WASHINGTON: Major layoffs are underway at the Walt Disney Company, affecting hundreds of employees across Disney Entertainment divisions, including marketing for film and television units, reported Deadline.
Apart from these divisions, the layoffs will also affect the employees in the television publicity, casting, development and Disney’s corporate financial operations divisions.
Deadline cited the sources and reported that the size of the cuts on Disney Entertainment’s film and TV sides is comparable. The majority of the Disney Entertainment Television staffers are said to be based in Los Angeles.
According to the outlet, this is the fourth and largest round of layoffs in the past ten months that have affected various Disney television operations.
They are part of an ongoing cost-cutting process at the traditional media companies as they reshape their business to focus on streaming while facing economic headwinds.
Upon his return as CEO, Disney’s Bob Iger has established a goal of at least 7.5 billion USD in cost reductions at the start of 2023, with about 7,000 jobs eliminated that year.
Earlier this year, in March, just under 200 Disney employees were laid off, representing almost 6% of the workforce in the ABC News Group and Disney’s Entertainment Networks, including Freeform and FX, reported Deadline.
Before that, a big restructuring at the Walt Disney Company happened in October, involving the shutdown of ABC Signature, with its operations folded into 20th Television and the consolidation of ABC and Hulu Originals scripted drama and comedy teams, reported Deadline.
It resulted in about 30 Disney Entertainment Television layoffs.
According to the outlet, lower-level development executives, including a manager of drama programming at ABC Hulu, have also been affected. (ANI)
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