It’s being reported that ESPN will be doing lay offs and pay cuts starting next week. It’s expected that Disney will lay off around 7,000 employees and one of those areas will be ESPN.
According to the New York Post, ESPN will have cuts in three rounds. With the first round likely to impact staff behind the camera. But it could also cut talent that’s in front of the camera.
ESPN, a lot like other channels, are having to grapple with the fact that more and more Americans are not paying for live TV. They aren’t just cutting the cord, but cutting live TV altogether.
CLIP: ESPN is expected to have three rounds of layoffs with the first coming soon and some on-air folks are likely going to have decisions to make.
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— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) April 19, 2023
Disney looks to cut about $5.5 billion in costs over the next few years
This is just part of Disney’s plan to cut around $5.5 billion in costs over the next few years. It will also be looking to cut about 15% of its staff across its entertainment division. The cuts will include TV, film, theme parks and corporate teams in all areas. It’s expected that these cuts will start as soon as April 24.
Once all the cuts are made, Disney is expected to cut about 7,000 jobs. This is being done by not filling empty jobs and laying off around 5,000 people.
It’s a tough market for everyone right now. We’re seeing layoffs everywhere in Silicon Valley, and now it’s starting to make its way out of the tech space. For the first time ever, we’ve seen Google and Amazon lay off employees. And Amazon is actually on its second round of lay offs now.
It’ll be interesting to see how these cuts affect what ESPN covers, what new content comes to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, as well as how the parks continue. Those are Disney’s three big areas – sports, movies and TV shows, and their theme parks – for revenue.
2023-04-21 15:07:49