Disney+, which is one of the leading subscription streamers but lags many streaming and digital rivals in terms of daily engagement, is adding vertical videos to the service later this year.
The arrival of the new format was one of several advertising-oriented announcements the company made Wednesday at its Tech + Data Showcase at CES in Las Vegas. Other new offerings include a new “brand impact” metric and a new video generation tool that helps advertisers create high-quality connected-TV-ready commercials using existing assets and guidelines.
“We’ll look to evolve the experience over time,” a Disney announcement said of the vertical video plan, which follows “Verts” joining the beefed-up ESPN app when it launched last August. The aim is to “explore its use in a variety of ways across categories, and content types, for a personalized and dynamic feed. That will include expanding across news and entertainment, turning Disney+ into a must-visit daily destination.”
In an interview prior to the Wednesday showcase, Erin Teague, EVP of Product Management for Disney Entertainment and ESPN, said “everything’s on the table” in terms of how vertical video is delivered on Disney+. It could be original short-form programming, repurposed social clips, refashioned scenes from longer-form episodic or feature titles or a combination. “We’re obviously thinking about integrating vertical video in ways that are native to core user behaviors,” Teague said. “So, it won’t be a kind of a disjointed, random experience.”
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Starting with ESPN vertical video enabled the company to learn about user response. “Vertical videos are really great as daily habits. snackable, short, bite sized experiences,” Teague said.
She recalled watching the rise of TikTok, Instagram Reels and other vertical players during her lengthy stint as an exec at YouTube. The Google-owned video giant eventually created YouTube Shorts and then integrated it into YouTube, and has said that most Shorts are viewed in the living room, not on mobile.
While YouTube “took a long time” to mobilize its response, Teague said, all companies have recognized that “the most important thing is to meet people where they are. … This is what Gen Z and Gen Alpha are expecting. They are not necessarily thinking about sitting down, watching a long form, two-and-a-half hour piece of content on their phones.”
Disney global advertising chief Rita Ferro underscored the importance of live programming, especially sports, both onstage at the showcase and in a conversation streamed by LinkedIn Live on Tuesday.
ESPN, where Ferro spent many years as an executive before ascending to the top ad role at Disney, accounted for 33% of all live sports viewing in 2025, she said. “The closest competitor was 20%. And when you look at things like Christmas Day, for example, 96% of the impressions that took place on Christmas Day happened in sports. Not only on our platform, but on other streamers. So it is a cultural phenomenon and yet a phenomenon that I think is only getting more and more interesting in terms of how brands are showing up, the opportunities that are there, how the leagues are thinking about distributing that content.”
Disney Advertising’s Brand Impact Metric, executives said, will be purpose-built to show the halo effect when brand and performance channels work together to drive outcomes. It will combine third-party measurement insights with Disney’s first-party data.
“More than ever, marketers need a better bridge between brand building and performance, and data can serve as the insight layer across campaigns and tactics,” said Dana McGraw, SVP of Data and Measurement Science. “When brands can connect ad exposure to direct results, marketers gain clarity on not just what drove results – but how.”