024.
“The primary reasons for these layoffs were restructuring and consolidation within the industry,” Rapp noted.
The FCC greenlit the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media, while at the tail end of the year, Warner Bros. Discovery began the process of merging with a company it plans to fully acquire next year. Despite these moves, job losses persisted. Disney, for instance, continued its trend of major layoffs, even as it remained stable overall.
More layoffs are anticipated, with artificial intelligence potentially playing a significant role in these reductions.
The World Economic Forum reports that 41% of companies worldwide plan to dismiss employees over the next five years while increasingly adopting AI technology. For instance, Amazon cut 14,000 positions in October as part of this trend.
Analysts suggest that AI-related issues have already led to a substantial loss of jobs in Hollywood. A report indicated that as many as 200,000 positions could vanish or go uncreated in the industry due to AI.
Nonetheless, it’s likely that new jobs will arise from AI implementation, as humans will still be required to manage the technology. However, The Wrap mentioned that AI is expected to be responsible for approximately 71,000 layoffs in 2025.
By the end of the year, Paramount appeared to be the hardest hit, laying off 2,000 workers. Comcast’s Versant Cable Company followed by cutting 150 jobs, which is about 7% of its workforce, while Disney laid off fewer than 800 employees across its global operations, as noted by The Wrap.
Warner Bros. has seen a relatively minor reduction, with only about 100 jobs lost across its cable divisions. However, if WBD is acquired as anticipated next year, this number could increase significantly, with some estimating up to 6,000 job losses.
The Los Angeles film industry continued to shrink, with projections suggesting a loss of 100,000 jobs by the end of 2024—a 30% decline—as production relocates to other states, Canada, Mexico, or abroad. By April of this year, Hollywood ranked just sixth in terms of active film and television productions, and reports indicated that this downward trend persisted into the third quarter of the year.
Other media sectors also faced hardships, with news and print industries making cuts, canceling expansion plans, or shutting down entirely.
Dotdash Meredith, for example, laid off 143 employees, rebranded as People Inc., and laid off an additional 226 workers. CNN cut 200 staff, PBS laid off 15% of its workforce, and CBS News decided to cancel its streaming companion, eliminating employees from both CBS Morning and CBS News. Meanwhile, Business Insider let go of 21% of its staff.
I’ve noticed the impact of these layoffs too. Publications like Variety, Rolling Stone, and Billboard are feeling the pinch.
The media will likely remain in challenging territory next year, and a return to stable conditions doesn’t seem to be on the horizon just yet.
