MTV Braces For Restructuring
According to preliminary reporsts, Viacom is about to clean house at MTV with hundreds of employees expected to be given the boot. MTV, Comedy Central, Spike, and Nickelodeon will be the focus of the restructuring which often comes after a top exec is shown the door. In fact, many at Viacom’s subsidiaries have been waiting for a shake-up after the abrupt firing of longtime executive Tom Freston, who was jettisoned from a short-lived chief executive role at Viacom by company chairman Sumner Redstone last year.
New Chief Executive Philippe Dauman and Chief Financial Officer Thomas Dooley are the two hatchet men, and haven’t ruled out multiple rounds of layoffs. MTV Networks has been losing major ground to MySpace and YouTube with a thoughtless online strategy, and Dauman and Dooley have been charged with implementing a new strategy to compete. However, the public ass-kicking of the well-liked Freston has left a low morale residue in the halls of MTV, and a sudden turnaround seems unlikely.
