Disney will lay off several hundred employees globally, with the cuts expected to impact a limited number of positions in marketing for both film and television, publicity, casting, development and corporate financial operations.
The move, which is part of the entertainment giant’s ongoing efforts to cut costs, will not result in the elimination of entire teams, an individual familiar with the matter tells TheWrap.
The latest round of layoffs marks the fourth and largest impacting Disney’s TV operations, following nearly 200 jobs in March, or roughly 6% of ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks’ staff, 75 staffers across ABC News and its owned stations in October and 140 Disney Entertainment Television staffers last July.
In October, Disney also combined ABC Entertainment and Hulu’s scripted drama and comedy teams under Simran Sethi and folded ABC Signature into 20th Television under president Karey Burke.
The latest round comes after Disney beat Wall Street expectations for its second quarter of 2025, swinging to a quarterly profit of $3.28 billion and growing revenue 7% to $23.6 billion.
Disney’s entertainment segment, which includes Disney+, Hulu and the company’s entertainment linear networks, grew revenue 9% to $10.68 billion and operating profit 61% to $1.26 billion, driven by improved results in direct-to-consumer and content sales, licensing and other.
Disney+ and Hulu posted a combined operating profit of $336 million, up from a profit of $47 million a year ago. When including ESPN+, the three streaming services have a total of 204.8 million subscribers. Disney did not break out whether ESPN+ posted a profit or loss for the quarter.
Meanwhile, linear networks revenue fell 13% to $2.42 billion and operating income rose 2% to $769 million. Domestic linear revenues fell 3% to $2.2 billion, while operating income jumped 20% to $625 million, due to lower technology, marketing, programming and product costs and lower ad revenue from lower rates, average viewership and fewer impressions. International linear networks revenue fell 55% to $223 million, while operating income tumbled 84% to $15 million due to the Star India transaction with Reliance Industries.
Content sales, licensing and other grew revenue 54% to $2.15 billion and swung to a profit of $153 million from a loss of $18 million a year ago, driven by an increase in sales of episodic content, the home entertainment performance of “Moana 2,” and the carryover theatrical performance from the film and “Mufasa: The Lion King.”
In addition to its TV unit, other areas of Disney that have been previously impacted by layoffs have included 300 corporate staff members in September and 175 people from Pixar in May 2024.
