It is no secret that for Disney the digital market and, more precisely, the direct relationship with the client through its streaming platforms, is the main priority. This was stated by Bob Iger a few years ago when he presented to the world his ambitious plans for Disney+, a portfolio of streaming services to which ESPN+, Hulu or Hotstar are also added.
The giant has promoted and hired numerous executives for its Entertainment and Media Distribution Technology group, as well as realigning its business to better support its continued growth.
This broad division, known as DMED, is responsible for Disney’s next-generation direct-to-consumer and linear distribution, advertising technology, engineering, operations and portfolio of digital products. The new structure thus creates eight core groups: advertising platforms, business operations, consumer platforms and experiences, content operations, content platforms, design, engineering services and media engineering.
Some of the executives in charge of those roles are Mike Andrews, Tagu Kato, Chris Lawson and Michael Pollard. In addition, Jeremy Helfand continues to lead the advertising platforms.
At the end of 2020, Disney substantially modified its traditional line of business by betting decisively on its main streaming platform, Disney+, so that the company reduced its media and entertainment businesses. For now, it separated two branches that until then had been closely linked: content creation and distribution. The latter was centralized in a single global unit, ‘Media and Entertainment Distribution’, directed by Kareem Daniel; while content creation was divided into three groups: Studios (Walt Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilms…), General Entertainment and Sports, led by Alan Horn and Alan Bergman, Peter Rice and Jimmy Pitaro, respectively.
As stated by those responsible for Disney, this new organizational structure of the technology division will align the teams, which are made up of thousands of experts in order to improve connectivity and collaboration at all levels between the software teams, platforms , product and services; in addition to “reinforcing the culture of imagination and innovation”.
“DMED brings together one of the most talented and innovative groups of people on the planet and I feel inspired and privileged to work with them every day,” says LaBerge. “This new fit recognizes where our company is today, where it will go tomorrow, and positions us to continue Disney’s legacy of using technology to bring amazing stories and products to consumers everywhere.”
