Earlier this summer, Disney hired Adam Smith as the new chief product and technology officer for ESPN and Disney Entertainment (which includes Disney+ and Hulu). Prior to working at Disney, Adam worked at Google and YouTube for twenty years, where he was the vice president of product management for YouTube, overseeing the video platform’s YouTube Music, YouTube Premium, subscription and commerce offerings.

As part of his role, he is developing and deploying new technology for Disney’s streaming, networks, advertising, production technologies, and other digital touchpoints.

During the recent quarterly investors call, Disney CEO Bob Iger provided an update on Adam’s plans to improve Disney+,

Adam is already hard at work and making progress in improving the technology across all of our streaming businesses. And he’s got a number of priorities. One, obviously, is flagship. Another is, as we noted in our comments earlier, that we’re launching an ESPN tile on Disney+ on December 4th. So he’s working on that. In addition to that, personalization, customization, designed initially to improve engagement. Just basically by adding a stronger recommendation engine capabilities on the home page, we’re already seeing increased engagement in a very short period of time.

He’s going after password sharing. We launched in LatAm just this week, and we now are – we have password sharing or anti-password sharing initiatives, I think, at over approximately 130 countries. So that’s also on his list. We’re unifying tech stacks, including media serving and our entire ad stack across Disney+ and Hulu and basically a lot more. Obviously, what we’re doing here is designed not only to create a better customer experience, but to increase engagement and reduce churn.

Disney’s Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston also reconfirmed why Adam is so important to the growth of Disney+.

As Bob mentioned, a lot of Adam’s priorities around product updates and features that will increase engagement and reduce churn, including improving the recommendation engine, is certainly going to be a benefit to our growth

Since Disney+ launched in 2019, we’ve seen some minor changes to the overall user experience, but it’s generally, there haven’t been any major changes in the design. However, Bob Iger has been very vocal lately about how Disney needs to drastically improve Disney+ to compete with other platforms like YouTube and Netflix.

One of the key aspects Disney is looking to do with Disney+, is to make the homepage more personalised, since currently, most users see the exact same shows and films being promoted. While that has some benefits, such as promoting big new releases or well-known blockbusters, other platforms like Netflix use algorithms to personalise to each user based on their viewing habits, which results in people spending more time within the app watching the films and shows that appeal to them.

Since the introduction of Hulu on Disney+ in December last year, the Disney+ homepage has undergone further changes, including the introduction of curated playlists and the Top Ten Today lists. The addition of the ESPN tile in December will also mark another big shift in the homepage. However, there is still plenty more that Disney needs to do, especially as it looks to reduce churn and increase viewing time.

Roger’s Take: The Disney+ homepage needs a drastic change to increase the overall engagement on Disney+, and it’s a key to boosting viewership on the app.  If you log into Disney+ and see a homepage full of the same films and shows, many of which you’ve either watched or have no interest in, this can work against the aim of Disney+.  If I’ve watched the entire season of “Agatha All Along” and never rewatch TV shows, having that show appearing multiple times on the homepage is taking up space that could be promoting something I might be interested in.   Bob Iger knows they need to up their game with technology, and hopefully, once the launch of the new ESPN Flagship is done in the fall of 2025, we will see more changes in the future.

What do you think the Disney+ homepage needs to offer?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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