By my estimates, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗱𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝟱𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗰𝘂𝘁𝘀. Jobs in the streaming industry are disappearing for many, and getting a job will be hard. 𝗜’𝗺 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 (details below). Since my post two days ago about layoffs, [https://lnkd.in/p/gG5es2Hs] I’ve gotten hundreds of messages from people at WBD, Paramount, Disney, Roku, NBCU/Sky, etc. I will return every call and email/message.

In addition to the layoffs and early buyout offers we have already seen, more are coming. Fox just closed on the Roku acquisiton and while layoffs haven’t been announced, overlap across many divisions at Roku and Fox makes them inevitable. More cuts will be coming from Disney, Paramount and WBD. By the end of the year, SkyShowtime’s board will decide what to do with the company, including whether to shut it down.

Netflix recently laid off 1,000 people, Scripps laid off more than 430, and Cloudflare laid off more than 1,100 employees. Apple is estimated to have laid off over 200 employees in its Vision Pro headset division. Comcast, NBCU and Sky made an unknown number of layoffs, including some this week. Oracle and Microsoft have laid off and offered early buyouts to tens of thousands, including some people who worked on video-related products and services. NPR offered voluntary buyouts to 300 newsroom employees after losing federal funding.

Next year, Comcast will complete the spin-off of NBCUniversal and European broadcaster Sky into a separate, publicly traded company, which could impact headcount. Additionally, Comcast-owned Sky agreed to acquire ITV’s media and entertainment division, and while that deal has not yet been approved, layoffs are expected if it is.

For those evaluating whether or not to accept buyouts, especially at WBD and others where stock options have been accelerated, you have to look at all the data points and the risk. Everyone has different financial needs, lifestyle needs and different variables. You also have to look at the health of the market you are in now for the role you want (it’s not great) and what adjacent industries you may be able to move to.

If you want help, I will talk to you (917-523-4562), free of charge and walk you through options. I won’t tell you what to do, but my goal is to give you some data to make the best-informed decision. I’ve already spoken with nearly two dozen people this week, from C-level down, across many job functions at DTC companies. If you want to chat, call me or email me (mail@danrayburn.com). That said, for those sending me messages on LinkedIn saying nothing other than “get me a job” or “can you hire me,” I won’t reply. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲, 𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗗𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗡𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥!

The good news is that Philo, Bloomberg, Google and others saw my earlier post and reached out with open roles, and I will highlight as many of them shortly. #streamingmedia #streamingmediajobs

Buyout offers for WBD employees in the U.S. have gone out, with the deadline to accept them this Sunday. I’m told that anyone above VP didn’t get an offer. This follows the recent, undisclosed number of buyouts offered by Disney, the rumored additional layoffs that may soon take place, and the recent layoffs at Netflix.

Across the industry, a large pool of very experienced streaming engineers is about to be looking for new jobs, including OGs who have built video pipelines for decades. For anyone hiring for tech jobs in the video stack, I don’t recall ever seeing such a deep pool of engineering talent. The buyout offers span more than just engineering departments, but it’s one area where the impact can be felt quickly in the DTC user experience. This is especially true at WBD, since Skydance plans to combine multiple DTC services into one offering over time.

Within Disney’s core streaming engineering team, I know of at least six individuals who are taking the buyout offer. I’m not going to name them; I’ll let them announce it themselves when the time is right, but it’s a shame to see. A lot of great talent is about to leave DTC services companies, and it’s an opportunity for others to hire them for their knowledge and experience. Contact me if you are looking to hire; I can make some recommendations and introductions.

I’ve seen some suggest that Netflix’s recent round of layoffs will cause “technical problems” with its live events, but that’s not accurate. Netflix’s live team wasn’t affected by the layoffs in any meaningful way, so I don’t expect Netflix’s QoE to decline at all. There’s been a lot of discussion on LinkedIn about layoffs at Disney over the past few years, but between 2023 and 2025, Disney’s employee headcount only dropped by 6,000 (Form 10-K). As an industry, we talk about layoffs, but rarely new hires. It’s not publicly known how many layoffs Disney did versus new hires, or from which divisions, but overall headcount over the past two years was down only 2.5%.

Disney is taking a lot of flak online for doing multiple rounds of layoffs, but over the past three years, its business and leadership have changed massively.

• This year, Disney required employees to return to the office, and it let go of some who didn’t
• In January of last year, Disney re-orged its parks business and announced new executives and new positions
• In August of 2025, Disney launched ESPN Unlimited
• In October of 2025, Disney closed on the Hulu+ Live TV merger with Fubo
• In 2025, Disney shut down plans to launch the Venu Sports streaming service with FOX and WBD
• In March of this year, Disney’s new CEO started, and executives moved into new positions Disney had never had before, including a CTO role

The reality is that more layoffs are coming, and 2027 will be a tough year to get hired, even for those with deep experience. Contact me if I can help.

I’m convinced Amazon wants to exit the Fire TV Stick business, given how bad their devices have become. The new Fire TV Stick 4K is out, and it’s not good. 53% of Amazon reviews are one star, and I have to agree. Amazon touts its “speed,” but it is slow and buggy, like previous Vegas OS models. Scrolling lags a lot, and the device acts like it’s drunk. With each new model, Amazon is killing off the Fire TV Stick’s popularity.

Multiple reports show apps like YouTube and Hulu appearing as generic gray boxes with no title. To fix this, you have to download the Fire TV app on your phone and choose the TV it’s connected to, which is a terrible workaround. [Update from Amazon: This affected only some devices, and a fix was deployed last week. Install the latest update, and the full row of apps will display within 10-20 minutes after the update syncs.] The app doesn’t support pinning non-sponsored apps like HBO Max, Peacock or Paramount+ to the main bar, and if it does, I and other users can’t figure out how to enable it. [Update from Amazon: They sent instructions on how to do this.] It doesn’t support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, which was probably the whole point of watching in 4K. Yes, the new remote is nice, but the Vega OS prevents developer options from being enabled, so you can’t sideload apps, something some consumers are only just learning about. Amazon said the device offers a “focused Alexa+ experience,” whatever that means, but Alexa feels half-baked and doesn’t perform well.

• Hardware: The new Fire TV Stick 4K is slimmer (not that anyone asked for this) and boasts 20% to 40% faster performance (Faster than what?! I don’t see it). In this video, Amazon shows the device loading apps and videos faster than “other” devices, but they don’t disclose which devices it was compared to. It is still slower than Fire TV Sticks running Fire OS. It can draw power directly from the TV’s USB port, which is why it doesn’t ship with a power plug, which is a problem for any small TV or monitor that has no USB port. The USB-C cable is only a foot long, so if your USB port is on the other side of the TV, it won’t reach. It also doesn’t ship with an HDMI extension dongle. It features Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and 8GB of storage.
• New Remote: It has a redesigned remote with tactile improvements, so you can navigate by feel in the dark. It includes a flatter D-pad, a recessed power button, a distinct metallic home button, a subtler mic button, and a customizable Star button for favorites.
• Operating System: The new stick runs on Amazon’s proprietary Vega OS. While mainstream apps like Paramount+, Netflix and Disney+ are built for the OS, the new OS blocks sideloading of any unsupported app, meaning users who want maximum flexibility in what they can install will be limited.
• Pricing and Availability: The Fire TV Stick 4K retails for $60 (currently on sale for $30), and the standalone upgraded remote is sold separately for $15, with a “Plus” version featuring remote-finding features expected later.

The “new” Fire TV Stick 4K experience offers fewer supported apps, fewer games, less flexibility, and more frustration. Amazon is going to kill its Fire TV business by rolling out Vega OS across its entire Fire TV Stick lineup. When I type Fire TV into Amazon’s search bar, “fire tv stick non vega” immediately pops up. Amazon isn’t listening to consumers and seems tone-deaf to the Vega OS problems.

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the last holdout in the lineup that still runs Fire OS. Once Amazon switches that model to Vega OS, I will swap out all Fire TV Sticks in my home for Roku or Onn devices, and Amazon will lose me as a customer. I buy 200+ Fire TV Sticks a year as gifts and giveaways and will no longer recommend or promote the device. It’s turned what was a great user experience into one of the worst device experiences on the market.

The server hardware and OEM landscape has seen rapid supply-chain shifts, fluctuating AI demand, and acute component shortages, all of which affect how companies approach hardware procurement. For organizations relying on a stable, cost-effective infrastructure supply chain, understanding these market dynamics has become critical to protecting project economics.

Vendors tell me that OEM supply positions shifted significantly throughout the year, creating valuable opportunities to optimize sourcing. Early in 2026, most major vendors aggressively pursued AI-related demand, leaving traditional enterprise and industrial customers competing for limited resources. However, since Q3, several OEMs have adopted a more balanced approach by refocusing on enterprise clients.

The semiconductor shortage also affected OEMs unevenly; some vendors faced shortages early in the year, while others were initially well supplied. As the year progressed, these positions reversed, creating regular shifts in pricing competitiveness and lead times across the market. Despite broader market adjustments, hardware constraints remained a persistent hurdle, with SDRAM shortages acting as the main cost and availability risk.

Availability has been particularly tight for cost-effective 16 GB DIMMs as manufacturers prioritize higher-value memory products. OEMs have managed these shortages through various allocation models, including first-come-first-served, margin-based allocation, and restrictions on specific product lines. Typical servers cost $10,000-$15,000 and are now priced at $25,000 if 16 GB SDRAM is available. For high-end configurations, the unavailability of 16 GB DIMMs can increase server costs to $37,000 because 32 GB DIMMs must be substituted. For those deploying servers with an average cost of about $25,000, this materially impacts overall project economics.

To address these extreme pricing variations and availability risks, relying on a single vendor is no longer viable. Prior to current market disruptions, many organizations sourced primarily from two OEMs, with a single supplier accounting for roughly 75% of purchases. Throughout 2026, expanding and rebalanced supplier bases—often working with five OEMs and reducing the leading supplier’s share to below 50%—proved vital. Many have adopted this supplier diversification strategy, which has successfully mitigated inflationary pressures and significantly improved operational costs.

Looking ahead to the next two quarters, shortages of lower-capacity SDRAM are expected to ease, and while SSD availability may remain constrained, it is anticipated to have a more limited impact on products. Meanwhile, OEMs that secured strong order books during the first half of the year continue to implement price increases of roughly 10% per quarter through Q4 and Q1 2027.

Nevertheless, average server procurement costs are expected to remain stable or decline slightly, driven by increased competition among suppliers and selective migration from premium brands to value-oriented alternatives where performance and customer requirements allow.

How has your organization adapted its hardware sourcing strategy to handle these shifting memory constraints and OEM price hikes?

• Disney’s Hulu+ Live TV, $99.99 per month
• Fubo’s Pro/Core Plan, $88.99 per month
• YouTube TV’s Base Plan, $82.99 per month
• DirecTV’s Duo plan, $74.99 per month
• Sling TV’s Sling Orange & Blue plan, $60.99 per month (but has fewer channels)