Disney to cut 7,000 jobs as streaming subscribers decline

Mass media company Disney released its financial results for the first quarter of 2023.

It reported an increase in revenue for the quarter to $23.51 billion. This marks a significant increase from last quarter's earnings, which stood at $20.15 billion. The expected revenue generated for the last quarter was at $23.33 billion. Further, the company managed to trim down operating losses in the direct-to-consumer segment, from $1.5 billion in Q4 2022 to $1.1 billion in Q1 2023. Disney plans to save $5.5 billion in costs.

As part of Disney’s effort to make its streaming business profitable, Robert Iger, CEO, Disney, revealed that the company will be undertaking a major restructuring process. The process will involve terminating 7,000 employees.

The first quarter also saw the first time when the company lost a significant number of subscribers for its streaming business, Disney+, since 2019. The company lost about 2.4 million subscribers in the Oct-Dec quarter, going from 164.2 million subscribers to 161.8 million Disney+ global subscribers.

Disney+ Hotstar, the company's India and SEA streaming service, saw a decline of 3.8 million subscribers. The number of subscribers stood at 57.5 million, down from 61.3 million subs in the previous quarter.

Announcing the results, Iger said, “After a solid first quarter, we are embarking on a significant transformation, one that will maximise the potential of our world-class creative teams and our unparalleled brands and franchises. We believe the work we are doing to reshape our company around creativity, while reducing expenses, will lead to sustained growth and profitability for our streaming business, better position us to weather future disruption and global economic challenges and deliver value for our shareholders.”