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Joe Earley has been promoted to president, direct-to-consumer, Disney Entertainment, said Alan Bergman and Dana Walden, co-chairs of Disney Entertainment.
Earley most recently served as president of Hulu – and will continue to oversee that platform until a successor is identified – while adding Disney Plus to his portfolio. Earley replaces Michael Paull, who is departing the company after six years.
“Joe has proven himself to be an extraordinary asset and is uniquely positioned for this role as we guide Disney’s streaming strategy into the future,” Bergman and Walden said in a joint statement. “His vast industry experience and deep understanding of what sets our prestigious portfolio of brands apart will be essential as we build on our robust direct-to-consumer efforts. Joe is a talented, passionate leader, committed to creative excellence, and we look forward to partnering with him in this next chapter.”
“Helping launch Disney Plus was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and Hulu has been inspiring and rewarding,” said Earley, also in a statement. “I’m incredibly grateful to Dana and Alan for their confidence and the opportunity to lead both of these incredible teams during this time of transformation across the streaming landscape.”
Earley joined Disney in January 2019 to oversee Disney Plus marketing and operations in the lead up to its November launch of that year, adding responsibility for content curation in 2021 as the service expanded to dozens of markets worldwide. He was named president of Hulu in January 2022.
Earley previously served as president of The Jackal Group, launched by former Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman in 2014, leading its television, film, commercial theater, and digital divisions, including such productions as Tidying Up with Marie Kondo to the MGM animated feature film The Addams Family.
He served as a Fox executive for more than two decades, working directly with Walden, including as chief operating officer for Fox Television Group. While there, he directly oversaw marketing and communications, digital, research, talent relations, scheduling, and audience strategy at Fox Broadcasting Company, and teamed with 20th Century Fox Television’s development, production, business affairs, marketing, and finance leads on strategic initiatives, in addition to overseeing its publicity and talent relations.
Earley is a former co-chair of Promax’s board of directors, having served in that role with former Warner Bros. CMO Lisa Gregorian from 2012-2015.
He joined Fox 1994 as a senior publicist, rising through the ranks at Fox Broadcasting to become president of marketing and communications and then its COO.
Earley began his entertainment career in production and development with producer Gale Anne Hurd and spent several years in media relations at HBO before moving to Fox.
A member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Producers Guild of America, Earley holds a B.A. in mass communications from UCLA.