FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - ProSiebenSat.1 CEO Bert Habets expects significant cuts in the TV group's announced job cuts. "The restructuring program will have a much more significant impact on the Group than previous measures," the manager said at a media briefing in Frankfurt am Main. "We want to cut costs above all where there are redundancies in decisions and processes are delayed as a result," Habets elaborated.

Among other things, this is due to the complete takeover of the streaming platform Joyn with 500 employees: The integration leads to duplications. In the production area of the entertainment business (Entertainment), no cost savings are planned, said the manager. According to a spokeswoman, the last job cuts in 2019 affected a total of around 120 full-time positions. As of the end of March, the TV group had 7385 full-time positions.

Already at the end of May, Habets had explained in an interview with the financial news agency dpa-AFX that jobs would be cut primarily in the second half of the year. Discussions were currently underway with the Works Council for restructuring in the Entertainment segment, by far the most important pillar in the Group.

The ex-RTL manager has led the Unterfohringen-based group since November 2022. Since he took office, two other board members have left. In addition to CFO Ralf Gierig, who left the company at the end of April following disagreements at ProSiebenSat.1 subsidiary Jochen Schweizer Mydays, the departure of head of programming Wolfgang Link was announced on Monday. Habets will take over his responsibilities and will be in charge of the entertainment centerpiece in the future.

With regard to Joyn, Habets reiterated his goal of making the streaming platform the central cross-media point of contact for viewers. So far, the ad-financed portal has four million unique users a month. Within the next two years, that number is expected to double. "We have to get people to like Joyn before we think about profitability," Habets said./ngu/men