Netflix and Disney Keep Copying TikTok With Little Proof It Keeps Subscribers

About 43 percent of mobile Disney+ users have used its Verts feed, Disney says, but it hasn't said whether swiping keeps them subscribed.

David Ellison once said a feed of short vertical videos was "critical to our future," The Verge reported Wednesday. On Skydance's earnings call Monday, the CEO behind Paramount Plus and HBO Max gave no usage figures for that feed or for HBO Max's Shorts test.

He isn't the only one. Over the past year, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Netflix and HBO Max have all put swipeable clip feeds in their phone apps, betting that a spare minute of scrolling makes the subscription feel worth the money. So far, The Verge found, they've shared little about whether it does.

Disney has shared the most. In an Oct. 5 post launching Verts in the ABC News app, the company said about 43 percent of mobile Disney Plus users had "already interacted with" the feed, which arrived there in March. Disney called that "meaningful increases in engagement depth." The post doesn't say what counts as interacting, or whether Verts gets anyone to watch more or cancel less.

Sports is where the format clearly fits. Verts has drawn more than 26 million users and over 1.8 billion minutes in the ESPN app since August 2025, Disney said, and now drives 65 percent of the short-form video starts users kick off there. A highlight works without the game. A movie scene is mostly a pitch for the movie.

That's the gap YouTube fills. It took a record 15.8 percent of US TV-set viewing in August, according to Nielsen, and Ellison said Monday that Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery combined still trail it in US TV watch time. The Verge argues that creators reacting to a show give people a reason to open those apps even between seasons.

So Disney is borrowing the creators. In August, Disney unveiled a US test with TikTok in which Verts will feature a curated selection of clips about Disney's shows and movies from creators who opt in, and CEO Josh D'Amaro said on Disney's August earnings call that the deal could make Disney Plus a "stickier app." An internal roadmap seen by Business Insider targets early 2027 for creator videos and also calls for microdramas, The Verge noted. Paramount, whose own clips feed went live in April, had by September started weighing videos uploaded by users as material for a possible free tier.

Netflix sounds cooler on the whole thing. The average Netflix member watched 49 hours a month in the first half of 2026, down from 66 hours three years earlier, by Jefferies' estimate. When Netflix reported earnings in October, co-CEO Ted Sarandos grouped short-form video with other early experiments, six months after Clips headlined the company's mobile redesign. Netflix plans themed Clips feeds for 2027.

Even a popular feed is hard to cash in on. Ads on phones generally sell for less than ads on TVs, and a clip leaves little room for a break, eMarketer senior analyst Ross Benes told The Verge. "I just don't see it being like a big success for them," he said. The likelier job for the feeds, in his view, is something to scroll on the phone while the TV is on.

Source: The Verge, retrieved November 11, 2026. Other sources: thewaltdisneycompany.com.