DRanker: A Transformer-Based Multi-Task Ranking Model for the Disney+ Homepage

Priya Nirmal Singh Khokher; Daniel Nemirovsky; Benjamin P. Whitesell; Ethan Sukrae Lee; Eric Wulf; Tom Chee-Duffy; Nicholas Flores

arXiv · 2610.15696

DRanker: A Transformer-Based Multi-Task Ranking Model for the Disney+ Homepage

Priya Nirmal Singh Khokher·Daniel Nemirovsky·Benjamin P. Whitesell·Ethan Sukrae Lee·Eric Wulf·Tom Chee-Duffy·Nicholas Flores

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Abstract

We present DRanker (Disney+ Ranker), a transformer-based multitask ranking model serving personalized recommendations on the Disney+ homepage. We describe the encoder-only architecture over enriched engagement-history sequences paired with a lightweight causal debiasing mechanism, and the inference stack that enables transformer-based ranking at scale. Through iterative development, we systematically evaluated more complex alternatives and found that simpler designs consistently outperformed them on offline metrics, qualitative behavioral evaluation, and in production. Deployed globally, DRanker drives over 1% lift in our key engagement metric and 0.5% lift in daily active users across all experiences powered by the ranker. We share practical lessons on data engineering, debiasing, and architectural choices that shaped our ranking system at scale.

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Priya Nirmal Singh Khokher, Daniel Nemirovsky, Benjamin P. Whitesell, Ethan Sukrae Lee, Eric Wulf, Tom Chee-Duffy, Nicholas Flores. 2026-10-11. DRanker: A Transformer-Based Multi-Task Ranking Model for the Disney+ Homepage. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15696

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