Walt Disney Co. laid off hundreds of employees across the film and television business, highlighting the entertainment industry’s contraction is not over.
Staff cuts began Monday and, along with the company’s financial operations, fell into marketing, advertising, casting and development employees.
Hollywood has been in cost-cutting mode for several years, with production and employment in a downward spiral. Studios are releasing less films to increase profitability, with theater attendance in particular still below pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, consumers have cancelled their cable TV subscriptions in favour of streaming services. This is a overwhelming shift in advertising and distribution revenue for traditional channel operators.
The change is spurring a massive restructuring of the business. Comcast Corp. is planning to spin-off most of its cable TV channels, including MSNBC, the US and CNBC by the end of this year. Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. has also completed an internal restructuring to separate studio business and cable TV operations. This will encourage the sale of the latter division. More cuts are expected at Paramount Global as it pursues a merger with independent film and television studio Skydance Media.
Burbank, California-based Disney had previously considered selling its own television network, including ABC, but ultimately decided to maintain its assets. The company announced cuts in February 2023, eliminating 7,000 jobs in its bid.Reduce costs$5.5 billion. Disney later increased its target to $7.5 billion. Competitors also fired thousands of workers.
The latest cuts follow about 200 job cuts across Disney’s ABC and Entertainment TV network in March. Overall, the company has eliminated more than 8,000 positions in recent years as it seeks to improve profitability.
Monday’s layoff was first reported by the entertainment industry’s publication deadline. Disney had around 233,000 employees at the end of last fiscal year in September. This includes 76% full-time.
Disney shares did not change $112.92 in New York at 3:31pm.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
