Disney Star Network’s Star Sports team, the country’s leading broadcast network, is about to exit at the highest levels.

This type of exodus can be attributed to Disney’s massive global restructuring, which could have an impact on its India operations.

The restructuring exercise is designed to reduce overhead costs and, eventually, job losses.

As per Storyboard18, Ambarish Bandyopadhyay, Disney Star’s head of sports, has resigned from his position. Bandyopadhyay was promoted last September. In October 2018, he was appointed executive director of Star India (Star TV).

Piyush Goyal, executive vice president, and national head, of affiliate sales, at Disney Star, and Vaibhav Goyal, senior vice president, of Star Sports, both resigned.

There have also been departures at the director level in sales, with Gazal, Abhishek Dogra, Arjun Kohli, and Vivek Sagar leaving the broadcast company.

Nandini Singh, channel head of Star Bharat and Star Pravah, is also said to be leaving Disney Star after nearly 18 years. Singh began working for the network in 2005 as a manager of research and consumer insights. She was later promoted to senior manager, programming strategy, and then to Star Movies’ business head.

In 2016, she became Star India’s English Cluster business head. And in 2018, she was appointed the channel head of Star Bharat.

Last year, there were also high-level exits at Disney Star. Nitin Bawankule, head of ad sales at Disney Star India, will leave in April 2022 to join Amazon Web Services as director & head of Digital Native Business – India & South Asia (AWS). His departure followed that of Sunil Rayan, President and CEO of Disney+ Hotstar. Anil Jayraj, Star Sports’ ad sales head, resigned to become CEO of Viacom18’s sports business in 2021.

The Walt Disney Company announced in February that it will be restructuring into three core business segments – Disney Entertainment, ESPN, Parks, Experiences, and Products – to reduce overhead costs and eventually lay off 7,000 employees.

CEO Bob Iger stated that the changes will take effect immediately, to cut $5.5 billion from overall expenses; projections include a 50 percent reduction in the marketing budget and a 30 percent reduction in labor.