Earlier this year, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced there would be some major changes to the company following his return and a shift to making Disney more profitable, following the impact of the pandemic and the economic issues facing the world right now.

Disney is looking to try to save over $5 billion dollars, and one of the ways that it is happening is through job cuts, with Disney looking to cut over 7000 jobs in the next couple of months.  The first round of job cuts happened last month, which saw people being cut from Marvel, Hulu, ABC News and more.   Another round is coming up in early April, which is set to be the “big one” or a “bloodbath”, which will then be followed by a final round of cuts coming at the beginning of the summer.

According to Deadline, Disney EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) is the next to be hit with job cuts.  Currently, Disney has around 5000 staff outside the US and around 40% of those are based in Hammersmith, West London, plus in other locations across Asia and Europe.  Last month, Bob Iger visited London and also Disneyland Paris, where he met with staff and visited the film studios.

The Disney+ content team is also based in London, and they report to Diego Londono, who is Disney’s EVP, Media Networks and Content.  It’s expected that the Disney+ content team is expected to be cut, in addition to marketing and legal jobs being under threat.

One source told Deadline

“Undoubtedly there will be cuts, so we are waiting for names and headcount details to emerge.”

While another source added that the international division is “right in the midst of [the decision-making],”  and is more likely to be hit with bigger budget cuts than redundancies due to how labour laws work differently in the UK to the US.  Bob Iger has previously said there will be a slowdown in international productions:

Another side to the reorganization that was — that we’ve just done that I think will prove valuable is that there was a disconnect between what were making in international markets and what we were making in the United States for global distribution. And I think that we might have created an imbalance of sorts, because territory managers of the Disney+ platform were leaning more into what they were producing locally, which has some value, but perhaps not relying as much on what was being produced for global consumption. And that’s another opportunity for us in terms of reducing expenses.

The cuts in the international division have been expected since the Chairman of International Operations, Rebecca Campbell announced she would be leaving Disney in June following the reorganisation.  Her main role was rolling out the launch of Disney+ across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, along with the launch of both Disney+ and Star+ in Latin America.

Disney has been creating original content around the world for its streaming services, with over 60 titles set to be created in Europe alone, plus numerous more titles across Asia and Latin America.  With Disney cutting back its budget, especially for its general entertainment side, it’s likely we will see a drastic reduction in the amount of original content being made outside the US but also a shift in a focus on promoting “global” originals, and less advertising.

What do you think of Disney cutting its budget for international originals?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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