Two longtime executives at ESPN have accepted retirement packages as a part of the latest round of cost-cutting moves at Disney.
According to On3’s Brett McMurphy, VP of ESPN Events Clint Overby and ESPN senior director of programming Kurt Dargis both will be leaving the Worldwide Leader.
“Overby oversaw 35 annual collegiate events, including ESPN’s 17 owned bowl games & seven college basketball events,” McMurphy wrote of his 25 years with the network. “A huge loss for ESPN.”
As for Dargis, McMurphy noted that he had been with ESPN for 31 years, and that the network “is losing some great internal pieces that will impact its college football/basketball coverage.”
The departures come as Disney has been making cuts across the company for months. A report from Nellie Andreeva at Deadline in August noted that Disney executives were being offered packages that “will give eligible executives the opportunity to retire now with an enhanced retirement package that recognizes their service and contributions,” per an internal memo.
There have been a number of dramatic layoffs at Disney already this year, including cutting more than 1,000 employees in April. A report from Todd Spangler at Variety indicated that National Geographic was hit by the majority of cuts on the television side of Disney’s downsizing, ESPN was far from exempt from cuts.
Most notably, ESPN was widely criticized for the circumstances of analyst Ryan Clark’s departure in July, as he found out he was being let go mid-broadcast.