ESPN will lay off 300 employees, about 6 percent of its worldwide staff, and let 200 open positions go unfilled, Jimmy Pitaro, the network’s chairman, told employees in a memo on Thursday. Like many companies, ESPN’s business has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. ESPN will pay more than $7 billion for the rights to show live sports in 2020, the lifeblood of ESPN’s nine cable channels. But for four months this year, from March to July, there were almost no games to show. Even with the resumption of most professional and college sports, ESPN has faced low viewership and a sluggish advertising market.

Source: New York Times November 05, 2020 15:33 UTC