Disney cuts 140 jobs from television division

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Disney had laid off 140 employees in its television division. That number represents roughly 2 percent of the total workforce, though certain stations and sectors lost significant chunks of their teams.

The move comes as Disney continues to cut costs under CEO Bob Iger, who has made it his mission since being reinstated in 2022 to return the iconic entertainment company to the powerhouse it once was. To achieve the leadership team's lofty goal of eliminating $7.5 billion in spending, Iger has let go over 4 percent of its total staff.

According to Variety, among those most affected by the layoffs are National Geographic, Freeform, locally-owned television stations, and Disney's marketing and publicity teams. National Geographic, which was acquired when the company bought 21st Century Fox for $71 billion in 2019, is set to lose about 60 people, around 13 percent of its team. 

This is the largest round of layoffs since May, when animation studio Pixar let 175 people go, reducing its workforce by 14 percent. It did not, however, come as a surprise. Earlier this year, Iger made it clear that he wanted to "reduce pretty dramatically" investment in traditional television content.
 

"It's not a growth business, but it could become an important component to our ability to basically engage with the consumer," he said at MoffettNathanson's 2024 Media, Internet and Communications Conference in New York, per Variety. 

Iger also admitted that Disney had made some mistakes on the streaming front as well. "As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way," he said, "basically, we invested too much,” more than "what was truly monetizable." He lamented that the decision had "resulted in volume, not quality."

In recent months, a growing number of Americans have called on the company to return to its roots and produce more family-friendly content.