Disney is reportedly developing a slew of new features aimed at increasing engagement and reducing churn for its Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus streaming services.
According to the paywalled Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter,” Disney is looking to develop “a more Netflix-like” UX driven by user data and recommendation algorithms.
Disney will also leverage personalized promotional art tailored to viewer preferences and send email reminders about unfinished content, the report said.
Disney may also roll out new, 24/7 live channels dedicated to specific shows or franchises.
Also Read: Disney and Warner Set to Bundle Disney Plus, Max and Hulu Starting This Summer
According to WSJ, these channels could include popular IP such as The Simpsons or the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It’s all in an effort to make Disney streaming platforms stickier, increase the amount of time consumers spend using them and decrease user churn as Disney continues to chase its declared goal of turning a profit by the end of the financial year.
Notably, writing about stagnated usage of Pluto TV on Tuesday, Lightshed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield noted that the FAST uses a traditional pay TV-like channel grid, juxtaposed to the algorithmic UX deployed by the faster-growing Tubi.
"With more and more users consuming a diverse array of content and spending more time per user per day, Tubi’s algorithm gets smarter and smarter at surfacing content that consumers might be interested in," Greenfield wrote.
