It looks like it’s not all blue skies in the wonderful world of Disney anymore. With tough times ahead, its Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek is starting a massive cost-cutting process that will stop hiring, limit travel and see quite a lot of retrenchment.
The Disney empire comprises of TV, film, merchandise as well as theme parks and with improvements in technology, less manpower may be required.
According to Collider, the announcement was made via an in-house memo that was distributed to executives and sent out to media outlets after its third-quarter financial report.
The company reported a $1.5 billion quarterly loss for its streaming service which has lost $8 billion in three years.
However it did see a 20% increase in subscribers in the United States and Canada and a 57% rise internationally last year.
Disney+ will debut an ad-supported system from December 8 which is a cheaper version of the platform featuring commercials.
Disney stock price is also plummeting and the new measures are expected to put the company back on track by 2024.
Chapek said that “these tough and uncomfortable decisions are just what leadership requires. As we work through this evaluation process, we will look at every avenue of operations and labor to find savings and we do anticipate some staff reduction as part of this review.
“Our company has weathered many challenges during our 100-year history, and I have no doubt we will achieve our goals and create a more nimble company better suited to the environment of tomorrow.”
In general streaming services like Disney, Netflix, Amazon and Apple are all seeing a dwindling number of viewers.
Facebook or Meta also laid off 11,000 workers in one of its biggest job cuts ever.
Warner Bros Discovery Inc which owns HBO Max cut 1,000 jobs as the company tries to get out of debt.
NBC Universal is looking to reduce its head count by offering buyouts to employees who are over 57 and have been with the company for a minimum of 10 years.
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