Disney is looking to save over $5 billion dollars to try to make the company more profitable, following the impact of the pandemic and the economic issues facing the world right now.  One of the ways these cost-cutting measures are being made is through job cuts.  Earlier this year, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that they would be looking to cut over 7000 jobs, with the first round of job cuts is taking place last month and another round of job cuts in April, followed by a final round of cuts coming at the beginning of the summer.

While these job cuts are being made right across the whole company, Disney is looking at trying to cut $3 billion from the entertainment divisions budgets, and according to a recent report from Bloomberg, the second wave of job cuts is expected to begin next week from Monday through Thursday, most of which are going to be coming from the film and television division, with virtually every division, including TV networks, studios and film studios are expecting to be impacted.  With division, heads are being given cost targets, which could be between 5% and 15% of the workforce.

According to Deadline, there is a high level of anxiety at Disney right now, with one industry source saying that the morale within the company is low.

“There is a sense of foreboding that the cuts are going to be wide, large-scale and very meaningful,”

Another executive at the company said:

“Iger coming back got everyone’s hopes up for investment in people as well as creativity. Truth is if you’re not operating a ride at the parks, you could be on the chopping block. Maybe the worst part is still not knowing who is being let go, no matter how much time you put in.”

With these cuts impacting all divisions, there will be another wave to hit Network programming and studio marketing, in addition to further cuts at ABC News, which has already seen some cuts.

But Hulu is expected to be hit hard, as Disney is preparing to sort out the agreement with Comcast, which owns 33%, and due to a “put/call” contract in place, in 2024, Disney or Comcast can force Disney to purchase the remaining stake, which is priced at least $9 billion.  In an era of cost-cutting, spending $9 billion on the remaining 33% stake of Hulu might not be ideal, which is why Bob Iger has said everything is on the table with regard to potentially selling the streaming service.  An executive at another media company explained:

“Hulu will definitely be one place to watch with these cutbacks.  Since they took control, they have kept it U.S. only and managed it pretty conservatively, meaning it’s either going to get beamed up into Disney+ or they could just let it go entirely. My money’s on the former, but that means they could operate it a lot more efficiently.”

Following the first round of cuts, Hulu’s president, Joe Earley, was upped to head of the direct-to-consumer streaming at Disney Entertainment, replacing, Michael Paull.

We should expect to see some big job cuts across all of Disney’s studios and streaming services, which will no doubt have an impact on viewers at some level, either with fewer shows being created, more shows being spread out, and a focus on making money over gaining new subscribers.

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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