Disney and TikTok strike short form content deal

The agreement spans Disney films and series as well as the company’s high-profile brands including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and Toy Story. 

The deal will see TikTok offer its creators access to hundreds of assets from Disney’s library of films and series. 

The clips will be shared on both TikTok and Disney+’s new short video platform Verts. 

Disney said the agreement, which will pilot in the US in the coming months, is intended to roll out into other international markets afterwards.  

News of the deal follows the collapse of a $1bn agreement between Disney and OpenAI, which would have let people use its characters in AI-generated videos. 

TikTok said its platform saw an average of 6.5 million posts relating to film and TV per day last year. 

“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.” 

“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.” 

Disney’s recently sold its 50% interest in A+E Global Media to Hearst for approximately US$1.2bn in cash. Discover more here.