Disney+, vertical video and the future of streaming

date

March 2, 2026

The "Daily Destination" Strategy

The announcement, made by Erin Teague, Executive Vice President of Product Management at Disney, was framed as a direct response to changing consumer habits. “We know that mobile is an incredible opportunity to turn Disney+ into a true daily destination for fans,” Teague stated during the presentation .

The logic is clear: why let TikTok steal all the "lean-back" moments of a user's day? While a subscriber might only open Disney+ to watch a new episode of The Mandalorian once a week, they likely check social media dozens of times a day. Disney wants a piece of that habitual attention. The new feed, expected to roll out in the U.S. later this year, will serve up a personalized, endless stream of short-form content, from clips of iconic scenes and behind-the-scenes footage to original micro-content designed specifically for the vertical format .

"We're obviously thinking about integrating vertical video in ways that are native to core user behaviors," Teague explained in an interview with Deadline. "So, it won't be a kind of a disjointed, random experience" . This means the algorithm will learn your preferences, serving up clips from the vast Disney library—spanning Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and National Geographic—in an effort to pull you from a quick scroll into a longer viewing session .

From "Verts" to Vertical: A Tested Concept

Disney is not venturing into uncharted waters blindly. The company has already been experimenting with this exact format within its sports ecosystem. In August 2025, the ESPN app launched a feature called "Verts," a dedicated section for consuming sports clips in a vertical, mobile-friendly feed .

This internal beta test provided Disney with valuable data on how users interact with premium, long-form content repackaged for quick consumption. The success of "Verts" paved the way for the feature’s arrival on Disney+, signaling a company-wide belief that the vertical scroll is not a passing fad, but the new interface of choice for a generation raised on mobile video.

The $1 Billion AI Connection

The vertical video feature is just one piece of a much larger, and more expensive, technological pivot. Underpinning this move is a massive bet on artificial intelligence. At the same CES event, Disney announced it would invest a staggering $1 billion into OpenAI .

This partnership is deeply intertwined with the new short-form strategy. The deal allows Disney to use its library of over 200 iconic characters within OpenAI's text-to-video tool, Sora. This means some of the clips populating the new Disney+ feed could be AI-generated, creating novel, short-form content featuring beloved characters without the cost of a full production crew .

Teague highlighted the importance of this, noting that younger audiences, particularly "Gen Alpha," "expect to interact with entertainment" rather than just watch it passively. "AI is an accelerator," she said. "It‘s why collaborations with partners like OpenAI are absolutely crucial" . This convergence of AI and short-form video suggests a future where the line between user-generated content and studio-produced magic becomes increasingly blurred.

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New Formats, New Jobs, New Concerns

This technological evolution is already reshaping the job market within the entertainment industry. While the $1 billion investment flows towards Silicon Valley, new roles are being created to manage the creative and logistical shift.

Disney is actively hiring to build these "next-generation immersive platforms." A recent job posting for a Principal Product Manager, VR in California seeks a leader to "help lead the launch of the Disney+ app on next-generation immersive platforms" and "define strategy... for expanding Disney+ experiences into VR/XR environments" . The salary range for this high-level position reflects the priority of the initiative, reaching up to $276,700 in San Francisco .

This demand trickles down to the next generation of talent. A job posting for a Product Management Intern for the summer of 2026 seeks students to "collaborate with Product, Design and Engineering colleagues to bring new features" to Disney's streaming products, specifically mentioning ESPN's suite .

However, this rush to short-form isn't without its growing pains. The Los Angeles Times notes that while "micro-dramas" and lower-cost productions can supply more jobs to a struggling industry, they are also "raising concerns among Hollywood labor unions" about working conditions and the devaluation of traditional craft . Furthermore, the article from Nollytrailers cites experts who point out that while short-form content is easier for young consumers to digest, it remains "harder to monetise" than its long-form counterpart .

The Future of Cinema is a Scroll?

The move by Disney is the most prominent signal yet that the "attention economy" has fully consumed the streaming wars. Netflix has experimented with similar features, and Paramount has announced plans to flood its service with clips . As Emily Horgan, a media consultant specializing in children‘s content, told Nollytrailers, "Premium streaming is plowing into this space because of a need to own more lean-back moments in a viewer’s day" .

This doesn’t spell the death of the feature film or the prestige series. Instead, it represents a new hybrid reality. The streaming homepage is no longer just a digital shelf of movies and shows; it is becoming a living, scrolling destination in its own right. Disney is effectively building a moat around its castle, hoping that by offering the quick-hit dopamine of a TikTok scroll, it can keep users inside its own walls just a little bit longer. The question now is whether audiences, addicted to the infinite scroll, will be willing to stop and stay for the whole story.