ESPN Lays Off 150 Staffers

ESPN will say goodbye to another 150 employees.

In a memo to ESPN staff, John Skipper, president of ESPN, writes: “The majority of the jobs eliminated are in studio production, digital content and technology. They generally reflect decisions to do less in certain instances and re-direct resources.”

In April, it laid off around 100 employees. ESPN has a total staff of 8,000.

Like many cable networks, ESPN continues to lose traditional pay TV subscribers. For the most recent estimate, Nielsen says ESPN and ESPN2 each lost 3.3% of their cable subscribers, in line with the overall industry average, which was 3.2%.

ESPN has around 90 million traditional pay TV subscribers, with cable, satellite and telco TV network distribution companies paying around $8 a month per subscriber for carrying the sports TV network.

ESPN plans to offer a direct-to-consumer digital streaming service starting sometime next year.

Recently, Walt Disney witnessed a decline in its most recent quarterly revenues -- down 3% to $12.8 billion, with net income down 1% to $1.7 billion. ESPN had higher programming costs, while lower advertising revenues were offset by higher affiliate revenue.

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1 comment about "ESPN Lays Off 150 Staffers".
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  1. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, November 29, 2017 at 12:46 p.m.

    Net income drops 1% so employment drops 1% -- makes sense to me.

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