Disney wants a bigger slice of the mobile video business: The entertainment giant is planning to roll out a new vertical video product on Disney+ over the next year that will feature short-form content from the company’s entertainment portfolio, as well as news and sports.
The push into vertical video comes after ESPN entered the space with “verts” in its ESPN app, essentially creating a new sports highlight experience.
The company announced the product enhancements at an event at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Wednesday.
“We want to bring the best of what makes our live products great, from ESPN to ABC News to Hulu Plus Live TV, all into this unified environment,” said Erin Teague, executive VP of product management, onstage at the event, which was streamed online. “We’re also thinking about mobile-first experiences. We know that mobile is an incredible opportunity to turn Disney+ into a true daily destination for fans, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
“Over the next year, we’re introducing vertical video experiences on Disney+, think all of the short form Disney content you want all in one unified app,” she added. “Over time, we’ll evolve these experiences as we explore applications for a variety of formats, categories and content types for a dynamic feed of just what you’re interested in, from sports, news and entertainment, refreshed in real time based on your last visit.”
In addition to the vertical video push, executives from the company leaned into technology and artificial intelligence during the presentation, with AI-powered ad planning tools, and more notably an AI video generation tool meant to allow advertisers quickly develop and deploy CTV-ready ad spots.
“This isn’t just an AI model creating a clip,” said Disney executive VO Tony Donohoe, in a demo of the product. “The magic is the work we’re doing under the hood and bringing Disney’s blend of technical, creative and operational expertise as we build a capability with human oversight and imagination, we’re orchestrating multiple models working together in a single agentic workflow.
“So there’s a model driving the script, creating the storyboards, there’s another one driving the audio and the music and then generating the video, and it all takes into account your vision for mood, tone, style, all your oversight on ours and all while protecting IP, accounting for guardrails and compliance requirements,” he continued. “But then to truly delight you, we enable you to put the right creative in front of the right viewer at the right time.”
AI was a recurring theme of the presentation, which came just weeks after Disney struck a landmark deal with bring many of its characters and worlds to OpenAI’s Sora, with plans to eventually bring some of that user-prompted content to Disney+.
“To us, AI is an accelerator. It’s an amplifier,” Teague said. “It’s why collaborations with partners like OpenAI are absolutely crucial. We want to empower a new generation of fandom that is more interactive and immersive, while also respecting human creativity and protecting user safety.”
Indeed, Teague framed interactivity as a key piece of reaching Gen Alpha.
“They are the first AI native generation, and the interesting thing is, they don’t see stories as things that happen to them. Instead, they expect more agency,” she said. “They expect to interact with entertainment. Fans don’t just watch anymore. They react and research and remix. A dad and his daughter aren’t just streaming a Marvel show. They’re pausing to debate theories. They’re looking up the back stories on their phones, and then they’re sharing clips with friends.”
And Disney wants to make sure that its products are meeting that reality.
