Disney TV restructuring plans are expected to bring hundreds of layoffs and fold separately run television divisions together, according to a Wall Street Journal report Thursday citing people familiar with the matter. The overhaul is being led by Debra OConnell, chairman of Disney Entertainment Television, and may not be finalized before the end of the year.
The goal is to organize Disney’s television business around streaming customers rather than around brands built decades ago for linear television. The changes are expected to reach the executives running units including ABC Entertainment, 20th Television, Hulu Originals and Freeform. ABC News is also set to see additional reductions.
What Debra OConnell Oversees
OConnell was named to the newly created chairman role in March, when Dana Walden set her leadership team ahead of becoming Disney’s president and chief creative officer. Under that structure, OConnell oversees ABC Entertainment, Disney Branded Television, Hulu Originals, National Geographic Content and creative for 20th Television and 20th Television Animation. She also continues to oversee ABC News and the ABC Owned Television Stations.
Several of those businesses came to Disney through its 2019 acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets, and each television unit still has its own executive layer overseeing programming for Disney+, Hulu and linear channels.
Walden Described The Shift At Bloomberg Screentime
Walden spoke to the same idea on Thursday at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference, where she called Disney’s layoffs “extremely painful”. She said Disney was built on a series of acquisitions, with executives running their own individual businesses and profit-and-loss statements, a setup that did not make sense long term as the business evolved.
“So, we had to make decisions around centralizing and functioning more as a television business and not a group of silos, and that required us again to evaluate how many people do we need,” Walden said.
Timing Follows The Early Retirement Offer
Details of the television plan are still being worked out. Disney is just coming out of a voluntary early retirement offer for longtime executives, and the company waited to gauge how many people accepted before moving ahead with the television plan.
Three Rounds Of Cuts So Far In 2026
The television plan would follow three rounds of layoffs this year under CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took over in March. About 1,000 roles were eliminated in April, mostly tied to a consolidated enterprise marketing division. Several hundred more jobs were cut in July across corporate functions, ESPN, the studios and Disney Entertainment Television, with most of the TV group cuts at National Geographic.
Earlier this week, Disney laid off a few hundred employees, mostly in human resources and IT. Disney’s legal and global affairs group has also been told to expect a much smaller department.
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