Disney/ABC TV has begun making long-feared layoffs as part of a broader restructuring of its broadcast business, with rumors swirling that bigger moves—including a possible sale of ABC—are coming.
Deadline first reported the staff reductions on Thursday, saying they could impact up to 200 employees across Disney and ABC properties. An ABC source with knowledge of the situation said that the cuts will hit upward of 40 of its employees on the East Coast and still more out west.
Multiple people at ABC told Splinter that there is a widespread belief at the network that the belt-tightening could be tied to a prospective sale by its corporate parent.
Disney's broadcast division, which includes ABC and its local TV stations, is suffering from slumping ad rates and new competition from streaming services. The network's top producer, Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder, decamped from ABC for Netflix in August.
Will pride goeth before the fall?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 16 2017, @02:32AM
This is because the execs. at these networks have their heads firmly shoved so far up the ass of the "the show exists solely to cause ad views" monster that they can not even fathom that people might actually stop watching because of too many commericals.
Plus, they all operate like it is 1975 and there are only three (maybe four) channels anyone could even watch, and there's nothing else to do (i.e., no computer games, no internet, etc.) and so they think people will just watch out of sheer fear of boredom, so with a "captive audience" they can just shove more ads, and there's nothing the viewer can do about it.