Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Despite what the splashy yacht parties in Cannes suggest, media companies really are trying to save money right now. Really! Top execs at Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Netflix, Paramount Global, Amazon and NBCUniversal parent Comcast have all promised shareholders during recent quarterly earnings calls that they’ll be spending wisely amid the economic downturn. Sweeping layoffs and other cost-cutting strategies, including the removal of underperforming content from some streaming services, has been among the first orders of business in 2023. But no matter how many jobs these Hollywood heavyweights cut (in Disney’s case, 7,000 over the first half of the year), reaching an outlandish savings target (nearly $4 billion for the post-merger Warner Bros. Discovery) is going to require pinching pennies in more areas than staff headcount. While CFOs are shredding budgets to ribbons, TV’s latest FYC season poses another quandary: What is the cost vs. benefit of an Emmy this year? And does the statuette’s symbolic value go down if the best-of-television awards are not televised due to the writers strike?
