Variety: NBCUniversal Cuts Nearly 50 Employees Across Peacock Marketing, Entertainment and Ad Sales

Story from Variety:

NBCUniversal has laid off less than 50 employees across three divisions: Peacock marketing, NBCUniversal Entertainment and ad sales.

The majority of these cuts, approximately 30 to 40, were made at Peacock as part of a restructuring under CMO Shannon Willett, a source within the company told Variety.

The insider says the layoffs are not part of a cost-cutting initiative at the Comcast-owned company, but rather a revamp of the vision for the department that will see Willett fill almost all of these roles with new staffers. The Peacock marketing team is being broken into five business areas under Willett: Brand Creative and Marketing; Title Creative and Marketing; Marketing Strategy, Planning, Analysis and Performance Media; Growth and Lifecycle Marketing; and Publicity, Events and Talent Engagement.

Willett will be looking to fill two key new roles: executive vice president of brand creative and marketing and senior vice president of title creative and marketing.

“We heard from many of you as well as our partners that our structure was complex and are confident that this streamlined approach will help us simplify our processes, accelerate decision making and expose us to a deeper array of marketing skillsets to learn and grow in our careers,” Willett said in a memo to staff announcing the restructuring Thursday

The remainder of the layoffs were made within Frances Berwick’s NBCUniversal Entertainment team. The source says no high-level positions were vacated as part of these cuts.

In ad sales, the source says three senior roles were vacated, including head of measurement Kelly Abcarian. These exits are not considered layoffs by the company, but are the result of new global chairman Mark Marshall’s changes in the division, including Roku’s Alison Levin being named president of ad sales Wednesday.