ESPN is in the process of laying off about 20 on-air personalities, including big names like NBA analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Jalen Rose, according to the New York Post.
The layoffs are part of a broader cost-cutting effort by ESPN’s parent company Disney, which set a goal of eliminating 7,000 jobs through several rounds of layoffs.
The first round of layoffs began in April, and included well-known communications director Mike Soltys, who spent 43 years at the company.
The Bristol-based sports entertainment network has been dealing with several headwinds, including the cord-cutting trend that has led to a decline in lucrative cable subscribers. To combat that trend, ESPN is laying the groundwork to sell its channel directly to cable cord-cutters as a subscription-streaming service in coming years, the Wall Street Journal recently reported.
