NBCU cuts 200 DreamWorks jobs

DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon

Comcast-owned NBCUniversal (NBCU) is cutting approximately 200 jobs at DreamWorks Animation (DWA) following its takeover of the studio last month.

The layoffs will hit areas of DWA that overlap with NBCU, such as in its distribution and consumer products departments, as well as corporate overheads, at its Glendale campus in California.

Jeff Shell, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, told employees on Thursday that these were areas of DWA “where we can fully integrate operations with NBCUniversal.”

“As we move along in the process of integrating our companies, the leadership team will continually evaluate the needs of our business to ensure we are best positioned to meet our goal of being a leader in premium animation content across all platforms,” said Shell.

It comes less than a month after the merger between the two companies – valued at just under US$4bn – was completed and DWA became part of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group.

When the deal was revealed in April, NBCU CEO Steve Burke said it would help his company expand its film and TV businesses, as well as its theme park and consumer products divisions.

DreamWorks’ slate includes the Madagascar movies and How to Train Your Dragon, while Trolls is planned for later this year. It also has a multi-year deal to produce hundreds of hours of television for US SVoD service Netflix.