Disney+ is embracing the scroll. The company is working on a TikTok-style vertical video feed for its mobile app that will highlight quick clips from sports, news and entertainment to run alongside its main stable of series and films. It’s also a front to get people in the daily habit of programming their YouTube viewing: Give them snackable moments between full sessions and nudge them right back into the catalog with a tap.
Why Disney Is Pursuing the Vertical Scroll
Short-form video has emerged as the discovery layer of choice for younger audiences and its gravitational pull is rewriting streaming strategy. Research from eMarketer and data.ai has long been proving that short-form time-of-day apps have outpaced the growth rates for traditional long-form streaming in recent years, with TikTok coming out on top for engagement per user. For platforms that are waging war on churn, a few minutes of daily attention can be as valuable as winning a weekend binge.
For streamers, monthly active viewers and hours watched have historically been the focus, but the industry is moving from these metrics to daily active usage and frequency. Nobody ever said the short-form market is easy, but for Antenna, a boutique analytics firm that has observed soaring churn on premium services in recent years, a vertical scroll isn’t just fancy design — it’s also retention technology capable of luring former users back to full episodes or live sports or tentpole releases.
What the Feed Will Include, and How It May Work
Disney executives have said they plan to program the feed broadly, with original short-form clips, curated moments from series and films, and reframed scenes shot for a 9:16 aspect ratio.
Expect a smattering of polished highlights and timely snippets — an action beat from a Marvel series, or behind-the-scenes footage from a Star Wars documentary, or even a National Geographic micro-lesson built for a quick scroll.
There’s precedent inside the company. ESPN’s overhauled app also included a vertical “Verts” flow of highlights, viral moments and social content that serves as a daily touchpoint between games. Replicating that experience on Disney+ starts a flywheel: The feed teases, the deep link delivers and the session extends with viewers finding themselves watching one of those full titles or tuning into a live event over on related services.
Technically, content like this relies on automated metadata, machine learning and editorial curation. That process includes sniffing out “clip-worthy” beats, adding captions that work for viewers who have their sound turned off and making sure it has rights to both the music and talent in any piece of content before turning them into short-form material — none of which is trivial when you’re a family-first brand with needles to thread around safety controls, ratings controls and profile-level controls.
What Advertising and AI Can Teach Us About the Business Case
A vertical-scrolling surface is prime real estate for ad innovation. Disney has been broadening its ad-supported options and wooing buyers with new planning and creative tools, like AI-powered video generation that strings together brand-safe units using preapproved assets. Short-form placements enable high-frequency, short-length formats with performance metrics social buyers are comfortable with like swipe-through and completion rates.
And the company has talked about opening its ecosystem to a small number of user-generated clips made with generative tools, reinforcing how AI is mixing together marketing and programming. Though Disney has not confirmed that AI-created videos will populate the new feed, the fit is apparent: algorithm-friendly short video serves as an efficient conduit for awareness, discovery and making a full-window play on content.
The Competitive Context for Streamers and Vertical Video
Disney+ will not be the only streaming app grafting vertical video onto its service. Netflix released Fast Laughs, which similarly introduced a game show-like mechanic to surface clips from its library, and Prime Video, YouTube and even smart TV platforms have been cranking up the short-form previews on offer to boost discovery. The key here is Disney’s portfolio breadth, both in terms of franchises and live rights: one feed can intersplice Marvel and Star Wars with sports moments from ESPN or dramatic scenes on National Geographic, then pipe users into the right experience throughout Disney’s extended portfolio.
What Viewers Should Expect From Disney’s New Vertical Feed
For subscribers, the reward ought to be instantaneity — open the app, find your personally tailored stream of near-the-moment moments, jump into something worth watching. Look for social-native features like fast reactions, quick muting and smooth transitions from portrait clips to full-screen viewing. Because Disney is a company with an emphasis on family settings, expect kids’ profiles to be restricted and for there to be easy-to-use tools that let parents know exactly what is appearing in the feed.
If it works, the vertical feed might serve as Disney+’s front door — instead of just a side one. So in an economy for attention where even swiping past something is a decision about whether to start a session at all, creating micro-moments from behind the Disney vault might be the very most Disney way of making streaming as magical — or habitual — again.
