Disney+ To Add Vertical Videos In Push To Boost Daily Engagement (deadline.com) 49
Disney+, which is looking to catch up with some streaming and digital rivals in terms of daily engagement, is adding vertical videos to the service. From a report: The arrival of the new format later this year 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.
[...] 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."
[...] 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."
dijoointed random exp (Score:1)
there description is the very definition i would apply to that.
Blackjack and hookers next? (Score:2)
Re:Blackjack and hookers next? (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably don't take the things a 4 year old says seriously.
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Probably don't take the things a 4 year old says seriously.
Except it's not just 4 year olds. Seriously go out in public sometime and look at what kids are actually doing. They all consider horizontal videos lame. You remember kids? Like the target audience that Disney has always historically aimed for?
You should absolutely care about your target audience. Disney isn't making shit primarily for boomers.
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If your target audience is kids, then you can find a way to manipulate them and make money (maybe tell them they are better than adults because of their screen orientation).
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Their target audience is historically poor and relies on the participation of parents to succeed.
Re:Blackjack and hookers next? (Score:5, Insightful)
A 4yo's views aren't really relevant here. And my teenage daughter has never expressed a preference.
Disney+ is largely watched on TVs. Unless there's been some radical change the "youngsters" have been doing lately, those are still horizontal. People subscribe to Disney+ primarily to watch content that was originally created for cinemas or TVs, both of which are horizontal. Vertical videos are still ridiculous in that context, even if some people watch them on their phones.
Yes, we post-Zoomers (millennials, Gen X, and boomers) complained when people started making things vertical, but we did so not just out of habit but because vertical video is obviously stupid to any species whose eye sight is based upon two eyes mounted next to one another horizontally. Zoomers and Gen Alpha may not have realized that yet, but they will do too.
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Disney+ is largely watched on TVs
Exactly.
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I actually know a gen-alpha who has their TV mounted vertically in their room.
Did their parents steal it from a McDonald's order kiosk?
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As a Gen-X, I appreciate that the benefit of vertical video is it can easily focus on a person (hence its old fashion name, Portrait). Similarly, horizontal video is more immersive as the old fashioned name of Landscape might suggest. The idiocy is using one format when the display device is using the opposite.
I can't stand portrait video because my screen is generally a landscape device and the short-format style just promotes video without depth... advertising if you will.
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A 4yo's views aren't really relevant here. And my teenage daughter has never expressed a preference.
Then pay attention. Your teenage daughter hasn't *knowingly* expressed a preference. But ask her, does she spend more time watching TikTok, Youtube, or Disney. If the answer is the former she's probably made a preference without expressing it to you.
Disney+ is largely watched on TVs.
Which is relevant when people are sitting in front of TVs. Many people are not. Entire generations are glued to their phones. It may be worth considering trying to capture that target market rather than ignoring it.
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I don't know. You seem to make a good point, but what would you say if the 4 year old explained that you're mounting your 60-inch TV wrong?
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Because you're not one of them. Vertical videos are the rage among the younger crowd - think TikTok but younger still (those who still do dance videos, for example).
In other words, the perfect audience for Disney+. This likely won't work on any other network that doesn't have such a family friendly reputation.
Sadly it might be a war we're going to lose eventually because the TikTok crowd will grow up eventually and will vote. They'
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Forget the blackjack!
Changing the aspect ratio won't fix a bad movie (Score:4, Insightful)
A bad movie in a different aspect ratio is still a bad movie.
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Have you seen TikTok? Once the video is vertical no one gives a shit at how lame and cringe it is.
Hell Slashdot just lost it's collective heads watching a TikTok video with completely unsubstantiated, unreferenced bullshit about OneDrive today. Clearly as soon as content is vertical any kind of brain activity ceases operating.
Oh boy! (Score:2)
Absolutely no one wanted this LOL
Why bother (Score:2)
I don't watch their garbage in horizontal format, why would I burden my existence with their even crappier vertically-oriented pablum?
I have a great idea for Disney- make stuff people actually want to watch. It's a crazy idea but it just might work.
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The Cat From Outer Space 2: The Scratching Post
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Countries outside the US and a handful of other high $/capita areas can still get Disney+ ad free, but at half the price or less of what we pay here. Everyone else "pirates" it by sharing passwords. If you don't have someone's password, then you get the free, ad-supported version. There are a lot of kids whose parents make ~$250-$400/month (that's per month, not day/week, common wage for a school teacher in Colombia, population 55 million, more than the state of NY or CA, so not an isolated situation).
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They can still rotate the phone they are holding by 90 degrees.
the very aspect ratio of an interocitor (Score:2)
For decades I have advocated for 1:1 aspect ratios and you have called me mad! Mad!
Also, you called me other hurtful things.
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You are mad.
My eyes are laid out horizontally, so video should be, too.
If I'm watching on my phone, I'm turning it sideways.
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The Lighthouse's 1.19:1 ratio helped with that sense of enclosed space.
Vertical videos are like wearing blinders. (Score:3)
Are you the horse or the buggy?
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Blinders? Surely a single blinder is precisely enough to force people to switch to vertical.
Can someone please tell Gen-Z ... (Score:2)
... that you can turn your phone through 90 degrees and watch in portrait mode (who knew?!) - the way video media is supposed to be watched because we have eyes on the left and right, not top and bottom so have a far greater field of vision horizontally.
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Duh. I meant watch in landscape mode obviously
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I HATE vertical video!!! (Score:2)
Vertical format sucks (Score:2)
Really, it sucks mightily
It's a cancer on the modern tech world
Sigh. (Score:2)
We have lost.
And I, for one, welcome our new idiot overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted I.T. personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their tech systems.
(No! Never! RAGE... RAGE! against the dying of the light.)
Cell phone audience (Score:2)
This vertical format is just to make it easier for the zombies to watch on their cell-phones. Now just make things under a minute long.
Knowing your audience = profit.
Gen-Z (Score:2)
Vertical Video (Score:2)
It becomes natural when you watch TikTok rather than TV / movie based content. I'll watch Reels and the like vertically but prefer anything else landscape, but that's just a preference and I know others prefer vertical. Actually, I'd kinda like to see a movie shot for vertical to see what they could do with that format creativity.
Welcome back (Score:2)