Disney is preparing its largest cuts this year — it wants to invest in content
Kyiv • UNN
Disney plans to cut thousands of jobs and has instructed managers to seek 20% in savings. Some of the funds will be reinvested in content and technology.
Walt Disney Co. is preparing to cut thousands of jobs, and the entertainment giant is asking some managers to target 20% annual cost savings. Bloomberg reports this, citing sources familiar with the situation, UNN writes.
Details
The savings could be achieved through both job cuts and expense reductions, the sources said.
Some Disney divisions, including its theme parks, television networks, and film studio, will be disproportionately affected. CEO Josh D’Amaro intends to reinvest some of the savings in film and television programming, technology, as well as theme parks and the cruise business, the sources said.
The company has pledged double-digit growth in adjusted earnings per share in the current fiscal year.
As Variety notes, this will be the fourth round of job cuts in 2026 under Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, and it will affect the largest number of employees.
What is happening at Disney
In recent years, Disney has cut billions of dollars in costs and eliminated thousands of jobs, with the reductions affecting all divisions, including ABC, Pixar, ESPN, the film studio, and the entertainment content development division. At the end of the last fiscal year, the company employed 231,000 people worldwide.
On October 1, The Wall Street Journal reported that Disney was planning to restructure its television division and make cuts in the company’s legal and international departments.
At the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles last month, Disney President Dana Walden said: "The structure and scale of the organization must be constantly evaluated. Technology has set its sights on our business, and we have to survive, thrive, and grow—and that is exactly what we intend to do."
The situation in the sector
Other entertainment companies, including Netflix Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment, and the Paramount and Warner Bros. divisions of Skydance Corp., have also cut jobs amid declining revenue from traditional television and slowing growth in streaming-service subscribers.
They are also having to cope with the growing number of viewers shifting to social media, online video, and streaming services supported by technology giants such as Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.