Disney Entertainment Television Lay Off 140 Staff
Over the past couple of years, since the return of Bob Iger as CEO in late 2022, we’ve seen Disney go on a major cost-cutting measure, which has resulted in thousands of job cuts from across many different divisions, as part of an effort to reduce costs and get the company focused on profitability.
Today, it’s been revealed that Disney has cut a further 140 staff members in their Disney Entertainment Television division, which is about 2% of the division’s workforce.
The majority of these cuts have impacted National Geographic, which has seen 60 people lose their jobs, which represents 13% of the staff in that team.
Other cuts have also been made across the ABC-owned television Stations and Freeform, the operational side of Disney’s linear television networks, and marketing and publicity. However, no teams have been eliminated; they have just been trimmed down.
These layoffs have apparently been planned for a few months and are part of Disney Entertainment Television’s overall streaming strategy. The company had been given targets to reduce costs.
The majority of these layoffs are at the Disney Studios in Burbank and across the Los Angeles area. There have also been cuts in New York and at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C.
With the decline in linear television, we’ve seen Disney, along with many other studios, shifting a focus away from those channels and refocusing its efforts on streamlining for a streaming future.
Last year, when Disney signed a new carriage deal with Charter Communications, Spectrum customers lost access to many channels, including Freeform and Nat Geo Wild, in exchange for access to the ad-supported version of Disney+. It’s expected that in other upcoming carriage disputes, other cable companies will follow suit. Making the future of many of the linear channels in doubt; though it’s likely Disney will continue to offer some linear channels for years to come, it is still drastically pulling back on spending, as revenue from advertising decreases as cable television viewership also declines.
The Freeform network has already pulled back any plans on scripted original content and is currently only offering cheaper unscripted content. With these further cuts, there obviously has to be a huge question mark hanging over the future of that channel and as a brand in general. According to Deadline, some of the top executives to be let go as part of this round of layoffs include Belisa Balaban, who was Hulu Originals’ SVP of original documentaries and unscripted series, plus Tiffany Faigus, who was the SVP of unscripted and alternative entertainment for ABC Entertainment and Walt Disney Television Alternative.
Roger’s Take: It’s never good to hear of layoffs, and the reduction in National Geographic staff is disappointing, as they make some of the best documentaries, but there is little doubt that linear television viewership is declining, and Disney needs to change how it operates.
It’s unclear how these layoffs will impact the future of National Geographic and Freeform, especially with regards to new content arriving on both linear and streaming, but as we’ve seen with other studios like Marvel and Lucasfilm, this is likely going to result in fewer titles being released, though its part of the focus on quality over quantity.
We’ve seen every other studio at Disney cut back on its staff, and this has resulted in fewer titles being released, either on linear channels or streaming platforms. As audiences turn their back on linear television in favour of on-demand streaming, there will likely be more job cuts across the whole industry in the future.
What do you think of these job cuts? Let me know on social media!
Roger Palmer
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