Skydance needs to set CBS free when the merger is complete.
Moonves fought so hard to keep CBS on its own and was completely sandbagged by Shari.
He clearly knew Viacom was a mess and it didnt take long for the common folk to figure that out.
SVP’s reporting to SVP’s. My brothers in christ, what the he-l is going on over there?
"I feel like those of us at CBSI were twice as productive with half the numbers and Viacom came in and polluted it with bureaucracy. Took all the Viacom leadership in the merger as well despite Viacom being the more poorly performing company."
This was the case with Showtime, too. Great service, app, people, leaders. We were highly effective.
It's been such a shame. Shocked by some of the dysfunction and incompetence. I guess it starts at the top?
I feel like those of us at CBSI were twice as productive with half the numbers and Viacom came in and polluted it with bureaucracy. Took all the Viacom leadership in the merger as well despite Viacom being the more poorly performing company.
It must dependwhat group you work in. Saying CBS Was more lean and mean than Viacom is the opposite of true, in some groups. I worked in both places with 2 different groups. 3 or 4 or more people at CBS, for each 1 person doing the same job, or the same amount of work, at Viacom. Each of those CBS people making more money and, with a title 1 or 2 steps above the Viacom person. This was true at all levels. This slowly was getting fixed after merger, slowwwly. The unevenness exists still in some areas. But, it is overall fairer now.
We should put on more comedies aimed at lobotomy patients. That'll do the trick. Although, because comedies are no longer funny, the rest of us get our real comedy from news headlines. That smug little ba----d John Oliver doesn't realize the news provides its own laughs. Commentary unnecessary. Of course he's very successful on the subscription platform.
I went through several re-orgs at CBS / All Access in 4 years and they never laid off staff, just shuffled them around to different roles or made modifications to their duties. Old-timers, going back decades would say that's how they do it. There was more loyalty to people, and they valued institutional knowledge. We ran a tight ship with standards, best practices and documented process until the merger. None of that is true in the Paramount+ era, and not for any other team I work with.
Could it be there are too many managers? Anyone remember the days of Larry Tisch, who pared down the ranks, removing 2 for every 5 layers?
Of course, the stock price wasn't great then either. The problems emerged when CBS began importing bad managers and veeps from other broadcast entities, like ABC. Lowest of the low.
All I can say is my company CBS stock was 83.00 a few years back now it's around 6.50! That kind of says something!
I have been thinking a lot about this thread and I wanted to post something that make sense. I have to agree with the original person who posted this. There was no benefit to merging CBS and Viacom. Les was not perfect, but he was right on this one. The only person that benefited was Shari and the Viacom people who got rid of all the CBS talent that made it a great place to work. CBS was run lean and mean before the merger now it's just a sad considering most of the revenue comes from the CBS side. To me it was always the little engine that could. The Viacom side has to many people to manage networks in major decline. Do we really need 3 or 4 MTV channels that don't event show music videos anymore? The 3rd poster is dead wrong, and CBS could have followed a different path. CBS All Access was a good place to put the content we had on the site and not go crazy. CBS could have partnered with any company to sell its content to. I would have gambled and taken that chance. Its better than what we have now. Here is hoping that Oracle will make the place great again. I am not a Trump supporter, but it fit.
"...and how Backish overhired for P+..."
NO you mean how Bakish and Chopra allowed Tom Ryan and Vibol to ruin the company. They overspent on streaming at every corner and had a horrible strategy for growth internationally. The best is people think Pluto makes money. No it doesn't..... It's all smoke and mirrors because they don't have to pay for Paramount content.
Sorry Les loyalists, but he was not going to take cbs in a better path. Same thing with the Viacom guy. CBS was not going to survive on its own just with broadcast and sports. They had to combine and sell. There’s no narrative where either business stayed independent and succeeded. You’re all thinking about better days and thinking they were stopped by some exec or transaction. The viewers talked with their wallets and canceled cable which includes broadcast.. . The main mistake was taking so long to sell. The whole industry has changed and will no longer support the same amount of heads. If you’re fired, you’ll not be working in entertainment again in most cases. It’s sad but thank the tech folks and our industry that enabled them
Ever notice the worst "teams" at CBS are union...
CBS is a dying brand and medium. Moonves knew that
CBS was doing great before Viacom sank it's venomous teeth into it, No lay offs, programming was decent NOW... it is almost non-existent with stupid game shows and reality, half of CBS has been laid off, great people. Paramount has gone downhill since Frank Mancuso and Kerry left, and dragged everyone down with it. It is a sad sinking ship, the morale is non existent, poisonous atmosphere.
Agree with a lot of the posts here — cable brands not pulling their weight. What isn’t mentioned is that the cbs folks (thinking coordinators managers director level and maybe execs too) all have higher salaries than cable brand folks. Don’t think that’s not going to have a role in layoffs or be looked at when new ownership comes in. Also paramount pictures hasn’t been a profit makers for years yet everyone there acts like they are the cream of the crop while taking bonuses only made possible by the tv and cable nets. It’s messed up.
Ellison needs to perform major emergency surgery by removing all the cancerous Viacom tumors from his holdings, especially MTV, so that the cancer doesn't spread to Skydance. As a previous poster correctly mentioned, the "...the legacy Viacom brands are the drag on the company." It is also true that a political ideology has saturated Viacom to its bones which is overtly and often times deliberately reflected in its programming and chasing away viewership of those with an I.Q. above two, as a result. The major holding that should be left out to rot, aside from Showtime on the legacy CBS side, is VIACOM.
"...and how Backish overhired for P+..."
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. I've always said this. P+ is over-bloated with WAY too many ppl. It causes unnecessary chaos, confusion, and waste of time and money. The problem is that bakish is a poor leader. He did not keep up with the times. He has a mentality of working harder, not smarter.
There are teams at CBS are in need of a major leadership overhaul. Hardworking employees have been laid off with every round, while toxic leadership within these teams continues to receive promotions, waste money, and lay off dedicated workers to pay for their mistakes.
Amen to this! It’s crazy to see how see how terrible to politics are on the Viacom side. CBS might have its own problems, but people are generally good and kind in my experience. It’s also obvious how overstaffed the cable nets are and how Backish overhired for P+. There needs to be a big change in how the cable nets are run and staffed, and P+ needs to slim way down. Legacy Viacom appears to not realize how dead their businesses are.
"Set CBS Free, To do what?
Ad revenue is down
Prime time shows are purchased from Warner and ABC
Sports rights costs have increased
No streaming strategy
Seriously what would be the plan for a standalone CBS?"
Everything you said is silly and I am not even legacy CBS. CBS is the primary driver of revenue and profit for the corporation. Yes it is declining but they make up over 70% of it. They are still the number one channel on TV and sports is what makes the most money. Paramount + WAS CBS STREAMING STRATEGY. CBS ALL ACCESs is what was rebranded to Paramount plus. I assume you dont work for Paramount as the legacy Viacom brands are the drag on the company.
Um jeff Zucker will be running CBS ( into the ground)
Set CBS Free, To do what?
Seriously what would be the plan for a standalone CBS?
This^^^
They’re ki-ling their biggest asset. Running it into the ground just like they did with Viacom.
But spending all the money it brings in on a failing company.
Spin it off!
#SaveCBS!