Disney's determined to bring fan-made video to its streaming service one way or another. Less than five months after its AI content deal disappeared into the ether with OpenAI's abrupt decision to scrap Sora, the company appears to have found a replacement: TikTok.
A new deal will allow TikTok creators to use Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars characters. In exchange, Disney will be able to show their short videos on Disney+.
It's being billed as a win-win. TikTokkers get to make fan videos with Disney characters without the risk of take-down notices, and Disney+ gets something to put on its new vertical mobile video feed without having to pay for it (after all, Disney's operating income only rose 21% to $5.6 billion in the last quarter).
What's less clear is whether it's a win for the audience – or for professional creatives.
The Disney Creator Ambassador Program will begin as a pilot in the US in the coming months, but there's an intention to expand it to other markets. The social media platform TikTok will offer "best-in-class creators" access to "assets related to hundreds of films and series from Disney’s vast library of enduring franchises and beloved IP".
The short videos created with those assets will be shown on TikTok itself, but Disney will also bring a collection of "thoughtfully curated Disney-centric fan-created content from TikTok to the Disney+ app", specifically to its new Verts vertical mobile feed.
"Fans will enjoy a shared Disney experience with TikTok videos that will be refreshed regularly to engage subscribers more deeply in timely fan conversations, building stronger communities, and ultimately, helping them engage with more story formats," the company says.
Disney reckons this "opens doors for the next generation of creators". Maybe, but coming a couple of weeks after the company announced hundreds of layoffs, including at Pixar and Disney Television Entertainment, it feels hard to frame this in a way that doesn't sound like the replacement of professionals by unpaid social media creators.
There isn't much detail yet on how the agreement will work, how creators will be selected, in what form the assets will be made available or how quality will be controlled. There's also no detail on financial arrangements, rights or whether creators will retain control over their work or the ability to monetise it.
Disney says its TikTok programme will have tiers and that creators will be able to "unlock special rewards" and gain "increased visibility, access to exclusive events and career development pathways". That makes it sound like it's expecting them to create its programming for the love and the likes and maybe compete for internships.
There's no mention of AI this time around, but ByteDance, which owns TikTok outside the US and still has a minority stake in TikTok US, does have an AI video generator, Seedance.
Above: some Disney fans complained that the Hexed trailer flooked like it was made to look good vertically for TikTok.
The deal highlights how legacy media companies are finally waking up to the challenges and opportunities posed by user-created content on social media, where many creators have highly loyal fans. The likes of Netflix, HBO Max, and Prime Video are also experimenting with short-form video.
Social media hosts some fantastic original creativity. YouTube has spawned movies like Backrooms and Obsession and animation like The Amazing Digital Circus. But Disney's TikTok deal feels less about finding new and original creators , and more about blurring the line between traditional media and social media.
The question I'm seeing asked a lot is why would people pay for a Disney+ subscription to watch fan-made clips that they can scroll through for free on TikTok. I think Disney probably knows that they wouldn't. This is more about keeping existing subscribers engaged for longer.
There's the fear that generation alpha – kids born between 2010 and 2024 – have been brought up on social media and don't have the attention span to watch anything that lasts more than a few seconds. But it's also easy to see how social media doomscrolling looks appealing to traditional media companies.
People can binge watch a series one episode after another, but at some point it ends and they have to decide what to watch instead. Cheap but mildly entertaining user-generated content can be almost infinite, potentially keeping users on a platform for longer, which becomes more important since the introduction of ad-funded subscription tiers.
Whether that's good for viewers will depend on what you like watching, but it makes me worry that Disney will aim to rely more and more on user-generated content and reduce investment in original movies and shows.
It's likely to concern those parents who see traditional media as a safer and more controlled entertainment space for their children. Amazon's Gen AI creator fund announcement earlier in the year generated concerns when one of the creators chosen was the controversial 'kidfluencer' Love, Diana.
“The best storytellers are fans first,” says Asad Ayaz, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer. “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.”
Time will tell whether that brings a new golden age of creative animation or an endless loop of inane slop fashioned from old IPs that make's Disney same face syndrome seem mild.
