Mass layoffs are underway at The Walt Disney Company, affecting hundreds of employees across Disney entertainment divisions, including marketing for the film and television units, Deadline reports.
In addition to these divisions, the layoffs will also affect employees in television promotion, casting, development, and Disney’s corporate financial operations divisions.
Deadline, citing sources, reported that the size of the cut is comparable on Disney Entertainment’s film and TV sides. The majority of Disney Entertainment Television employees 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 traditional media companies as they reshape their businesses to focus on streaming in the face of economic challenges.
Upon his return as CEO, Disney’s Bob Iger is targeting at least $7.5 billion in cost cuts as early as 2023, with about 7,000 jobs eliminated that year.
Earlier this year, in March, about 200 Disney employees were laid off, which was about 6% of the total workforce across ABC News Group and Disney’s entertainment networks, which also includes Freeform and FX, Deadline reported.
Earlier in October, there was a major restructuring at the Walt Disney Company, which included shutdowns.
Earlier in October, a major restructuring took place at The Walt Disney Company, which saw ABC Signature shut down, its operations folded into 20th Television and the scripted drama and comedy teams of ABC and Hulu Originals, Deadline reported.
This resulted in the layoffs of approximately 30 Disney Entertainment Television employees. According to the outlet, lower-level development executives, including the manager of drama programming at ABC Hulu, have also been affected.