Another round of layoffs hit ESPN today.
According to John Ourand at SBD, ESPN also won’t be filling 200 positions that are currently open, making this essentially a cut of 500 jobs.
“ESPN will begin to cut about 500 jobs starting today. The cuts will be a combination of about 300 layoffs and 200 open positions that won’t be filled, with remote production expected to be hit especially hard. “Prior to the pandemic, we had been deeply engaged in strategizing how best to position ESPN for future success amidst tremendous disruption in how fans consume sports,” ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro said in a note sent to employees this morning.
“The pandemic’s significant impact on our business clearly accelerated those forward-looking discussions. In the short term, we enacted various steps like executive and talent salary reductions, furloughs and budget cuts, and we implemented innovative operations and production approaches, all in an effort to weather the COVID storm. We have, however, reached an inflection point.”
ESPN has about 4,000 employees in Bristol, and about 2,500 others spread out across the rest of the United States and the globe.
COVID-19 is the obvious factor, but it is also people cord cutting for a network that demands among the highest carriage fees on cable television.
