• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, May 1, 2023

In another sign that streaming’s go-go days are over, last week saw Disney CEO Bob Iger fired several high-ranking executives involved in the highly successful launch of Disney+, and Amazon let go about 100 employees in its Prime Video and Amazon Studios division.

Iger has now eliminated about 4,000 of the 7,000 employees to be laid off as part of a workforce reduction and corporate restructuring plan to cut $5.5 billion in costs.

Last week’s layoffs included Jerrell Jimerson, Sean Curtis and Jaya Kolhatkar, who held product, technology and data leadership roles in the unit that includes the flagship Disney+ and Hulu platforms, with members of the streaming division’s marketing and business development teams also affected, according to Bloomberg sources.

Disney declined to comment on the report.

While the layoffs have impacted all divisions, the direct-to-consumer/streaming division that includes Hulu as well as Disney+ has reportedly been particularly hard-hit.

As critical as it is to Disney’s strategy, the division lost $1.47 billion in last year’s third quarter — $800 million more than in Q3 2021— which may have contributed to the ouster of former CEO Bob Chapek. For its fiscal first quarter ending in December 2022, things improved a bit, but the D2C operating loss was still $1.053 billion. Disney will report fiscal second-quarter results next month.

At Amazon, the 100 layoffs in the steaming and studios division represent about 1% of the division’s 7,000-person workforce, according to L.A. Times sources.

Culver City-based Amazon Studios is Amazon’s film and TV production arm. Last year, the company, which is putting increasing focus on films for theatrical distribution prior to streaming, acquired MGM Studios last year for $8.5 billion.

Amazon acknowledged an unstated number of layoffs in a statement on Thursday.

“Like many businesses, we have been closely monitoring economic conditions and our organizational needs, and have made the decision to adjust resources,” the company said. “As a result, a small number of roles will be eliminated on some teams.”

After ramping up massively for a pandemic-driven surge in online sales, Amazon laid off 18,000 employees in last year’s fourth quarter, and is in the process of laying off another 9,000, including a significant number of advertising executives.