Disney and TikTok Team Up to Bring Creator Videos Straight to Disney+

The Walt Disney Company and TikTok have unveiled a global content-sharing agreement aimed at connecting fan creation directly with streaming entertainment.

Under the new deal, fan-made vertical videos will show up on Disney+ within its "Verts" section, while creators get access to official assets across Disney’s massive catalog of franchises, including Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and FX. The initiative kicks off in the US in the coming months before rolling out internationally.

How the Creator Partnership Works

Participating creators who opt in will gain access to photos and clips from hundreds of Disney films and TV shows to create their posts. In return, Disney will select videos to highlight on its streaming app.

The companies are also rolling out a joint effort called the Disney Creator Ambassador Program. This tiered system offers top creators special perks, entry to private events, and potential career opportunities.

"The best storytellers are fans first," said Asad Ayaz, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, The Walt Disney Company. "That has always been true at Disney, and today, fans are celebrating our stories in entirely new ways. This collaboration creates a new bridge between the stories we tell and the creativity they inspire, giving creators a bigger stage to share what they’ve made, and audiences more to discover on Disney+ every day."

"Creators are at the heart of everything we do at TikTok. Their creativity extends the life of films and shows into conversations that fans discover and share," said Dawn Yang, Global Head of Entertainment, TikTok. "Together with Disney, we’re bringing the authentic creator expression of the TikTok community to Disney+, inviting audiences to experience the shared creativity that makes fandom so powerful."

The Push for Mobile Vertical Content

The partnership gives a major boost to Disney’s vertical video push. Streamers across the industry including Netflix, HBO Max, and Peacock, have been expanding short-form features to match mobile viewing habits, where audiences rarely turn their devices sideways.

Internal TikTok data highlights the massive overlap between social clips and streaming habits, revealing that fans posted an average of 6.5 million movie and TV posts per day on the app last year. Furthermore, nearly half of surveyed users reported streaming a show or movie after coming across related content on TikTok.

Pivoting Away From Previous AI Experiments

The team-up follows Disney's previous attempt to bring user-generated videos onto its platform through a $1 billion agreement with OpenAI. That deal aimed to let users generate videos featuring 100 classic Disney characters using OpenAI's Sora tool, but the project fell apart when OpenAI abandoned the Sora generator to pursue other commercial projects.

Unlike that canceled AI initiative, this new collaboration focuses entirely on human creators, offering Disney a steady stream of low-cost, fan-driven clips to keep subscribers engaged.