Orange, the French telecom operator, announced on Friday that it will cut 35 jobs at its Viaccess-Orca subsidiary in France as part of a restructuring plan.

Why it's important

Orange launched its new strategic plan, "Lead The Future", last year. It was the first one under the leadership of CEO Christel Heydemann. It aimed to consolidate its digital services and launch a cost optimization programme for its business services segment.

The group announced that it would be cutting 700 jobs from its Orange Business unit in 2023. However, they put this plan on temporary hold last December.

KEY QUOTES

Viaccess-Orca is implementing a recovery plan. The plan includes several components, such as a plan for adjusting our workforce. This will result in a redundancy proposal in France that involves 35 job cuts, according to an Orange spokesperson.

Orange's employee representatives are currently discussing the plan, he said.

CONTEXT

Viaccess-Orca, a leading provider of conditional access systems (CA), serves more than 100 clients worldwide, including Vivendi’s Canal+ and Paramount, as well as Sky.

The pay TV market in Europe is shrinking due to the increasing competition and illegal streaming from online platforms. This has led companies to raise prices and reduce staff. (Reporting and editing by Susan Fenton; Gianluca Nostro)

(source: Reuters)