There’s no denying that streaming platforms are taking over the way many of us watch our favourite movies and TV shows, hugely outperforming the success of physical media.
And one of the biggest services on the market, Disney+, is making a move to compete with one of the biggest time thieves – vertical short-form video.
At CES 2026, the streaming platform announced that it will be adding vertical video to its mobile app, similar to TikTok or YouTube Shorts, according to Deadline.
The addition is coming later this year, and Disney says it will feature content across various genres, including sports, news, and entertainment.
Deadline reports that a Disney representative at CES says it aims to create a “personalised and dynamic feed” to turn the platform into “a must-visit daily destination.”
Basically, the company wants you to visit the app every day for a scroll and not just to watch TV and movies.
While this is clearly an attempt by Disney to appeal to younger audiences, it represents something, frankly, quite concerning in my eyes.
Adding this short-form video feature feels like just another form of doom-scrolling to avoid, and feels especially egregious when it is added to the main platform for how many of us watch movies.
Whether it's an episode of Bob's Burgers to unwind from a long day or an epic movie night with Avatar: The Way of Water, switching off and getting truly sucked in to another world is one of the most precious experiences for so many people.
On top of that, this move shows that the brand is increasingly betting big on the mobile app.
Of course, sometimes watching films or TV on your smartphone or tablet is the only option if you're on the move. But, with such a small screen, it's far from the ideal way to watch your favourite content and simply does not present films as the director intended.
We'll have to see whether the vertical video integration will be a success once it is introduced. But I hope users will remember the importance of being able to switch off from short-form video, and keep the sanctity of watching movies on the best screen possible.
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