Netflix, Disney, Fox and NBCUniversal embed vertical video in their apps and commission originals as discovery, distribution and monetization shift to the small screen
Vertical video is no longer an outside threat to streaming. As Netflix, Disney, Fox Entertainment and NBCUniversal pull short-form and microdramas inside their own apps, the format has moved to the center of streaming strategy. Two forces drive the shift. The first is the migration of viewing time: younger audiences now spend their days inside vertical feeds such as TikTok, YouTube and Reels, and the starting point of video consumption has moved from the home-screen recommendation to the infinite scroll.
Jung Han
The second is a discovery problem. In an era of content abundance, connecting subscribers to the next title has become nearly as hard as making it, and the short vertical clip has emerged as that connective tissue. Layer on the unit economics of microdramas — dozens of one-to-two-minute episodes stacked with payment and ad hooks — and short-form is expanding from a marketing tool into a standalone revenue format.