“Most Dangerous Game” and the Zoe-Lister-Jones-led “Slip” are among a handful of existing licensed and produced shows being removed by Roku as part of its “content review,” in addition to laying off 10% of its workforce. Roku is the latest streamer to purge content from its platform to cut costs, following similar moves by Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, Disney and AMC Networks.
The Christoph Waltz and Liam Hemsworth-led “Most Dangerous Game,” originally created for Quibi by Nick Santora, earned two Emmy nominations for its first season. Roku renewed the action thriller for a second season, which premiered in March.
“Critically acclaimed, heartfelt, hilarious, and completely unique, ‘Slip’ has only begun to spark the imaginations and bend the minds of audiences around the world,” Boat Rocker Media co-executive chairman Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier told TheWrap. The Zoe Lister-Jones-led comedy was produced by Boat Rocker and Dakota Johnson’s TeaTime Pictures. “We’re incredibly proud of this series and are in awe of Zoe Lister-Jones’ talent.”
They added that both Boat Rocker and their partners at TeaTime are “confident that we’ll find a great new domestic home for this ground-breaking series.”
Other removed titles include Florida comedy drama “Panhandle,” which came from Nick Stoller and Carla Kettner; the continuation of “Reno 911”; the Anna Torv-led Australian drama series “The Newsreader”; the Titus Burgess-led cooking competiton series “Dishmantled”; “Moving the Needle with Dr. Woo”; “Surprise We’re Pregnant”; “Eye Candy” and “Murder House Flip.”
In addition to what it describes as a strategic review of its content portfolio, Roku also plans to reduce its workforce through layoffs and limiting new hires, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Other measures it’s taking to reduce the company’s year-over-year operating expense growth include “consolidating its office space utilization [and] reducing outside services expenses.”
The removals are expected to result in an impairment charge of $55 million to $65 million, while ceasing to use certain facilities will result in a charge of $160 million to $200 million.
The layoffs, which will impact 10% of Roku’s employees, are expected to result in an estimated restructuring charge in the range of $45 million to $65 million, the majority of which will be incurred in the third quarter of 2023. Roku anticipates that the workforce reduction, including cash payments, will be substantially complete by the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023.
Roku expects total net revenue in the range of $835 million to $875 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss in the range of $20 million to $40 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2023.
