Disney Cuts Hundreds Of More Jobs As Restructuring Reaches ESPN, Pixar And Nat Geo

The Walt Disney Company has initiated another round of layoffs, eliminating hundreds of positions across its television, sports and film businesses as it moves ahead with its “One Disney” restructuring strategy. Employees began receiving notifications on Tuesday, marking the third wave of job cuts this year. 

The latest job cut spans corporate functions and key divisions, including ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television (DET) and the company's film studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

While the latest round is smaller than the restructuring announced in April, it reflects Disney's continued efforts to streamline operations, simplify its organisational structure and improve operational efficiency.

Within Disney Entertainment Television, nearly 100 positions are being eliminated, with National Geographic bearing the largest share of the cuts. Employees across the cable network, editorial operations and other business functions are also affected.

Around a dozen positions are also being cut at ABC News, alongside additional reductions across other DET teams.

Pixar Animation Studios is also seeing significant workforce reductions, with layoffs impacting production and operational roles. According to the report, the cuts are expected to account for a high single-digit percentage of Pixar's workforce of approximately 1,100 employees. Senior executives are not believed to be affected.

The layoffs come despite Pixar enjoying a strong box office performance this year with titles including Hoppers and Toy Story 5.

At ESPN, most of the layoffs are linked to the integration of NFL Network assets acquired earlier this year. That being said, most of the layoffs at ESPN primarily affect behind-the-scenes staff, although some on-air talent has also been impacted, including longtime SportsCenter anchor and Baseball Tonight host Karl Ravech, as well as football analyst Ryan Clark.

In a memo to employees obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said the company had reviewed its organisational structure following the NFL integration.

“Over the past several months, we've made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN. Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organisational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today,” Pitaro wrote.

He added that while most of the job reductions are tied to the NFL acquisition, employees in other parts of ESPN would also be affected.

“We are committed to treating employees with compassion and respect and to providing support as they navigate this transition,” he said.

The latest layoffs are part of Disney's broader “One Disney” strategy being led by Parks chairman Josh D'Amaro and the company's senior leadership. 

In January, Disney consolidated all of its marketing departments under The Walt Disney Company chief brand officer Asad Ayaz. This led to some cuts in those areas. Then in April, D'Amaro announced a larger restructuring that impacted around 1,000 employees across the company.