Underscoring sliding ad. sales, Walt Disney Co. is planning to lay off 200-people at it's ABC division, including freezing 200-vacant jobs, which means an overall 5% reduction of ABC's 6,500 to 7,000 strong workforce.

Just last week, Disney said it would be combining its two ABC divisions i. e. ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios into one umbrella organization, hoping to streamline its twin business units with the move.

As well, ESPN, Disney's sports cable network also has plans to cut 200-jobs from its 5,700 workforce worldwide.

Citing worsening economic conditions for the job contractions, both Anne Sweeney, President of the Disney-ABC Television Group, and George Bodenheimer, the ESPN chief executive Mr. Bodenheimer confirmed salaries of the channel's top executives would also be frozen.

As of September, Disney employed about 150,000 people, but like other media firms it has been trying to offset declining growth in advertising revenue, including sending voluntary buyout offers to 600- domestic theme parks executives, to cut costs.

The latest, but probably not the last to announce lay offs, Disney could have more cuts in store, as it attempts to deliver Chief Executive Robert Iger's promised cost reductions.

Last week, 800-job cuts were announced by Warner Bros Entertainment (Time Warner Inc.); while General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, CBS Corp and Viacom Inc. made job cuts last year.