Online Reporter
LOS ANGELES. – Disney says it is laying off several hundred more people around the world, with workers in its film, television and finance departments impacted.
The entertainment giant has been under pressure as viewers move away from cable TV subscriptions in favour of streaming platforms.
“As our industry transforms at a rapid pace, we continue to evaluate ways to efficiently manage our businesses while fuelling the state-of-the-art creativity and innovation that consumers value and expect from Disney,” a spokesperson told the BBC.
The latest job cuts follow major layoffs announced in 2023, when around 7,000 workers were let go as part of a drive by chief executive Bob Iger to save US$5.5bn.
The cuts will impact multiple teams including marketing departments for its film and television units.
Workers in Disney’s casting and development and corporate finance departments will also be affected.
“We have been surgical in our approach to minimise the number of impacted employees,” said a spokesperson. The company also said that no teams will be closed down entirely.
The California-based firm employs 233 000 workers, with just over 60,000 of those based outside the US.
Disney owns a host of companies across the entertainment industry including Marvel, Hulu and ESPN.
The firm reported stronger than expected earnings in May, with overall revenue of $23.6bn for the first three months of the year. That was a 7 percent increase from the same period in 2024.
It said the growth was fuelled by new subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service.
The company has released a number of new films this year including Captain America: Brave New World and Snow White.
The live action remake of the iconic Snow White animated film did not perform as well as expected at cinemas, after facing a number of negative reviews.
But Disney’s latest release, Lilo & Stitch, broke box office records in the US for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The animated film has seen global ticket sales of more than $610m since its release in May, according to industry data firm Box Office Mojo.
Across the Atlantic, in the UK, there is rising concern about his traditional TV companies survive the threat posed by giant American streaming firms.
Just before Christmas, in a private dining room in the upmarket Charlotte Street Hotel in the heart of London’s Fitzrovia area, the BBC’s director general gathered some of the UK’s leading TV creatives and executives for lunch.
As they ate, surrounded by kaleidoscopic-patterned wallpaper and giant artworks, they were also chewing over the future survival of their own industry.
As solutions were thrown around to what many see as an acute funding crisis in the age of global streaming, one of the invitees suggested, in passing, that BBC Studios (the corporation’s commercial content-producing arm) could merge with Channel 4 to create a bigger, more powerful force to compete with the likes of Disney Plus, Netflix and Amazon.
Sir Peter Bazalgette, the former Chairman of ITV, said what he termed the current “generous spread” of British broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) will need some consolidation or, at the very least, more cooperation in future.
“We’re in danger of having no public service broadcasting within a decade, certainly within 20 years,” he says. “We don’t have a strategy for their survival. It’s that serious. The regulators need to start thinking about it. Mergers may well be part of the answer. There should be fewer companies in the future.”
Lord Vaizey, who was Culture Minister under David Cameron, put it baldly. “ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 should merge.
“The UK only has room for two domestic broadcasters.” – BBC
