Disney Set to Make Significant Layoffs as Fierce Competition Takes a Toll: Report
Disney is reportedly planning up to 1,000 layoffs in the coming weeks, largely in its consolidated marketing division, as it grapples with a tougher streaming market and the need to invest in the digital future. Disney+ and Hulu staff are also being merged. The company faces a two-pronged threat: streaming profits are thinner than customary TV,and major tech competitors like Amazon and YouTube are intensifying pressure in the streaming space. The layoffs would be the first under new CEO Josh D’Amaro and continue a pattern started by Bob Iger in 2022, with more than 8,000 jobs cut since than; Disney ended its 2025 fiscal year with about 231,000 employees, with job growth in parks and cruise operations offsetting cuts in entertainment and corporate areas including ESPN. The move comes as other studios,such as Sony Pictures,Paramount,and Warner Bros. discovery, also announce staff reductions, amid concerns about theater revenue and possible declines in international theme-park attendance. Reports come from The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times and are discussed in a broader industry context.
Layoffs are coming to Disney as it tries to fight competition from tech companies in a vicious streaming entertainment market.
As many as 1,000 jobs could be cut in the coming weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Disney’s marketing department, where various parts of the company have been combined, is expected to feel the brunt of the layoffs, the Journal reported.
Staff of Disney+ and Hulu are also being merged.
Disney is facing a two-pronged threat. The world of streaming services delivers smaller profits than the days of cable or over-the-air television, The Wall Street Journal noted.
Further, tech companies such as Amazon and YouTube are fierce competitors. That means Disney needs to find money to invest in the digital future.
Although the layoffs will be the first under new CEO Josh D’Amaro, they continue a pattern set by former CEO Bob Iger beginning in 2022.
Since then, Disney has cut more than 8,000 jobs, mostly in its entertainment and corporate areas, along with ESPN. Employment has risen at its theme parks and on its cruise ventures.
At the end of its 2025 fiscal year, Disney had 231,000 workers.
Disney joins Sony Pictures, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery in making cuts, with more jobs losses likely if Paramount is able to complete a buyout of Warner.
Sony, in fact, announced Tuesday that it would cut hundreds of jobs, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The report noted that Disney is also facing losses from theater revenue, and fears a potential drop in international visitors to its theme parks.
NEW: Disney is reportedly planning to cut up to 1,000 positions in the coming weeks, with many of the cuts in the recently consolidated marketing division as part of a cost-cutting effort code-named “Project Imagine,” according to @JBFlint and @benfritz.https://t.co/85wfytODyO pic.twitter.com/ygMTSt4qr3
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) April 9, 2026
The news comes as Disney toils through years of bad publicity linked to its insistence on inserting leftist, “woke” angles into projects that would have once been geared toward simply entertaining the ticket-buying public.
In addition, as noted by the entertainment-focused website Deadline, layoffs have hit many large media companies.
For example, CBS announced the end of CBS News Radio after 99 years in business.
Epic Games, which produces video games, announced in March it would lay off 1,000 workers. Starz last month laid off 7 percent of its workforce.
Amazon cut 1,600 workers at the end of January, while in late 2025, Paramount cut 2,000 jobs.
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