Disney+ Wants to Add More Short-Form Programming Like ‘Bluey’

(Bloomberg) — Walt Disney Co. wants to add more short-form video programming like the runaway kids hitto its Disney+ streaming service.

Traditional television featured half-hour or hour-long shows, and sometimes movies, but the streaming format opens up new ways to tell stories, according to Eric Schrier, the president of Disney’s TV studios business. Episodes of , a cartoon starring a mischievous Australian cattle dog, are only seven minutes in length.

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“Something that’s so exciting about having a streaming platform like Disney+ is there’s not much rigidity to the types of programming that we have to do,” Schrier told attendees at the company’s APAC Content Showcase in Hong Kong this week. “We’re really trying to keep the episodes a lot tighter because I think attention just isn’t there as much.”

Short-form video, whether it’s user-generated clips on TikTok or influencers on YouTube, are capturing a greater slice of consumers’ attention. YouTube already has the largest share of monthly TV viewing, according to Nielsen. Micro mini dramas — which originated from China — is one of the industry’s fastest-growing genres.

, which is produced by BBC Studios and its Australian partners, is Disney’s biggest kids hit of the streaming era. Nearly six years since it first appeared on Disney+, it remains among the most-watched programs on all streaming platforms.

On a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said artificial intelligence may open up new ways for consumers to create short-form content for the service.

AI will let the company “provide users of Disney+ with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user-generated content, mostly short form, from others,” Iger said.

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