Paramount Television Studios Shutting Down Amid Cutbacks

[AmishParadise]

Excerpt from the August 13, 2024 article over at Deadline.com by Nellie Andreeva...


There have been two major rounds of layoffs at Paramount Global this year, with Paramount Television Studios as a primary target in both. After its team was gutted in the February 13 cuts, as part of today’s reductions, the division is being shuttered altogether. It will cease operations after 11 years at the end of this week. Paramount TV Studios President Nicole Clemens and CBS President and CEO George Cheeks, who oversees the division, announced the decision in separate memos.

(Click here to read the full article.)

[Member-839946]

Inconceivable. Paramount course corrected from outdated, old fashioned, primitive content to a slate of offerings much more in tune with the world we live in today. I, for one, simply do not understand how this is possible.

[steve_dave]

For those who won’t click the link:

“To be clear, this is not a decision based on how PTVS performed. This move is the result of significant changes in the TV and streaming marketplace and the need to streamline our company,” Cheeks said. “Under Nicole’s leadership, this studio consistently punched above its weight in attracting top storytellers and stars to create best-in-class series. I want to thank every PTVS employee for shepherding a slate of shows that helped usher Paramount into the streaming era.”

The active projects will also move to CBS Studios which will still exist.

[Member-839946]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

“To be clear, this is not a decision based on how PTVS performed.

Thanks. The official denial confirms the original hypothesis.

[RetroRobert]

Does this also affect physical media? I've noticed lots of the CBS/Paramount tv-on-dvd sets are getting scarce depending on the title. Many have been out of stock or on backorder. Wondering if those will be discontinued at some point.

[Member-839946]

Originally Posted by RetroRobert

Does this also affect physical media? I've noticed lots of the CBS/Paramount tv-on-dvd sets are getting scarce depending on the title. Many have been out of stock or on backorder. Wondering if those will be discontinued at some point.

Do you know of any list(s) that would have info like this? I've been trying to think of what I might want, but it's a tedious process ("I wonder if this is on dvd. Oh, it is. Who has it?")

[RetroRobert]

Originally Posted by ReedSolomon

Do you know of any list(s) that would have info like this? I've been trying to think of what I might want, but it's a tedious process ("I wonder if this is on dvd. Oh, it is. Who has it?")

Not that I know of. They have a lot of titles in their catalog. Many have gone out of print but are still easily available by 3rd party sellers. But then there are some that go for higher costs because they are getting hard to find and sellers are aware of it. Man, it's like the end of an era. I know it's been coming for a while with many saying DVD has been dead for years. But seeing it come down to this point, it's just difficult to understand why the general public gave away their control to the companies by jumping onto streaming. Many still swear by "stream this" and "stream that" but I just don't like it. Never have.

[Member-839946]

Originally Posted by RetroRobert

Not that I know of. They have a lot of titles in their catalog. Many have gone out of print but are still easily available by 3rd party sellers. But then there are some that go for higher costs because they are getting hard to find and sellers are aware of it. Man, it's like the end of an era. I know it's been coming for a while with many saying DVD has been dead for years. But seeing it come down to this point, it's just difficult to understand why the general public gave away their control to the companies by jumping onto streaming. Many still swear by "stream this" and "stream that" but I just don't like it. Never have.

Thanks. I agree completely. Sometimes I completely forget about something until I see a mention of it on here.

Like, just now, I couldn't get this site's search feature to give me all DVDs from paramount (movies, yes, but I can't figure out how to restrict to box set or tv) so I went to amazon and entered "paramount dvd". Which was less than helpful. BUT. Down in the suggestions area, I see "The Time Tunnel" on blu ray. Totally forgot about it. I've been on a UFO/Space 1999/The Prisoner/Classic scifi run lately, so I bought it. Thanks to you.

I need to step up my "get my favs before they're gone" effort. Funny how time changes slowly on this side of the change, and it seems like overnight on the other side. Leads to complacency.

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by RetroRobert

Does this also affect physical media? I've noticed lots of the CBS/Paramount tv-on-dvd sets are getting scarce depending on the title. Many have been out of stock or on backorder. Wondering if those will be discontinued at some point.

No. This actually belongs in the TV section, all this affects are the employees who lost jobs. Active or soon to be active projects move to CBS Studios, Paramount Home Entertainment handles home media for titles coming from
the shuttered Paramount Television Studios.

[RetroRobert]

Originally Posted by ReedSolomon

Thanks. I agree completely. Sometimes I completely forget about something until I see a mention of it on here.

Like, just now, I couldn't get this site's search feature to give me all DVDs from paramount (movies, yes, but I can't figure out how to restrict to box set or tv) so I went to amazon and entered "paramount dvd". Which was less than helpful. BUT. Down in the suggestions area, I see "The Time Tunnel" on blu ray. Totally forgot about it. I've been on a UFO/Space 1999/The Prisoner/Classic scifi run lately, so I bought it. Thanks to you.

I need to step up my "get my favs before they're gone" effort. Funny how time changes slowly on this side of the change, and it seems like overnight on the other side. Leads to complacency.

Haha, glad I helped lead you to something unintentionally that you wanted.

It sometimes helps in a search to type "Paramount Complete Series" or "Paramount Season DVD" to help narrow down the search. Stuff is still available but then for some reason, certain seasons of a series are hard-to-find or discontinued. So those end up being more expensive if you can find a seller who selling a used or new copy they have in their possession. Good luck!

[RetroRobert]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

No. This actually belongs in the TV section, all this affects are the employees who lost jobs. Active or soon to be active projects move to CBS Studios, Paramount Home Entertainment handles home media for titles coming from
the shuttered Paramount Television Studios.

Good to know. Sadly, all of these constant changes and sales end up affecting regular everyday working people.

[bigshot]

Paramount is being sold and it's cashing out. TV and cable is dying. They're getting out while they still can. There will be more divisions shuttering in the near future. It'll take a year or two to dissolve it all, but eventually Paramount will just be a licensing brand without production any more.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by bigshot

Paramount is being sold and it's cashing out. TV and cable is dying. They're getting out while they still can. There will be more divisions shuttering in the near future. It'll take a year or two to dissolve it all, but eventually Paramount will just be a licensing brand without production any more.

The state of the entertainment industry breaks my heart.

[milojthatch]

Originally Posted by IndyMLVC

The state of the entertainment industry breaks my heart.

Don't totally disagree. At this point, I just want as much from the past I care about on a disc and I should be good entertainment wise going from there.

[CarbonUnitM78]

Originally Posted by ReedSolomon

I need to step up my "get my favs before they're gone" effort. Funny how time changes slowly on this side of the change, and it seems like overnight on the other side. Leads to complacency.

I'm in the same boat. There are a lot of releases that I dragged my feet on purchasing thinking that they will be available forever. Only to find out that they have quietly gone out of print and are either hard to come by or are insanely expensive.

Originally Posted by RetroRobert

Stuff is still available but then for some reason, certain seasons of a series are hard-to-find or discontinued. So those end up being more expensive if you can find a seller who selling a used or new copy they have in their possession. Good luck!

I have noticed that usually the later seasons of TV shows on DVD get more scarce and expensive than earlier seasons because the studio makes less of them due to declining sales and declining quality of a show. Other times it may be that a series is out of print and a particular season happens to sell out sooner with no new production planned.

Originally Posted by milojthatch

Don't totally disagree. At this point, I just want as much from the past I care about on a disc and I should be good entertainment wise going from there.

I agree. Of course, hoping that the disc doesn't fail at some point, which we are finding out is happening to certain releases. That's what concerns me. I'm thinking of backing up certain titles to a hard drive but that might take up a lot of space. Blu-ray upgrades is also an option.

[bigshot]

When physical media is gone, it will be collectors with disc collections that will digitize them, curate, and share them with other collectors. That is where we’ll get our fix of old entertainment. The streaming moguls won’t care because that old stuff doesn’t sell.

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by bigshot

When physical media is gone, it will be collectors with disc collections that will digitize them, curate, and share them with other collectors. That is where we’ll get our fix of old entertainment. The streaming moguls won’t care because that old stuff doesn’t sell.

Streaming could die tomorrow and I'd barely bat an eyelid or care. Probably one of, if not THE defining factor in the decline of physical media. People didn't suddenly lose interest in watching old movies/television, streaming just changed how most of us consume it. Remove those platforms and it's back to studios either releasing this stuff themselves or licensing it out again if they want to continue making $$$ off of it.

[Deadend45]

Posted in the wrong thread.

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

People didn't suddenly lose interest in watching old movies/television, streaming just changed how most of us consume it.

I dont know how you missed it but for over a year streaming services have greatly cut-back on the number of (short-lived) shows they carry and many of the studios who made those shows have shutdown or severely reduced staff.
And yes that includes diseny and netflix, amazon, etc. etc, plus they all announced more plans to cut-back on new productions

[Member-839946]

Originally Posted by bigshot

When physical media is gone, it will be collectors with disc collections that will digitize them, curate, and share them with other collectors. That is where we’ll get our fix of old entertainment. The streaming moguls won’t care because that old stuff doesn’t sell.

You obviously know a lot more about this than I ever will. But I'd like to ask about a possible counter example, just to have some insight into the process.

Muppet Babies is not on dvd or blu ray. I don't know if it was ever on VHS, I never watched it. But a friend wanted to revisit childhood, so I said I'd see what I could find.

Youtube has some, but they're overcompressed low res smears. The pirate waters didn't have much and what was there wouldn't finish. The best instances I found were on a certain internet archiving site. And subject to constant and nearly immediate take downs. I know, because they disappeared and then reappeared while I was... viewing.

Muppet Babies is probably a worst case for licensing since it has so many clips of (then) popular movies in it. I'm not even sure if it's on streaming (these look like high quality video tape rips).

tl;dr: They can't put these on physical and probably can't stream. But they're apparently aggressively stomping on illegal copies. I'm vaguely remembering some legal something or other about defending one's rights or giving them up (patent law), so maybe they have to do this? Won't that affect hobbiest preservation efforts in the future?

[milojthatch]

Originally Posted by ReedSolomon

Muppet Babies is not on dvd or blu ray. I don't know if it was ever on VHS, I never watched it. But a friend wanted to revisit childhood, so I said I'd see what I could find.

It's on VHS. In fact, there were a lot of official VHS releases at the time. At least 12 that I'm aware of. These tapes usually had about 2 episodes per tape. As for DVD, technically it's on that format as well. About 20-years-ago, these plush toys were released that included exclusive DVDs with an episode each. Four episode released in all. Still, drop in the bucket on either format compared to the full series.