Disney announced at CES that its streaming service, Disney+, will get a TikTok-style vertical video feed later this year, a move aimed at boosting daily engagement and capturing younger audiences.
Playing for keeps: The move is a direct play for eyeballs on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. While Disney+ is a streaming heavyweight, it struggles to match the daily stickiness of its competitors, and the company is betting a stream of "snackable" content can transform the app into a daily fixture.
What's on the menu: The company is non-committal on the exact content, but an executive teased to think of it as "all the short-form Disney content you’d want in one unified app." This could include anything from original shorts and repurposed social media clips to cleverly refashioned scenes from its movie library.
More than a feed: This isn't just about video; it's about advertising. The announcement was part of a broader Tech & Data Showcase where Disney also unveiled a new "brand impact" metric and an AI-powered ad creation tool, signaling a deeper push to build out its ad-tech capabilities.
Disney is framing the push as its strategy to capture "Gen Alpha," which it views as the first "AI native" generation—one that doesn't just watch stories but expects to "interact with entertainment." The move is part of a larger trend, with Disney also exploring how its landmark deal with OpenAI could bring generative AI content to the service. Meanwhile, the company continues to lean on the massive engagement from live sports, where ESPN alone accounted for 33% of all live sports viewing in 2025, to keep users in its ecosystem.
