Towards the end of October and into early November, the well-known sports network ESPN laid off approximately 300 employees from locations across the nation.  These cuts were made to brace for changes that are coming to the cable television business, as well as to recover from changes that have already been made.

ESPN, as well as many other cable networks, depend on subscribers in order to make a profit. However and unfortunately, networks such as these have been suffering due to the slow, but steady decrease in subscribers.  

ESPN has lost subscriptions from approximately 8.5 million homes in the past four

years, which has begun greatly decreasing their annual profits. This is a potential result of the high price associated with carriage of the network.   The approximate price for subscription is six dollars a month, which is included in the customer’s overall cable bill.

The company was also forced to make cuts due to long-term licensing deals with many major sports leagues.  These deals essentially allow ESPN to have the rights to broadcast games played by these leagues.  The competition between networks has risen tremendously over the past years, and with it, the price tag.  

The sport network’s location in Bristol, Connecticut was hit especially hard, with four percent of the company’s workforce (about 200 employees) let go.  Of the workers that were laid off, the on air talent was not among them due to the existing contracts.

Many were completely blindsided by these cuts, and employees were shocked by some of the people that the company chose to dismiss.  The majority of the impacted employees were hard-working, behind the scenes faces such as “capable executives and talented producers” as the Sports Business Journal states. Employees only a few years away from retirement also made up a large portion of the workers that were let go of.  

The amount of time that someone had been dedicated to the company did not seem to matter during the cuts.  Anyone from Gerry Matalon, the network’s senior coordinator producer of talent planning and development, to Dave Miller, a universally respected producer were released.  

The company worked hard to assure the employees, their families, and the media that the layoffs were entirely necessary, and that the choices made were not with ease.  ESPN also gave impacted employees a 60 day notice, a severance package based on the time they dedicated to the company, as well as outplacement benefits in order to help them find new employment.