Disney+ To Add More Features Including Live Channels & More
One of the biggest problems facing any streaming service is trying to keep users engaged within the app; just jumping into the platform for one episode of the latest Star Wars or Marvel show a week, just isn’t sustainable in the long run and so Disney has been making major changes to try to increase the engagement of its viewership.
According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal , Disney is planning on many more changes to improve how users are presented with shows and films on Disney+.
Disney is trying to develop its technology to increase the time subscribers spend viewing its shows and movies to reduce churn and increase revenue from advertising. Disney is now focusing on “hours per subscriber” as a metric, where it measures user engagement.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Disney was looking into launching some live channels within the app, and WSJ confirmed this to be in development. With channels based on Marvel, Star Wars and The Simpsons apparently in the mix. The goal of these channels is to increase viewership, especially from those subscribers who just want to put something on in the background or just don’t want to have to make a decision about what to watch. These channels could be sponsored or have ads or not, though that might depend on what tier a subscriber has.
It’s unlikely that these live channels will be direct copies of the linear channels, and it’s also unclear if these will be available to everyone, i.e. FAST, or just for Disney+ subscribers.
Disney+ is also looking to make major changes to how its homepage recommendation system works. Currently, it’s a curated list created by Disney staff, who are looking to promote the latest new releases or tie into major events, celebrations, etc.
However, Disney is looking to personalise the homepage with an algorithm that shows different thumbnails for shows and films, in addition to becoming more automated, based on your viewing history, similar to Netflix and YouTube.
Other new features could include sending emails to viewers who have stopped watching in the middle of a series, giving them a promotion to finish watching it.
Earlier this year, Hulu On Disney+ officially launched in the United States, bringing more content from Disney’s more mature brands like FX, ABC and 20th Century Studios onto Disney+, which had traditionally only had family-friendly content.
Disney is now tagging users as either “Disney+ dominant” or “Hulu dominant” based on their usage and has discovered that since the Hulu tab was added within Disney+, the “Disney+ dominant” subscribers have drastically increased the amount of Hulu content they are watching. Disney wants to use this data to increase recommendations within the app based on viewing habits.
Later this summer, a new bundle with Disney+, Max and Hulu is set to launch, which will also provide Disney with more data about its user’s viewership.
Back in May, Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke about how Netflix is the “Gold Standard” in streaming, and they’ve got to develop technology to be as good.
Officially, none of these features have been confirmed, and there is no timeline for when they might be rolled out. As with most updates, these are likely to be tested in some countries first, before going global.
Roger’s Take: The way Disney+ has worked for the past four years was fine when there was a limited amount of content, all generally themed around five core brands. However, once the Star hub was launched internationally, it became very clear that Disney+ needed an overhaul to provide a better experience, as the general entertainment offering was too big and varied to be simply curated by hand. An algorithm to improve the front page is vital, and with the future of Hulu and Disney+ becoming more intertwined, hopefully, these new features will just increase how much time people spend in the app.
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