BET Lays Off Staff Amid Broader Paramount Cutbacks

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https://deadline.com/2025/06/bet-lay...nt-1236442094/

By Dade Hayes

BET CEO Scott Mills informed employees Wednesday morning that their ranks are being thinned as part of Paramount Global’s most recent round of layoffs.

While no exact numbers were provided for BET’s cuts, they are part of Paramount’s move to lay off of 3.5% of its domestic workforce earlier this month, an action that affected several hundred positions. At the end of 2024, the company had 18,600 global employees.

In a staff memo obtained by Deadline, Mills wrote that BET “is not immune to the conditions necessitating these actions, so we too must reduce staff within our organization.”

Plans call for BET to “further leverage Paramount’s scaled support functions in areas including linear research, finance, and business and legal affairs,” the memo said.

In streamlining its organization, it continued, “BET will continue to operate the functions that are core to our mission, value proposition and market leadership position.” Those areas include content strategy and production, programming, marketing and insights, social impact, advertising sales, streaming and digital.

“This is a very difficult moment – the departure of talented team members who have been great collaborators, colleagues and friends; team members who have so meaningfully contributed to BET’s success and who share our passion for BET’s mission and purpose,” Mills added. “On behalf of everyone at BET, I thank each of our departing team members for their great work, their sacrifice, and their enduring contributions to BET’s legacy. ”

The most recent staff reductions follow a larger downsizing in 2024, which affected 15% of domestic staff. Paramount, like its media peers, is contending with a decline in linear TV viewing and advertising, along with pressure on distribution revenue. Streaming is growing, but has different economics than traditional linear TV.

In addition to industry headwinds, Paramount has also faced an agonizingly protracted merger process as it looks to close an $8 billion combination with Skydance Media. The deal has been in legal and regulatory limbo for months, primarily due to a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against CBS News.