Disney-ABC Television Group will be reducing annual costs at the unit by 10 percent by the close of its parent company’s fiscal year with a restructuring and reduction of staff levels, Variety has learned.
Plans for the cost-cutting measures at the group, which includes the ABC television network, ABC News, ABC Studios, and entertainment cable channels including Freeform and Disney Channel, are still being developed.
Disney-ABC sources tell Variety that no headcount for staff reductions has been determined and that details of the cost-cutting effort are fluid, but expectations are that the layoffs will number in the hundreds.
The restructuring may be a means of cutting overhead in outmoded areas such as distribution and marketing to redirect those resources to content development. But it will inevitably revive rumors that Disney no longer views ABC as one of it long-term core brands.
Disney has consistently denied rumors that it is looking to
