By Rajwa Quasim
The Walt Disney Company and TikTok have announced a partnership that will allow TikTok creators to use characters and scenes from Disney movies and TV shows in short-form videos. This will be the first agreement of its kind between a major Hollywood studio and a social media platform.
Under the deal, selected creator videos will be featured on TikTok and Disney+ on a new vertical video section called verts. The pilot version of the program will be launched in the U.S. in the coming months before expanding it to the international markets. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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The creators will be able to access content from Disney titles, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, FX and more. This will be the first time that TikTok videos will be shown on another company’s platform. For Disney, this deal creates an opportunity to attract billions of TikTok users. The companies said that content “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 across Disney+.”
“The best storytellers are fans first,” said Asad Ayaz, chief marketing and brand officer at The Walt Disney Company. “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.”
Alongside the deal, TikTok and Disney+ also launched an initiative called Disney Creator Ambassador Program, enabling best-in-class creators to unlock special rewards and provide them with increased visibility, access to exclusive events and career development pathways.
“Creators are at the heart of everything we do at TikTok. Their creativity extends the life of films and shows into conversations that fans discover and share,” said Dawn Yang, global head of entertainment at TikTok. “Together with Disney, we’re bringing the authentic creator expression of the TikTok community to Disney+, inviting audiences to experience the shared creativity that makes fandom so powerful.”
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The partnership marks the first major initiative under the current CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took over in March and is now tasked with ensuring the company remains competitive and future proof as viewers shift to short-form contents. “It’s a pretty big deal for us, and very much in line with our long-term strategies on streaming,” he said.
According to TikTok’s internal data, users shared an average of 6.5 million posts related to films and TV shows every day last year. The company also noted that nearly half of the people it surveyed watched a movie or a TV show on a streaming service or television after discovering it through content published on TikTok.
Previously, Disney and OpenAI had partnered on a similar deal. In addition to the $1 billion investment in OpenAI, it allowed users to create AI-generated videos using Disney content through OpenAI’s Sora platform. However, the project was dropped after Sora was shut down following backlash over artists’ compensation, transparency and creative rights.