04/06/2025
Disney’s routine culling continues right on schedule…
Disney struck again this week, axing several hundred employees globally—the fourth and largest round of cuts in just 10 months. At this point, it's less "restructuring" and more like a permanent downsizing operation. The latest carnage hit film and TV marketing, television publicity, casting, development, and corporate finance. Disney's brutal scorecard:
2023: 7,000 people eliminated
May 2024: 175 people at Pixar (14% of workforce)
July 2024: 140 people (including 60 at National Geographic)
October 2024: 75 people (ABC Signature shutdown)
March 2025: ~200 people (mostly ABC News)
This week: Several hundred more…
Why the endless cuts? Cable TV's death spiral is accelerating faster than streaming can fill the revenue gap. Cable lost 1.3M subscribers in Q1 alone—up from 1.25M the previous year. When your financial foundation crumbles, everything built on top starts shaking.
Disney's not alone. Warner Bros Discovery is cutting under 100 more people this month, Paramount has "another round" coming, and the new Versant cable spin-off launched with just "over 100" positions despite 5,000+ applicants.
The bigger picture: What started as "temporary restructuring for streaming" has become Hollywood's permanent business model. Bob Iger's $7.5B cost-reduction goal wasn't a one-time fix—it's the new normal. These companies are essentially paying to dismantle the very infrastructure that made them profitable.
Looking ahead… Don't expect this trend to slow down. Every quarter brings more cord-cutting, which means more "efficiency initiatives" across the industry. The streaming revolution was supposed to make everything more efficient, but turns out the transition period is like renovating your house while living in it. Expensive, messy, and someone's always getting displaced.
