One hundred days into Josh D'Amaro's tenure as Disney's chief executive officer, the walls of his office are still bare.

D'Amaro, 55 years old, has traveled to ESPN and Pixar and Shanghai Disneyland, fought the Federal Communications Commission, broken bread with the heads of Netflix and NBCUniversal, and started reorganizing one of America's biggest media conglomerates.

He hasn't decided what should replace the photos of Walt Disney and the Marvel encyclopedia his predecessor, Bob Iger, used as decor in the sixth-floor CEO office on the company's Burbank, Calif., lot.

Iger transformed Disney through his acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and much of Fox. Now D'Amaro is trying to turn those assets into a more agile, more profitable digital machine. Success will be measured in Disney's stock, which trades at about the same price it did a decade ago.

"I think if you talk to anyone inside of this organization about what I'm trying to do culturally, it's speed and risk-taking," the CEO said in an interview.

Here are four of the biggest moves D'Amaro has made since becoming Disney's CEO in March.

Punching back at the FCC

Disney employees acutely remember the uproar when the company suspended Jimmy Kimmel in September following right-wing criticism of a joke he made about President Trump. The company said it was trying to calm a tense situation, but many in Hollywood said Disney was losing its backbone.

So all eyes were on D'Amaro when the FCC ordered Disney to file early license renewals for the ABC stations it owns in April, soon after Kimmel made a joke about first lady Melania Trump that enraged the president. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said the early renewals were prompted by what he described as Disney's lack of cooperation in a probe over diversity, equity and inclusion policies -- a charge the media company denies.

In public filings, Disney said the early renewal order was "an effort to suppress speech under the guise of bureaucratic process" and a separate inquiry into "The View" would "risk restricting political discourse." This past week, ABC began airing ads urging viewers to support the network in comments with the FCC.

The aggressive moves, approved by the new CEO, were a relief to employees who weren't sure how he would handle his first political controversy at Disney. D'Amaro is a registered independent whose only political donations have been to Disney's corporate PAC. People who work with him said he doesn't talk about his views.

Bolstering Disney+

Disney has been trying to build its streaming service into a robust rival to Netflix since it launched more than six years ago. D'Amaro wants Disney+ to be something more: an entryway for all of the company's businesses and all the ways people can spend money with them.

The new CEO is quick to point out that while Netflix is just getting into live sports and tried to buy Warner Bros. Discovery in large part because of the intellectual property it controls, Disney already owns ESPN and arguably the best collection of franchises in Hollywood. No competitor has a theme-park or consumer-products operation that rivals Disney's.

"The equation is quite obvious," D'Amaro said. "We have what everybody wants. We're going to use it to create as consolidated a fan experience as we possibly can."

The question is whether a large and bureaucratic conglomerate can get there quickly enough. D'Amaro has started integrating the company's disparate tech stacks so Disney can better track what consumers are doing at Disneyland, watching on Hulu or buying for their kids. Theme-park and consumer-products executives are coming to more Disney+ meetings. And the CEO is investing in the app so users can more seamlessly switch from a Pixar movie to a park promotion to a videogame.

One Disney, fewer employees

For most of its history, Disney has been run like a collection of fiefs -- film, television, parks, toys and digital -- that share assets such as "Moana" but spend and make money in their own ways.

D'Amaro helped to push an overhaul so marketing from every part of the empire reports to Chief Marketing Officer Asad Ayaz. Film, television and streaming now report to Disney President Dana Walden. D'Amaro moved videogames out of consumer products and under Walden's purview, reflecting his view that they are critical to the company's entertainment ambitions.

"You will see me continue to move to create an organization that is the best fit for this future that we envision," D'Amaro said.

The changes in marketing resulted in roughly 1,000 layoffs. People close to Disney said more layoffs are likely, owing to internal consolidation and the pressure that media companies face to increase profit margins.

Holding on to ESPN

Disney insiders have questioned for years whether it would make sense to get rid of television networks that are withering because of cord-cutting. The CEO transition this year sparked a new analysis and a quick decision that ESPN, FX and ABC are worth more to Disney's digital ambitions than they would fetch on the market.

NBA games and series such as FX's "Sh gun" and ABC's "High Potential" increase engagement on Disney+ -- a priority for the company as it tries to retain domestic subscribers and attract more overseas.

The sports rights that drive ESPN are almost certain to be more expensive in coming years as tech platforms bring their checkbooks to negotiations. D'Amaro is betting he can justify what it will cost to keep up, by using the sports network to help build a unified digital business.

Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 27, 2026 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)

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