Disney is set to merge the staff of its Hulu and Disney+ streaming services into a single, unified team as the company accelerates plans to combine the two platforms under one application, according to the Wall Street Journal. This integration represents a core component of a larger restructuring initiative designed to eliminate operational silos, reduce overlapping roles, and drive down costs across the entertainment giant’s digital divisions. The move comes shortly after Josh D’Amaro assumed the role of chief executive officer in March, signaling one of the first major strategic shifts under his leadership focused on fostering tighter collaboration and greater efficiency in an increasingly competitive streaming landscape.
Recently, Disney has also ended the Disney+ add-on to your Hulu subscription. Now the only way to get the discounted bundle is to get it from Disney+ by having Hulu as an add-on to Disney+. Already, the Hulu app on some platforms has shut down, and more are expected soon.
The staff consolidation will bring together employees from content strategy, marketing, engineering, product development, data analytics, and user experience teams that have operated somewhat independently since Disney gained full control of Hulu. Previously, each service maintained distinct workflows for acquiring programming, curating libraries, developing features, and promoting offerings to subscribers. With the merger, these groups will align under shared leadership structures to support a forthcoming single-app experience scheduled for rollout in 2026. The unified platform will blend Disney+’s family-oriented catalog of animated features, live-action films, and original series with Hulu’s broader selection of adult-targeted shows, movies, and licensed content, creating a more comprehensive entertainment hub without requiring users to switch between separate applications.
Executives view the staff merger as essential for achieving meaningful savings while improving service quality. By combining resources, Disney expects to avoid duplication in backend infrastructure, advertising technology, and subscriber management systems. Marketing efforts, already consolidated earlier this year under a single chief marketing officer through an initiative known as Project Imagine, will further streamline promotional campaigns that once ran parallel for each brand. Technical teams will focus on migrating Hulu’s content library and user data into the Disney+ framework, ensuring smooth transitions for millions of subscribers. This process involves cross-training personnel and reassigning roles to prioritize the integrated product, which could accelerate feature rollouts such as unified search tools, personalized recommendations, and bundled subscription options.
The decision aligns with ongoing industry pressures facing streaming providers. Disney’s streaming business has grown subscribers rapidly but generated thinner profit margins compared to its traditional cable networks and linear television operations. Intense competition from services backed by technology giants has squeezed growth opportunities, while production costs for original programming remain high. Merging the Hulu and Disney+ staffs is intended to free up capital for investment in high-potential digital areas, including expanded international reach and enhanced interactive experiences. The company has already engaged external consultants to map out these efficiencies, building on a track record of more than 8,000 workforce reductions across entertainment and corporate functions since 2022.
As part of the broader plan, Disney anticipates eliminating as many as 1,000 positions in the coming weeks, with a notable portion stemming from the streaming staff integration and the recently unified marketing department. These cuts, which represent less than one percent of the company’s total workforce of approximately 231,000 employees at the end of fiscal 2025, primarily target administrative and support roles rather than frontline creative positions. The majority of prior reductions have occurred outside the company’s booming experiences division, which encompasses theme parks, resorts, and consumer products and employs roughly 80 percent of the total headcount.
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