CBS Offers Voluntary Buyouts To Veteran Employees, Mirroring HBO Move

CBS is offering buyouts to veteran employees in multiple divisions, a source has confirmed to Deadline.

Buyout packages are voluntary, the source said, and available only to workers whose age added to their years of service at the company total 80 or more. The projected number of buyouts is difficult to forecast, the source said. The move is similar to buyouts disclosed late Friday by WarnerMedia’s HBO, which extended them to workers 55 and older with at least 10 years of experience.

CBS declined to comment.

After rumors late last week in Florida, the Miami New Times reported Monday that 20 “highly paid” staffers at WFOR, a CBS-owned TV station in Doral, FL, were offered buyouts. The paper said the offers were among “hundreds” being extended across the company.

Andrew Siegel, WFOR’s senior vice president and associate general counsel, told the New Times the initiative was a cost-saving move. “It’s cutting the budget a bit,” he said, declining to elaborate.

CBS reports its quarterly earnings this afternoon as it continues to plot a new course six months after ousting its longtime leader, Les Moonves. Acting CEO Joe Ianniello will preside over the earnings announcement. The company continues to search for a permanent CEO and has winnowed its list down to the finalists.

Discussion of the CEO search is unlikely during the company’s quarterly earnings call. Instead, the focus will be on the company’s efforts to continue to show financial results from its traditional production, distribution and networks businesses, as well as emerging new initiatives like the CBS All Access streaming service.