The Walt Disney Company has recently announced it will be making budget cuts to the ABC broadcast network and ABC News in order to save millions of dollars.
The Wall Street Journal reports that of the 10,000 employees hired by ABC Disney, up to 300 positions could be cut.
These cuts represent 10% of the company's annual cost. With plans to restructure, this could prove to be a financially smart move for Disney.
This decision doesn’t come as a total surprise as ABC has had declining ratings over the past few years, has had to cancel several of their shows and also finished CBS and NBC in viewers this past ratings season. In addition, producer Shonda Rhimes — who worked on such shows as Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal — left the studio to instead work for Netflix earlier this month.
Disney has also had to make budget cuts to their sports network channel ESPN earlier this year. These cuts could have something to do with Disney’s recent announcement that they will be launching their own streaming service independent of Netflix in 2019.
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For now, there is no firm deadline as to when the cuts will begin or the exact number of people to be laid off, but Ben Sherwood — president of Disney/ABC TV Group — is said to be reporting to CEO Bob Iger in the following weeks, with changes taking place as early as the end of September.