Disney is integrating Hulu into Disney+ inside a single app, and the org chart behind that decision shows exactly who Disney thinks can turn streaming into something more than a money burn. CEO Josh D'Amaro is prioritizing streaming and has put serious leadership weight on both creative direction and product plus engineering execution, including naming TV head Dana Walden as Disney’s first-ever chief creative officer.

At the product and tech level, D'Amaro’s strategy is being driven by Adam Smith, who serves as Disney Entertainment’s product and tech chief and joined Disney in September 2024 from YouTube. Smith has eight direct reports, including Andre Rohe, Disney’s EVP of Product Engineering. That reporting structure matters because Disney’s stated goal is not only to keep subscribers, but to increase engagement while trying to narrow the gap with Netflix in the ongoing battle for eyeballs.

What makes this particularly consequential is that Disney is no longer treating streaming like a side project. Since launching Disney+ in 2019, Disney’s direct-to-consumer business has gone from “promising but costly” to a profit engine, according to the source. Disney made $582 million in streaming profits last quarter. It does not disclose its subscriber count anymore, but the source notes Disney had 196 million subscriptions as of late September 2025. The company also reports low churn: less than 4% of Disney+ and Hulu customers quit in May, per data firm Antenna.

So Disney’s incentive is clear. If you are already profitable and customers are sticking, the next lever is user engagement and retention through product experience, not just content volume. The source says Disney+ and Hulu are becoming profitable because of a large base of loyal, engaged subscribers. Bringing the apps together into a “one-stop shop” is a direct attempt to make the service feel more like a daily destination rather than a set of separate libraries.

D'Amaro is also investing in technology designed to increase ad performance, including AI-generated ad tools for Disney+. That piece matters because the ad system is often where streaming monetization either scales or stalls. The source says Smith delivered updates that included progress on Disney+’s AI ad tool, and that the tech chief said in a recent meeting it is “one of the clearest areas where we’re really making traction.” Translation: Disney is leaning into AI where it believes it can translate data into better ad outcomes quickly, rather than treating AI as a general-purpose experiment.

The org chart context also points to how Disney plans to operationalize its “super app” ambitions. Smith previously gave streaming staffers clarity about those ambitions, plus news of a shake-up of its streaming commerce and data teams, and progress on the AI ad tool. Rohe, the EVP of Product Engineering who reports within Smith’s orbit, has helped Disney tech staff better grasp Disney’s AI goals, including by telling employees they shouldn’t be “tokenmaxxing,” or using AI tools regardless of how productive they are.

This is also where Dana Walden’s new role becomes more than a ceremonial title. D'Amaro tapped her as Disney’s first-ever chief creative officer, placing TV leadership at the top of creative direction while product and tech leaders drive the experience layer. In streaming, creative and platform design are tightly coupled: recommendation systems, content packaging, and even how “shows and features” from Hulu are surfaced inside Disney+ all influence what audiences watch and how often they return. The source describes Disney as fully integrating Hulu into the Disney+ app to boost engagement, which implies the creative content pipeline has to align with how the merged platform bundles, promotes, and measures viewing behavior.

The broader market backdrop in the source underscores why Disney is moving quickly. The source says Disney’s streamers gained ground in 2026, scoring their highest monthly TV viewership share in nearly three years in March, then posting their best month versus Netflix in nearly a year, based on Nielsen’s US data. That slight rebound follows years of stagnation in Disney’s streaming viewership. Disney+ and Hulu have benefited from their subscriber base and profitability, but improving performance relative to Netflix is still the core strategic pressure.

Disney’s pivot also reflects a wider industry shift toward short-form video, which the source says Disney+ is betting on, alongside competitors like Peacock, Netflix, and Paramount+. When platforms add short-form, they often change how product teams build engagement loops: feeds, discovery, personalization, and measurement. Disney’s org chart, with dedicated product engineering, data analytics, growth engineering, and media engineering roles under Smith and Rohe, reads like an attempt to build that loop at scale.

Finally, for executives watching from the sidelines, this internal structure signals what “winning” might mean now in streaming. Disney is tightening its product and tech leadership, building AI ad traction, merging Hulu capabilities into Disney+ to streamline engagement, and using organizational focus to narrow the performance gap with Netflix. For any board or leadership team operating a DTC business, the message is that streaming’s next phase is increasingly about product engineering precision and monetization mechanics, not only about what shows get made.