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Netflix Lays Off 150 Employees, Mostly in the U.S.

Entertainment news website Deadline reported on Tuesday that Netflix is laying off about 150 employees, mostly based in the United States. Entertainment news source The Hollywood Reporter added that the layoffs affect about two percent of the company's workforce, and that Netflix is also changing its animation division with 70 roles eliminated.

Netflix explained to Deadline that the layoffs are due to "slowing revenue growth," and are primarily business-driven instead of performance-driven layoffs. Deadline's report mentions that a significant portion of the layoffs are from the company's creative departments in both film and television, with some executive-level and director-level cuts involved in original content.

Netflix revealed in April that it had lost about 200,000 subscribers from January to March — far below the company's earlier projection of a gain of 2.5 million subscribers, and the service's first drop in subscriptions in a decade. Later that month, Deadline reported on an earlier round of layoffs in Netflix's marketing, particularly at its fan outreach site Tudum.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also stated in April that the company is considering adding a new ad-supported subscription tier: "Those that have followed Netflix know that I've been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription. But as much as I'm a fan of that, I'm a bigger fan of consumer choice. And allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant, get what they want, makes a lot of sense. The New York Times newspaper reported last week that Netflix may introuce that new subscription tier between October to December later this year.

The streaming service only recently implemented a price increase in subscription plans in the United States and Canada earlier this year.

Sources: Deadline (Nellie Andreeva), The Hollywood Reporter (J. Clara Chen)