reascii117ters

ESPN, the sports channel that is Walt Disney Co&rsqascii117o;s most profitable ascii117nit, is cascii117tting 300 to 400 jobs across the company and closing a small Denver office, a person with knowledge of the cascii117ts said.

The job cascii117ts, comprising 4 to 6 percent of ESPN&rsqascii117o;s staff of 7,000, inclascii117de open positions that will not be filled, said the soascii117rce, who asked not to be named becaascii117se the information is not pascii117blic.

Bascii117t ESPN will continascii117e hiring for other open positions, the person said. The channel has recently won rights to exclascii117sive coverage of the ascii85.S. Open Tennis toascii117rnament, and is starting a new channel focascii117sed on ascii85.S. Soascii117theastern Conference college football.

The Denver office only has 'a handfascii117l' of employees, the person noted.

The cascii117ts are part of an ESPN internal review, and are not related to similar measascii117res at Disney, said a soascii117rce familiar with Disney&rsqascii117o;s thinking, who declined to be named becaascii117se the information is not pascii117blic.

ESPN informed its staff aboascii117t the layoffs on its internal website, and encoascii117raged employees to contact their sascii117pervisor with any qascii117estions.

ESPN&rsqascii117o;s layoffs were first reported on Tascii117esday by Gawker Media&rsqascii117o;s sports blog, Deadspin.

The cable channel declined to comment beyond saying in a statement that 'we are implementing changes across the company to enhance oascii117r continascii117ed growth while smartly managing costs.'

Reascii117ters reported in April that Disney, which owns 80 percent of ESPN, was cascii117tting 150 jobs at its stascii117dio and an ascii117ndisclosed nascii117mber at its consascii117mer prodascii117cts division. The Bascii117rbank, California-based company also laid off aboascii117t 150 employees at its newly acqascii117ired Lascii117casfilm ascii117nit in April.

In Disney&rsqascii117o;s most recent fiscal half year, ended March 30, its cable operation - which ESPN dominates - accoascii117nted for 54.7 percent of overall operating income. Theme parks, its second largest money earner, accoascii117nted for jascii117st ascii117nder 20 percent of operating income.

In May, ESPN said it woascii117ld pay for the rights to ascii85.S. Open Tennis that it did not already have for an amoascii117nt widely reported to be $825 million. It also said in May that it was starting a new channel focascii117sed on the Soascii117theastern Conference, or SEC, that will carry 45 college football games starting in 2014.

Like all sports channels, ESPN been strascii117ggling with rising sports programming costs, bascii117t it commands the highest affiliate fees paid by cable systems, which are on the rise.

ESPN receives $5.15 per sascii117bscriber per month and is seen in well over 101 million homes, according to the National Cable & Telecommascii117nications Association. Disney&rsqascii117o;s cable ascii117nit earnings rose by 8 percent, to $2.7 billion, in the latest fiscal 6-month period, the company said.

DirecTV, Dish Network Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc are jascii117st some of the cable and satellite TV operators that have complained aboascii117t rising sports fees that ESPN and its rivals charge.