ESPN To Lay Off About 100 Employees Including On-Air Personalities And Writers

No one has been identified yet. These disclosures likely will trickle out once the people affected are told.

“A necessary component of managing change involves constantly evaluating how we best utilize all of our resources, and that sometimes involves difficult decisions,” ESPN President John Skipper says in a memo to staffers.

Changes in ESPN content must “go further, faster…and as always, must be efficient and nimble,” he says.

That means “we have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent—anchors, analysts, reporters, writers and those who handle play-by-play—necessary to meet those demands. We will implement changes in our talent lineup this week. A limited number of other positions will also be affected and a handful of new jobs will be posted to fill various needs.”

ESPN said in March that the layoffs announced today were a possibility.

So far this year sports viewing on Disney networks is down about 4%, Pivotal Research Group’s Brian Wieser noted this week.

But commentary shows such as ESPN’s SportsCenter have been especially hard hit as fans increasingly find the latest scores and video clips on their smart phones. ESPN’s commentary shows are down 16% so far this year, the analyst says.

Disney reported ESPN’s ad sales fell 7% in the last three months of 2016, while programming and production costs grew … (read more)

Source: Deadline