ESPN is once again planning a round of layoffs, and last year’s YouTube TV blackout is partly to blame, according to John Ourand of Puck.
Ourand reported Monday night that ESPN is expected to lay off about 30 staffers in the weeks ahead, primarily affecting off-camera employees. The cuts are partly in response to last year’s YouTube TV blackout of ESPN networks, which resulted in “a somewhat unexpected revenue dip” of about $100 million.
Per Ourand, sources “insisted” that the cuts have nothing to do with ESPN’s recent acquisition of NFL Media assets, including NFL Network.
Nevertheless, the news comes as ESPN prepares to onboard NFL Network staff, and ahead of a likely renegotiation of its NFL rights package this year that could result in a rights fee hike north of 50-60 percent, if the league’s ongoing negotiations with Paramount are a guide.
ESPN is also in the first year of a new NBA media rights deal worth about a billion more per year than its prior contract. That is in addition to a new deal for the College Football Playoff that is worth about double the prior contract (though ESPN is likely recouping much of that through its sublicensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery).
Amidst persistently rising rights fees and declining subscriber fees, ESPN has cycled through multiple waves of layoffs over the past decade — cutting some of its highest-profile on-air personalities and longest-tenured behind-the-scenes staffers in the process.
The last time ESPN layoffs made headlines was in fall 2024, when the company dropped “NFL Countdown” host Samantha Ponder, football analyst Robert Griffin III and NBA writer Zach Lowe. Its last round of mass layoffs came in the summer of 2023, when it dropped one of its best respected and longest-tenured hosts in Suzy Kolber and its longtime lead NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy among several others.
Previous layoffs saw ESPN cut ties with Ron Jaworski, Jayson Stark, the late John Clayton and Howie Schwab, and many more.
