Comcast staff cuts Peacock staff

A report this past week indicates that Comcast laid off about 50 employees from its Peacock division. The move wasn't because of cost cutting, according to Variety, but a result of restructuring the division.

Now, is 50 people a lot of people? If you're one of the 50 people, then yes. But for a company the size of Comcast? Out of 186,000? That's not a lot.

But it's not Comcast exactly. It's Peacock. They have about 1,000 or so employees. That's nearly one out of every 20 employees laid off. Five percent.

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.

While Peacock isn't one of my favorite services -- I rarely watch it -- it is a favorite of a family member. She watches it a lot. I get it as part of Xfinity Rewards, but because of how much she likes the service, I would pay for it. The cost is pretty good, at just $6/month, or $12/month for the Premium Plus ad-free and local NBC service.

My Streaming Life does involve the service, and I hope the cuts don't lead to a lowering of the content. The family member would be disappointed if that happened, and that would disappoint me as well.