Disney Lays Off 140 Employees in Television Division

Disney was hit with layoffs on Wednesday as approximately 140 employees, or 2% of its workforce, were let go in the television division.

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No teams are being eliminated, but National Geographic, locally owned television stations, Freeform, as well as the network’s marketing and publicity teams, will primarily be affected by cuts.

National Geographic will have the largest reduction in staff with 60 employees, or about 13% of the team, being let go. Disney acquired the brand, best known for all things nature and history, as part of its $71 billion acqusition of 21st Century Fox in 2019.

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Disney’s CEO Bob Iger earlier this year shared plans to “pretty dramatically” reduce spending on pay-TV content, particularly content “aimed at those traditional network,” after investing “too much” in streaming. Some of the company’s biggest TV shows include FX’s “Shōgun” and “The Bear” and ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Abbott Elementary.” In attempts to save money, Iger said in May the company is “aggregating greater audience and amortizing costs” by quickly putting new episodes of network television on digital platforms like Hulu. “It’s working,” he added. “What we’re getting is unduplicated audiences.”

Disney has undergone several rounds of cuts as a result of leadership’s goal of $7.5 billion in cost reduction plan. In May, Pixar Animation, a division of the company’s film group, cut approximately 175 employees, or 14% of its workforce, as part of these efforts. The cuts were due to mandates to scale back on direct-to-consumer series in favor of feature films. In 2023, the media conglomerate let go of 3.6% of total headcount of approximately 220,000 worldwide to attempt to cut costs.

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