Disney’s plan to cut 7,000 jobs is set to hit the company’s UK-based roles and redundancies at content positions including the Disney+ commissioning teams are expected this month, Screen’s sister site Broadcast understands.
Last Monday (27 March), Walt Disney Company chief executive Bob Iger set out the timeline for his strategy to cut £2.4bn ($3bn) from content budgets and £2bn ($2.5bn) of other costs.
The ripple effects are due to be felt in the coming weeks and multiple sources indicated that cuts to London-based positions are expected, including among the Disney+ EMEA teams.
One well-placed source suggested that the cuts, which will also impact budgets, could affected scripted comedy and drama. Disney+ had a hit with UK comedy drama Extraordinary earlier this year and has a number of high-profile shows coming up, such as Jilly Cooper’s Rivals, which is due to film this summer.
When Rivals was announced, Disney said: “Across EMEA alone, Disney’s International Content and Operations team plan to create 60 local productions by 2024.”
Iger sent a memo to staff last Monday [27 March] saying that Disney needs a “more effective, co-ordinated and streamlined approach to our business.” According to reports he also told an investor conference recently that the company’s streaming service had to “better rationalise” costs.
When contacted yesterday about the redundancies, a spokeswoman for Disney said there was nothing to add beyond Bob Iger’s comments last week.
This story first appeared on Screen’s sister site Broadcast.
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