Disney has been cutting staff with a goal of reducing its staff by about 7,000 employees. One of the areas that Disney is expected to cut staff is ESPN.
Now Andrew Marchand from the New York Post says ESPN will have cuts happen in three rounds. The first round will likely impact staff behind the camera, but future rounds could also cut staff from talent in front of the camera that you see every day.
Disney is also reportedly looking into asking staff to take pay cuts to help them keep their jobs.
YesterdayBloomberg reported that Disney will cut thousands of jobs next week as part of its already announced cuts. This is one more step in Disney’s plans to cut 15% of its staff across its entertainment division.
This will include cuts to its TV, film, theme parks, and corporate teams in all areas. Notifications of the cuts will start reaching employees as soon as April 24th.
In total, once all cuts are made, Disney plans to cut about 7,000 jobs. This is reportedly being done by both not filling empty jobs and laying off as many as 5,000 employees.
Disney already reportedly started some cuts earlier this month. Now though, it sounds like next week, Disney will begin cutting staff in mass as it looks to cut costs.
Disney reportedly plans to cut about $5.5 billion in costs over the next few years. Job cuts are only a part of these cost-cutting efforts. With these cuts, $2.5 billion will be cut from operational costs, and $3 billion will come from cutting back on spending for non-sports content.
ESPN like other cable networks is facing the fact that fewer Americans are paying for live TV. This is affecting their ability to rely heavily on subscriptions for nonsports fans to offset their high costs.