Disney has revealed how it plans to make Disney+ more similar to Netflix. Disney launched its dedicated streaming service in 2019, over a decade after Netflix had first begun the streaming game. In the years since, Netflix has become the foremost streaming giant, and its rivals, including Disney+, are looking for ways to compete.
One of the ways Netflix has always stood out from its competitors is through its innovative personalized user recommendations. Using state-of-the-art technologies, Netflix tailors its search results and recommendations that appear on each user's streaming home page. This is based on information from the customer's Netflix use, such as their watch history and ratings for certain titles, paired with data on other titles, including their genres, release years, and actors.
Disney has since outlined its plan to replicate this successful part of Netflix's strategy by introducing personalized recommendations. Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro confirmed during Disney's Q2 FY26 earnings call that Disney+'s product team is focusing on "easier navigation" and "more personalized recommendations," all in an aim to "reduce user friction."
"On the product side, our team is really focused on improvements that reduce user friction that allow more intuitive discovery for our subscribers and help users decide what to watch and to decide sooner. So you think of it — think of it like a visual homepage, easier navigation, more personalized recommendations."
D'Amaro revealed they want to create a "hyper-personalized recommendation engine" on Disney+:
"In streaming, specifically, we've got a lot of work going on to develop really, like a hyper-personalized recommendation engine across Disney+ and ESPN, and then we're implementing AI to enhance our ad targeting capabilities, letting our partners develop and execute truly dynamic brand messaging."
The aim of this evolution of Disney+ appears to be to reduce time scrolling and increase time watching. The move comes after Disney shifted up its television content leadership, which will also have a direct impact on the type of shows in Disney+'s pipeline.
As it stands, Disney+ offers personalized content recommendations that, according to the support website, are based on "what you've watched, how much time you've spent on certain genres or shows, and what types of content you've engaged with most."
These are also things that Netflix's algorithm takes into account, but the rival streamer's process is several years ahead of its competition, and also factors in details like "the time of day you're enjoying Netflix, the languages you prefer, the devices you are enjoying Netflix on, and how long you enjoyed a Netflix title," according to Netflix's Help Center.
The level of personalization filters down to the specific thumbnail a user sees for each title on their homepage. All of this combines to make Netflix feel like a bespoke experience for each subscriber.
While Disney+ already offers some personalized recommendations, they are nowhere near as innovative as Netflix's right now. Netflix's algorithm is one of the things the company is most known for, and it's backed by machine learning and other innovative technologies. As Netflix states on its research page, its recommender systems are "published at leading conferences."
We conduct research in areas of machine learning with the goal to make member experience better. Our work on recommender systems, contextual bandits, reinforcement learning, natural language processing, foundational models, and causal inference is published at leading conferences.
What Disney+'s New Netflix Strategy Means For Subscribers
If Disney+ follows Netflix's strategy, it could lead to a variety of changes to the platform's user experience.
Right now, Disney+'s recommendation system is fairly basic. If you watch an MCU title, it will very likely recommend more Marvel Studios titles, and the process is similar when you engage with any of Disney+'s other hubs. But the level of personalization isn't the same as at Netflix.
While Netflix's research and algorithms are proprietary, Disney+ may mimic this in several ways, using machine learning and possible technologies like AI to analyze and suggest content based on deeper levels of detail, such as the time of day and the length of time spent watching each title. Disney+ could also introduce a wider library of personalized thumbnails and posters
One thing Disney also has over Netflix is a wider array of experiences beyond just streaming. Disney owns not only film and TV studios, but also gaming studios, theme parks, and cruise ships. Many of the experiences in these mediums can be linked through a Disney account, so it's possible that one day a user's preferences at real-world attractions like Disneyland could feed back into the data that also personalizes their streaming experience at home.
