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Disneyland Resort has laid off about 100 people in Anaheim, as Walt Disney Co. becomes the latest media and entertainment company to cut jobs.

The layoffs occurred Tuesday and came from multiple teams, Disney confirmed.

“With our business in a period of steady, sustained operation, we are recalibrating our organization to ensure we continue to deliver exceptional experiences for our guests, while positioning Disneyland Resort for the future,” a Disneyland spokesperson said in a statement. “As part of this, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a limited number of salaried positions.”

A person close to the company who was not authorized to comment attributed the cuts to an increase in hiring after the parks reopened once the COVID-19 pandemic waned.

Disney’s theme parks are a major economic engine for the Burbank media and entertainment giant.

Last year, the company’s experiences division — which includes its theme parks, cruise line and Aulani resort and spa in Hawaii — brought in nearly 60% of Disney’s operating income.

Earlier this month, the company announced price hikes on most of its single-day, one-park tickets.

The Disneyland Resort layoffs come as entertainment and tech companies have recently shed thousands of jobs.

On Wednesday, Paramount laid off 1,000 employees in a first round of cuts after the company’s takeover by tech scion David Ellison’s Skydance Media. Amazon, Meta, Charter Corp. and NBC News also have announced cuts.

Paramount on Wednesday was expected to cut 1,000 employees, the first wave of a deep staff reduction planned since David Ellison took the helm of the entertainment company in August.

People familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment said the layoffs will be felt throughout the company, including at CBS, CBS News, Comedy Central and other cable channels as well as the historic Melrose Avenue film studio.

Another 1,000 jobs are expected to be cut at a later date, bringing the total reduction to about 10% of Paramount’s workforce, sources said.

The move was expected. Paramount’s new owners — Ellison’s Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners — had told investors they planned to eliminate more than $2 billion in expenses, and Wednesday’s workforce reduction was a preliminary step toward that goal.

Paramount has been shedding staff for years.

More than 800 people — or about 3.5% of the company’s workforce — were laid off in June, prior to the Ellison family takeover. At the time, Paramount’s management attributed the cuts to the decline of cable television subscriptions and an increased emphasis on bulking up its streaming TV business. In 2024, the company eliminated 2,000 positions, or 15% of its staff.

Longtime CBS News journalist John Dickerson announced earlier this week that he would exit in December. The co-anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” Dickerson has been a familiar network face for more than 15 years, completing tours at “CBS This Morning” and the Sunday public affairs show “Face the Nation.” He was named the network’s evening news co-anchor in January alongside Maurice DuBois to succeed Norah O’Donnell. The revamp, designed in part to save money, led to a ratings decline.

The Paramount layoffs are the latest sign of contraction across the entertainment and tech sectors.

Amazon said this week it was eliminating roughly 14,000 corporate jobs amid its embrace of artificial intelligence to perform more functions. Last week, Facebook parent company Meta disclosed that it was cutting 600 jobs in its AI division.

Last week, cable and broadband provider Charter Corp., which operates the Spectrum service, eliminated 1,200 management jobs around the country.

Los Angeles’ production economy in particular has been roiled by a falloff in local filming and cost-cutting at major media companies.

As of August, about 112,000 people were employed in the Los Angeles region’s motion picture and sound recording industries — the main category for film and television production. The data does not include everyone who works in the entertainment industry, such as those who work as independent contractors.

That was roughly flat compared with the previous year, and down 27% compared with 2022 levels, when about 154,000 people were employed locally in the industry, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The industry has struggled to rebound since the 2023 strikes by writers and actors, which led to a sharp pullback in studio spending following the era of so-called “peak TV,” when
studios dramatically increased the pipeline of shows to build streaming platforms.

“You saw a considerable drop-off from the strikes and the aftermath,” said Kevin Klowden, an executive director at Milken Institute Finance. “The question is, at what point do these workers exit the industry entirely?”

Local film industry officials are expecting a production boost and an increase in work after California bolstered its film and television tax credits.

But Southern California’s bedrock industry is confronting other challenges, including shifting consumer habits and competition from social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

“There is a larger concern in terms of the financial health of all the major operations in Hollywood,” Klowden said. “There’s a real concern about that level of competition, and what it means.”

Bad Bunny will headline the halftime show at next year’s Super Bowl LX, organizers announced Sunday.

This will be the Puerto Rican musician’s second time at the Super Bowl following his appearance with Shakira and Jennifer Lopez during halftime of 2020’s game.

“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself. It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown,” Bad Bunny — whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — said in a statement, noting that “this is for my people, my culture and our history.

“Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el halftime show del Super Bowl,” he added in Spanish, which translates to a request to tell your grandma that he’s playing the Super Bowl.

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Roc Nation, the sprawling entertainment company founded by Jay-Z, will again produce the event. The company partnered with the NFL in 2019 to consult on live music events and social justice initiatives, including producing and selecting performers for the Super Bowl halftime show.

“What Benito has done and continues to do for Puerto Rico is truly inspiring,” Jay-Z said in the statement. “We are honored to have him on the world’s biggest stage.”

While the big game is an anticipated event for football fans, the halftime spectacle is just as much of an eagerly awaited cultural affair, drawing considerable speculation annually about which star will take what’s widely regarded as music’s biggest stage.

Names that made the rounds this year included Adele and Taylor Swift, with the latter hitting overdrive earlier this month when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made an appearance on “Today” and said, “We would always love to have Taylor play. She is a special, special talent, and obviously she would be welcome at any time.” When asked if talks were in the works with the singer, who is engaged to Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, Goodell tried to sidestep the question before responding, “It’s a maybe.”

Bad Bunny’s headlining gig — announced during halftime of Sunday’s Packers-Cowboys match-up at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex. — follows Kendrick Lamar’s performance at this past February’s Super Bowl LIX. Ratings for the Compton-born MC’s halftime show, in which he famously dissed the Canadian rapper Drake and launched a TikTok craze over his flared Celine jeans and “Not Like Us” shuffle, were the highest of all time, according to Nielsen, which said the telecast drew more than 127.7 million viewers. It also earned him an Emmy for music direction, an award he shared with co-music director Tony Russell.

Super Bowl LX will take place Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., and will air on NBC.

Millions of YouTube TV customers were spared an interruption of Fox News, Fox sports and local coverage after the two entertainment companies reached a 11th-hour truce following weeks of negotiations.

The two sides agreed Wednesday to continue talks to resolve their differences over distribution deal terms, pausing the threat of a channel blackout days before the start of the college football and NFL seasons.

The announcement came minutes before the 2 p.m. Pacific deadline. Neither company wanted to let a contract squabble disrupt some of their viewers’ favorite shows.

Fox News has a popular lineup with “The Five,” “Special Report with Bret Baier” and “Hannity.” Without a deal, sports fans could have missed out on Friday night’s Auburn-Baylor football game, Saturday’s high-profile contest between Texas and Ohio State and three regional Major League Baseball games airing on Fox.

In addition, Fox’s NFL season kicks off on Sept. 7, giving the two sides added motivation to find a resolution.

“We have reached a short-term extension with Fox to prevent disruption to YouTube TV subscribers as we continue to work on a new agreement,” YouTube said in a Wednesday afternoon blog post. “We are committed to advocating on behalf of our subscribers as we work toward a fair deal and will keep you updated on our progress.”

YouTube has about 10 million customers for its television service, making it the third largest pay-TV distributor in the U.S.

This is a developing story.

The dispute hinged on programming fees YouTube TV pays for Fox News, the Fox broadcast network, Fox-owned stations, including KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles, Fox Business, FS1 and the Big 10 Network.

Rupert Murdoch’s company relies heavily on the strength of Fox News — which ranked as the nation’s top-rated linear network in July — and its broadcast network that boasts big-name sports to maintain its programming fees.

Distribution fee disputes have become increasingly common amid a shift in economics.

Programmers, including Fox, have long counted on distribution fees paid by TV distributors that sell the channel bundles to consumers. But that source of revenue is under threat as viewers migrate to Netflix, Disney+ and other streamers — shrinking the pool of pay-TV subscribers.

“Fox is asking for payments that are far higher than what partners with comparable content offerings receive,” YouTube said late Monday in a blog post when tensions ran high. “Our priority is to reach a deal that reflects the value of their content and is fair for both sides without passing on additional costs to our subscribers.”

For its part, Fox said it was “proposing a fair, comprehensive deal to continue our relationship with YouTube TV.” It accused Google of using its leverage to try to extract unfair terms.

YouTube TV has been gaining subscribers at a time when others are losing them, giving the tech company increased market muscle. YouTube’s popular bundle — it also offers the NFL Sunday Ticket package of out-of-market games — has cut into the business of legacy pay-TV providers.

Nielsen ranks YouTube, including its video service, as the largest television distributor in the U.S. by share of viewership. In a Tuesday report, Nielsen said that YouTube captured 13.4% of all TV viewing in July, the sixth consecutive month the company has claimed the top spot.

Walt Disney Co. came in second that month with 9.4% of the audience.

Last year, YouTube generated $54.2 billion in revenue, second only to Disney, according to research firm MoffettNathanson. The analysts estimated that fast-growing YouTube TV would reach 10 million subscribers this year. That slightly trails Charter, which operates the Spectrum service, and Comcast.

AMC Networks, known for series such as “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead,” is partnering with AI startup Runway to use AI tools for marketing and developing its TV shows.

Runway’s AI technology will help AMC Networks ease access to standout scenes and generate pictures for promotional use.

The tech will also be used to speed up “pre-visualization” during development, which is when studios use images to come up with the look of a show before filming takes place.

Runway also said AMC Networks is exploring AI to be used for honing special effects ideas.

“As we explore the transformative potential of AI across our business, we see powerful opportunities to enhance both how we market and how we create,” said Stephanie Mitchko, the executive vice president of global media operations and technology at AMC Networks, in a statement.

“Our objective is always to use every tool at our disposal to help our creative partners fully realize the stories they want to tell,” Mitchko said.

Entertainment companies have been exploring how to use AI in their processes, which supporters say can help reduce costs and allow creatives to test bold ideas without as many financial constraints.

Last year, Runway announced a partnership with Lionsgate, in which Runway will create a new AI model for the studio to help with behind-the-scenes processes such as storyboarding. The company’s technology has also been used in series like “House of David” on Amazon Prime Video, according to Variety.

“We’re building the foundations for a new era of media — the way content gets made and green-lit is changing rapidly, and that’s impacting everything from production timelines and methodologies to distribution models and marketing tactics,” said Cristóbal Valenzuela, co-founder and CEO of Runway in a statement.

AI remains a controversial topic in Hollywood. Some creatives and unionized workers have expressed concerns about how AI could reduce jobs. Writers have complained that AI models are being trained on their scripts without their permission or adequate compensation.

Tech industry executives have said that they should be able to train AI models with content available online under the “fair use” doctrine, which allows for the limited reproduction of material without permission from the copyright holder.

AI filmmaking technology is advancing rapidly, such as with Google’s unveiling new features in its Veo 3 text-to-video tool and its Flow editing software. But experts say that artificial intelligence companies need to license content from professional studios in order to take the tools to the next level.