Network Ten boss Jarrod Villani departs the troubled broadcaster

US entertainment giant Paramount – which owns Ten – has parted ways with its local chief operating officer Jarrod Villani, leaving Beverley McGarvey as the sole head of the network.

Paramount ANZ executive vice president, chief operating & commercial officer and regional lead Jarrod Villani.

US entertainment giant Paramount – which owns Network Ten – has parted ways with its local chief ­operating officer, Jarrod Villani, amid a wider cost-cutting exercise at the media organisation.

Mr Villani, who had been co-lead of Paramount Australia and New Zealand alongside chief content officer Beverley McGarvey since February 2021, was apparently caught off-guard by the ­decision to cut ties with him on Thursday, and he left the business with immediate effect.

His departure leaves Ms McGarvey as the sole head of Network Ten.

Jarrod Villani’s departure leaves Beverley McGarvey as the sole head of Network Ten.

A Paramount spokesman ­declined to comment.

The Weekend Australian ­understands his sacking was unrelated to this week’s furore at Ten over former Project host Lisa Wilkinson’s court victory against the network. The Federal Court ruled on Wednesday that Ten must foot the TV presenter’s million-dollar legal bills arising from the defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann against both Ten and Wilkinson.

Earlier this week, Paramount announced plans to shed 800 jobs across its global operations.

The Weekend Australian understands that between 20 and 25 positions have been cut from Paramount Australia’s primary local asset, Network Ten. None of those redundancies will be drawn from the news division.

Pam Kaufman, Paramount’s president and CEO of international markets, referenced the network’s restructure in a statement on Thursday. “While this is a difficult moment, I want to emphasise that I believe in our global strategy, and I am confident that the Paramount Australia team will continue to drive the business forward to meet our goals across this critical and priority market.”

CEO of Paramount Global Bob Bakish sent a staff-wide email this week in which he explained that “returning our company to earning growth is a top priority in 2024”.

“This will require us to continue to grow revenue, while reducing costs,” he said. “Unfortunately, part of streamlining costs means that today we will begin the difficult process of saying goodbye to some of our very valued colleagues.”

The job cuts come amid ongoing speculation about a possible merger between Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery.

If that deal came to fruition, it would create a powerful streaming behemoth – valued at just shy of $60bn – that would be a fierce rival to the likes of Netflix and Disney.

But Ten is not the only Australian television network looking to cut costs.

In a call with analysts following the announcement of Seven’s half-yearly results on Tuesday, the company’s chief executive, James Warburton, said inflationary pressures were weighing on advertisers and that “we will act decisively to reduce costs in the event of a protracted soft market”.

Seven’s net profit plunged 52.6 per cent to $54m in the six months to December 31, due largely to the sluggish advertising market. Meanwhile, Nine Entertainment cut 22 jobs from its marketing service business this week.

Nine will announce its half-yearly results on Thursday.