Advertising
From Pink Slips to Silent Sidelining: Inside adland’s layoff and anxiety crisis
Do layoffs at Sony Pictures Networks India signal a bigger issue?
The company is in the process of reducing its employee base by around 10%, impacting close to 120 staff members, as part of a broader cost-rationalisation exercise.
SonyLIV, once seen as a key pillar of Sony’s future growth, has struggled to establish itself as a must-visit OTT platform despite early-mover advantage.
As Culver Max Entertainment moves ahead with a proposed restructuring of its workforce, industry executives and media analysts point out on whether trimming headcount will meaningfully address the challenges faced by the broadcaster formerly known as Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI).
The company is in the process of reducing its employee base by around 10%, impacting close to 120 staff members, as part of a broader cost-rationalisation exercise. The move follows the appointment of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to conduct an internal audit of Culver Max’s linear television and digital operations, including SonyLIV. While cost control is increasingly becoming unavoidable for legacy broadcasters, industry observers argue that layoffs, by themselves, are unlikely to fix what they describe as long-standing strategic and creative issues at Sony.
“What Sony is going through is not a people problem, it is a positioning problem,” said Vishal Khanna, director at Media Pro Research Technologies. “When content inflation continues to outpace advertising and subscription growth, organisations default to efficiency measures. But efficiency is only a hygiene factor—it does not create differentiation.”
According to Khanna, the restructuring reflects a broader industry shift toward return-on-capital discipline, but Sony’s challenges run deeper than cost structures. “The Indian broadcast industry is entering its unit economics era, where content must justify not just viewership but viability. Downsizing helps balance spreadsheets temporarily, but it does not address weak content prioritisation or unclear monetisation paths,” he said.
Industry experts also point to Sony’s programming strategy as a key area of concern. Despite operating one of the largest television networks in the country, Sony’s general entertainment channels have leaned heavily on long-running reality franchises such as Kaun Banega Crorepati and Indian Idol, limiting experimentation and slowing audience renewal.
“Sony TV India’s risk-averse programming has resulted in creative stagnation,” said GV Krishnamurthy, principal at AiNxtGen. “The constant recycling of the same formats may offer short-term financial comfort, but it has eroded cultural relevance, particularly among younger viewers who are consuming bolder, more original content elsewhere.”
Krishnamurthy said the recent job cuts highlight a structural flaw rather than a cyclical downturn. “Cost reduction as a primary strategy signals a business focused on survival rather than growth. In a market where competitors are winning through creative ambition, layoffs only mask the absence of innovation.”
Industry watchers' concerns are equally pronounced in the digital segment. SonyLIV, once seen as a key pillar of Sony’s future growth, has struggled to establish itself as a must-visit OTT platform despite early-mover advantage. Analysts say limited regional expansion and cautious commissioning have constrained its ability to scale meaningfully.
“Digital underperformance eventually shows up as organisational pressure,” Khanna said. “When OTT does not grow fast enough to offset linear decline, management looks inward for savings. That is what we are seeing now.”
Industry executives also warn that repeated restructuring exercises can weaken internal morale and talent retention—an issue particularly damaging for content-led businesses.
“When job cuts become the headline response to strategic stress, it creates uncertainty and discourages creative risk-taking,” said a former senior broadcast executive. “In media, the best talent follows vision, not just stability.”
The workforce restructuring also comes against the backdrop of a leadership transition at Culver Max, following the exit of long-time managing director and CEO NP Singh in 2024 and the appointment of Gaurav Banerjee. While analysts acknowledge that leadership change often necessitates organisational realignment, they stress that the effectiveness of the exercise will depend on what follows the cost reset.
“BCG’s involvement suggests a shift towards portfolio-led decision-making and tighter accountability,” Khanna said. “But unless that translates into sharper content choices and clearer digital ambition, job cuts will only buy time, not relevance.”
As India’s broadcast sector grapples with slowing ad growth, rising content costs and intensifying OTT competition, industry watchers say Sony’s restructuring will be judged less by how much cost it removes and more by whether it is accompanied by a renewed creative and strategic push.
“Cost discipline is necessary,” Krishnamurthy said. “But leadership in entertainment is built through ideas, not layoffs.”
Responding to these claims, Culver Max said, “We would like to clarify that the claims and assumptions are baseless and speculative.”
SPOTLIGHT
From purpose-driven work and narrative-rich brand films to AI-enabled ideas and creator-led collaborations, the awards reflect the full spectrum of modern creativity.
Read More“Confusion creates opportunity for agile players,” Sir Martin Sorrell on industry consolidation
Looking ahead to the close of 2025 and into 2026, Sorrell sees technology platforms as the clear winners. He described them as “nation states in their own right”, with market capitalisations that exceed the GDPs of many countries.