Disney plans to introduce a personalized vertical video feed on the Disney+ mobile app in the U.S. this year - a feature it expects to evolve over time with the hope of making the SVOD a daily destination for viewers.
The new feature was announced Wednesday during Disney’s annual Global Tech & Data Showcase coinciding with CES in Las Vegas.
A mobile vertical video feed for Disney+ follows success of a similar feature called “Verts” that launched on the flagship direct-to-consumer ESPN mobile app last fall. On ESPN the tab features carousels within the main app feed that showcase scrollable, vertical short-form videos powered by a personalization algorithm.
Initially made for mobile, Disney intends to evolve the experience and eventually extend the rollout – potentially meaning CTV. More specific timing on launch and what exactly will be available in the vertical video mobile feed wasn’t immediately shared.
But over time the streamer will introduce short-form Disney content across a variety of formats, categories and content types for a dynamic feed experience.
Per the company, that includes expanding across news and entertainment content, with the explicit aim of “turning Disney+ into a must-visit daily destination for fans” and where mobile in general can help reinforce the platform – which is also unifying the Hulu experience and content within a single app - as a more regular go-to.
On stage, Disney EVP of Product Management Erin Teague said Disney will be “enhancing sports and news to drive daily habits and build the beginnings of new entertainment products for the next generation of fans, enabling live, engaging and immersive interactions.”
And that includes thinking about mobile-first experiences, where she said, “we know mobile is an incredible opportunity to turn Disney+ into a true daily destination for fans.”
As for what kind of vertical video will be available, Teague said “think, all the short-form Disney content you’d want in one unified app.”
She added that as the experiences evolve, it would involve dynamic feeds of what users are interested across sports, news and entertainment, “refreshed in real time, based on your last visit.”
Disney in late 2025 struck a landmark deal with OpenAI, which, alongside a $1 billion equity investment, includes a three-year licensing agreement that allows OpenAI genAI video platform Sora to use Disney IP of more than 200 characters for fan-inspired social videos.
At the time Disney said some of those fan-inspired genAI social videos would be featured on the Disney+ streaming service in 2026 – although it’s not immediately clear if they’ll be part of the short-form vertical video feed announced Wednesday.
But with the seemingly unabating consumer appetite for short-form and social video content as well as the continued trend of using multiple screens at once, major streamers have been testing and seeking different ways to expand their own content offerings to engage and tap into this affinity and behavior - and hopefully deepen fandoms with new experiences and at different touchpoints.
In building out new product experiences that encourage daily habits, Teague also called out a focus on Gen Alpha and their evolving ways of consuming and interacting with content, noting it’s the first AI-native generation.
“They don’t see stories as something that happens to them,” Teague said. “Instead, they expect more agency. They expect to interact with entertainment.”
The exec continued, “fans don’t just watch anymore, they react and research and remix.”
Disney doesn’t see this as “distracted viewing,” Teague said. Instead, “this is entertainment in people’s lives today.”
She also referred to AI as an “accelerator” and “amplifier” – and the aforementioned behaviors part of “why collaborations with partners like OpenAI are absolutely crucial.”
“We want to empower a new generation of fandom that’s more interactive and immersive while also respecting human creativity and protecting user safety,” Teague said.
In addition to Disney’s own ESPN Verts, another example is a personalized dynamic vertical video feed, called Shorts, of highlights, clips and commentary on the mobile app for the recently launched Fox One sports pay TV streamer.
And major platforms for short-from vertical social video are making their way to connected TV – not just through CTV strength already flexed by YouTube, which has also made its own Shorts available on CTV, but most recently Meta’s Instagram Reels.
According to a December 21 research note from Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino, “over time, Reels should add to the endlessly growing ways for people to spend their TV time, hiking the pressure on Netflix, ESPN, NBC, CBS, Disney and others to expand into shorter formats [emphasis Supino’s].”
In the crowded media ecosystem streamers continue to compete for finite consumer time and attention. And as metrics like engagement and profitability get prioritized over straight subscriber growth the impetus to create a sticky experience and platform that keeps users coming back each day to become part of their daily media habit could be all the more important – including through short-form and vertical social video content efforts.