Disney+ is working on a free plan, more short clips and creator videos, according to a leaked internal deck. Here is what it could mean for your screen.
Disney+ is working on a free plan, according to screenshots of an internal presentation seen by Business Insider. The same deck lays out a year of changes: far more short vertical videos, clips from creators, and the Super Bowl in mid-February. Disney told employees about these priorities at a town hall late last week. They cover its 2027 fiscal year, which began in October.
Disney+ is not the biggest name on TV screens. Nielsen says Disney's streamers had 4.8% of US TV viewing in August. YouTube had 15.8% and Netflix had 7.7%. Disney's share was still more than twice that of Paramount+ and Peacock. CEO Josh D'Amaro wants Disney+ to be the company's "digital centerpiece" and to compete better with paid streamers, YouTube and social media.
Disney plans to add 500 vertical clips a day by early April. It is aiming for about 150 a day this quarter. Vertical clips are the tall, phone-style videos popular on TikTok and Instagram. The deck also promises "new content types every quarter," including sports, news and short "micro series," such as micro dramas. Creator content is meant to start next quarter. In early August, Disney announced a deal with TikTok to put a curated feed of user-made videos on its streamer.
The deck mentions a "Free Plan" and "the free experience" several times. It lists "FAST channel creation" and "content sampling." FAST channels are free, ad-supported feeds that play all day, like Pluto TV or The Roku Channel. You join mid-show instead of picking what to start. Disney+ already has a few such channels for paying subscribers, including Disney princesses and Pixar films. Sampling would mean some content is available without a subscription.
Disney+ will stream the Super Bowl in the US for the first time in mid-February. The deck calls it a major "tentpole" moment. Priorities include live 4K HDR, lower delay, handling huge audiences and protecting against piracy.
Disney is also still merging Hulu into Disney+ under an internal plan called "Project Gemini." The longer goal is a "super app" where people can play games and buy merchandise. D'Amaro said in August that parts of this would appear in the spring.
A free, ad-supported Disney+ is in the works, but the deck gives no date, price or show list, so nothing changes for your account yet.
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