BRISTOL, Cn. (AP) – ESPN is undergoing a significant round of layoffs for the first time in three years after taking over NFL Network in April.<\/p>\n
Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a memo to employees Tuesday morning, obtained by The Associated Press, that most moves are the result of ESPN\u2019s acquisition of NFL Network and other league digital assets last year.<\/p>\n
The deal was announced last August and also included NFL Fantasy and the rights to distribute the RedZone channel to cable and satellite operators. In return, the NFL got a 10% equity stake in ESPN.<\/p>\n
It was approved by government regulators in January. NFL Network employees became part of ESPN on April 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past several months, we\u2019ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN,\u201d Pitaro wrote in the memo. \u201cThroughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile most of the job impacts are tied to the acquisition, we will also notify colleagues in other parts of the company today that their positions have been impacted. We are committed to treating employees with compassion and respect and to providing support as they navigate this transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
While most of the layoffs affect production and behind-the-scenes personnel, some on-air talent were affected. Ryan Clark, who joined ESPN in 2015 as an NFL analyst, learned of his layoff while on \u201cNFL Live\u201d on Monday. A person familiar with the situation said Clark was originally going to be told Tuesday morning before reports leaked about the decision.<\/p>\n
Clark was told by company executives rather than hear about it elsewhere. He did not finish his appearance on the show.<\/p>\n
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not at liberty to discuss personnel decisions.<\/p>\n
Clark took to social media on Tuesday to address the layoffs. He also shared a video of himself working out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSending prayers and love to all those laid off today by ESPN. So many of you have poured your life into that company, & I know how you\u2019re feeling right now,\u201d Clark wrote on X. \u201cMy hope is as this door closes another opens for you all. God bless!\u201d<\/p>\n
Other notable names include Karl Ravech, who had been with ESPN since 1993 and had been an integral part of its baseball coverage. Ravech was the voice of \u201cSunday Night Baseball\u201d from 2022-25 before the package moved to NBC this season. He did call Monday night\u2019s game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.<\/p>\n
Tom Pelissero, who had been with NFL Network since 2017, is also part of the cuts. ESPN had recently signed NFL insiders Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter to extensions.<\/p>\n
The ESPN cutbacks are also part of other reductions that are taking place throughout the Walt Disney Company this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRISTOL, Cn. (AP) – ESPN is undergoing a significant round of layoffs for the first time in three years after taking over NFL Network in April. Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a memo to employees Tuesday morning, obtained by The Associated Press, that most moves are the result of ESPN\u2019s acquisition of NFL Network and … Continue reading ESPN starts layoffs tied to NFL Network acquisition, memo says<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-23 14:03:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1526683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526684,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526683\/revisions\/1526684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1526683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1526683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1526683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}