LOS ANGELES -- Turner Broadcasting System may cut between 50 and 75 staffers at its Hanna-Barbera Inc. cartoon-animation studio on Nov. 1, it was reported Tuesday.
The layoffs would come as a result of a decision by Atlanta-based TBS to farm out its post-production work to outside firms rather than modernize Hanna-Barbera's post-production equipment, Daily Variety reported.
Hanna-Barbera and TBS did not respond to the report.
TBS laid off 115 of the studio's 457 employees last December following its $320 million acquisition of the facility and its extensive cartoon library, which provided considerable amounts of the programming for TBS's recently launched cartoon network.
Hanna-Barbera cartoons currently being produced or on order include 'Tom & Jerry,' 'The Addams Family,' 'A Pup Named Scooby Doo,' 'The Pirates of Darkwater' and 'Young Robin Hood.' It is also making two TV-movies based on the 'Flintstones' series.
TBS has pushed the studio into film-making, with two movies for 20th Century Fox -- 'The Pagemaster' and 'Once Upon a Forest' -- and one for Disney, 'Hocus-Pocus,' starring Bette Midler.
