🔰Disney Bob Iger Continues To FIRE Staff As Layoffs Ramp Up

Right, there is a whole round of Disney layoffs, quite major. This is of ABC News, their Disney Entertainment Networks. About 538 as well from a political polling site. So pretty major news actually. It's not a small amount that they're laying off. It's quite big, quite big. So I thought we'd cover it, take a look. C, this is of course the behemoth, the behemoth that is Disney. That's always interesting to hear. They've been downsizing for a while actually. There was of course the Bob, the famous Bob Chapek layoffs that they wanted to do. And then Bob Igers sort of instigated them as well. So yes, it's a, it was sort of framed as the Disney bloodbath at one point. I'd still say that's pretty accurate. You know, there are some major things going on behind closed doors with Disney. Their streaming platform isn't doing great. They've now admitted that they are going to be scaling back on long-form original content, which is, isn't that the whole point of a streaming platform? To produce long-form original content, right? Surely that's the whole point, no? Okay. Anyway, so we're going to take a look. Please do hit subscribe. Please do give this video a share. But let's take a look. I'll leave this article link down below. But yeah, it's 6% of staff at ABC News. So that's pretty major. And then Disney Entertainment Networks as well, like 538 political polling sites. Pretty mental. So a series of layoffs are set to rock Disney this week. The Walt Disney Company is set to eliminate approximately 200 positions within the ABC News group and Disney Entertainment Networks division, according to reports. The staff reductions expected to be communicated to employees as early as Wednesday represent nearly 6% of the combined workforce of these two units. That's not a small amount, like 6% is quite big. So yeah, like genuinely interesting that this, yeah, they just sort of, well, yeah, they're just downsizing. I mean, it makes sense, you know, if you're struggling as a business, why would you, you know, and I say struggling, you know, it's not like, oh, woe is me. They're not cap in hand out and about. But they're certainly not winning the box office like they used to. So this move is part of Disney's ongoing strategy to cut costs as the company navigates shifting consumer habits. Traditional television viewership has declined, with many consumers opting for streaming services over cable subscriptions. Now this shift has also affected advertising revenue, prompting Disney to re-evaluate its investment in legacy media, whilst directing resources towards sports and entertainment content in the streaming marketplace. I mean, sports should be where it is. Sports always makes money. Like sports is just so, it's not divisive. I mean, it's divisive by teams, but it's not divisive on political lines, right? Just promote sports business, what you're good at, or seemingly have been anyway, since you got a hold of some sports stuff. It says this, among the most significant changes is Disney is shutting down 538, a political news site known for its election forecasting. The site, which employed approximately 15 people, will be eliminated as part of the cost cutting measures. 538, originally founded by statistician Nate Silver, gained prominence for its analytical models that aggregated polling data to predict election outcomes. Now whilst the site earned recognition for correctly forecasting all 50 states in the 2012 US election, it has also been criticized for handling of later elections, which, yeah, interesting really. It's only as good as the data you put into it, right? So during the 2016 election, 538 gave Donald Trump a 29% chance of victory, a projection that was seen as an underestimation of the eventual outcome. More recently, in the 2024 election cycle, the site faced internal challenges following Silver's departure. Reports surfaced that its election model was taken offline for an extended period due to performance issues, good times, with Silver himself calling the model broken and cautioning against relying on its fork. So the founder and creator is like, yeah, mate, that's broken, I'm getting out of here. So the decision to shutter 538 also highlights its contentious relationship with polling firm Rasmussen Reports. 538 removed Rasmussen from its polling averages, claiming it failed to meet its internal standards. However, in the 2024 US presidential election, Rasmussen Reports demonstrated notable accuracy and in their final national poll before the election, Rasmussen reported that former president Donald Trump held a three-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris, with the figures standing at 49% for Trump and 46% for Harris. This closely mirrored the actual election outcome. So it is weird that they're like, yeah, well, we're closing this now. I'm going to make sense because they're just screwed. So in 538's closure, Disney's making further structural changes to ABC News, the network's long-running news magazine programs, 2020 and Nightline will be consolidated into one unit, resulting in additional staffing cuts. Moreover, Good Morning America is restructuring its production team with all three hours of the program now being managed under a single leader, eliminating the need for separate teams. They're just getting rid of people. Elsewhere at the Disney Entertainment Network's division, which oversees broadcast networks and cable channels like Freeform and FX, staffing reductions will impact program planning and scheduling. So these Disney layoffs are the latest in a series of workforce reductions across Bob Iger's media empire. As I said, this has been the Disney bloodbath for quite a while. So yeah, the company attempts to streamline operations and refocus on areas of growth. The traditional media outlets continue to struggle in the evolving digital landscape, and the Disney's latest cuts signal a further retreat from legacy operations in favor of streaming and sports media investments. Yeah, 538 shutdown is pretty major, actually. I mean, this whole thing's pretty major. Like, don't let anyone sort of downplay this. It's a lot of restructuring. And again, I'm not saying, oh, that's a bad thing. I'm saying it's a major thing. It's signs that a company cannot sustain itself as is, obviously, because it starts to change in ebb and flow. But that's never good, right? That's not a good sign that the company is, you know, just sort of whitewashed healthy. That's quite bad. It's not good that companies have to do that. It shows that there are issues behind closed doors. And this is one of them, obviously. So yeah, it's interesting. It's very, very interesting. Again, it's good that they do these restructuring things for a company perspective. But still funny. I mean, Disney, this also comes to remember as they shut down their Vancouver Animation Studio as well. Well, not shut it down fully, but fired a whole bunch of staff. A bunch of staff that worked on Moana 2 as well that was successful. So this is, yeah, a long list of things that Disney is getting rid of and firing people. Bob Iger, you're fired. God, I wish he was fired. Anyway, I don't have much else to say. Let me know your thoughts down below. Love to hear it. If you are new here, like I said at the start, do hit subscribe. And please do as well hit subscribe if you are a returning viewer. I mean, if you keep coming back to the channel and you're not subscribed, you made it this far in the video, you owe it to yourself. You might as well hit subscribe. And I can't grow this channel without your help. And it would really mean a lot to me. Thank you in advance. 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