Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro’s dream of building a streaming “super app” is coming into focus, but big questions remain about whether it can juice revenue and engagement.
“Disney+ will continue to evolve, bringing together games, merchandise, and other experiences, while offering increased personalization, exclusivity, and benefits for subscribers,” D’Amaro told employees in a post-earnings memo last week, first reported on by Business Insider.
The supercharged Disney+ would “deepen engagement, improve the value proposition, lower churn, and — most importantly — increase lifetime fan value,” D’Amaro said to staffers. The memo said these updates could come starting next spring.
Some media analysts are skeptical that fans are eager to play games or buy merch in between streaming shows and movies.
“When you have a ‘super app,’ you wind up with a whole lot of mediocrity,” said Alan Wolk, a media industry analyst at TVREV.
Folding games and shopping into Disney+ could create a confusing and annoying experience, Wolk said.
However, if executed properly, a more comprehensive Disney+ app could drive higher revenue while growing engagement and loyalty.
Hernan Lopez, founder of the media consulting firm Owl & Co., said that upselling experiences through Disney+ would help D’Amaro’s company make more money from its most passionate fans.
“The potential revenue of a single day of a theme park visit can be higher than a year’s worth of a Disney+ subscription,” Lopez said.
Selling tickets to parks and cruises is enticing for Disney since its Experiences business drives the bulk of its profits. However, a “meaningful uptick” in sales of park tickets or merch sounds “aspirational,” said John Conca, a media analyst at research firm Third Bridge.
“Any benefits from having a ‘super app’ are incremental rather than transformational,” Conca said.
D’Amaro needs Disney’s streaming business to be transformative to help jump-start the company’s stagnant stock. Disney shares are down 8% in the past 12 months, and are up 10% in the last 10 years, while the S&P 500 has more than tripled.
Building a ‘showcase for the entire Disney universe’
Disney has been looking for ways to jumpstart viewership on its namesake streamer. Disney+ is absorbing Hulu’s content and features and added a short-form video feed earlier this year. Soon, Disney+ will add a curated feed of Disney-themed TikToks.
Disney’s streamers had a 4.9% viewership share on US TVs in May, up slightly from 4.7% at the end of 2025, according to Nielsen. YouTube has grown its share from 12.7% to 13.8% in that same span, as consumers embrace free services.
Disney is “exploring a free product for consumers,” D’Amaro said last week.
For Disney+ to meaningfully grow engagement, it “should be far more than a streaming service,” said Paolo Pescatore, a media analyst at PP Foresight.
“Disney+ should be the masterpiece and showcase for the entire Disney universe,” Pescatore said, adding that it should expand its offering from movies, TV, and sports to games, creator content, merch, and tickets to parks and cruises.
Adding e-commerce features to Disney+ can help the Mouse House better understand its fans, including what they like to interact with and buy, Pescatore said.
While a well-executed super app could help Disney make more money from its fans, Forrester analyst Mike Proulx said Disney must avoid turning its beloved streamer into “a digital shopping mall.”
“Disney is chasing engagement, frequency, and ad inventory, but there’s a risk to its customer experience if Disney+ becomes too cluttered,” Proulx said.
Games could drive engagement, but may not be ‘transformational’
Interactive content like games could also help Disney+ grow revenue by keeping fans from getting bored and canceling, Lopez said.
“Services need to give people more reasons to open them regularly, rather than simply turning up when a major film or series lands,” Pescatore said.
Movies and TV shows are expensive to produce, so Disney+ could use cheaper ways to keep fans engaged between seasons of “Dancing with the Stars” and after hits like “The Bear” end.
“Disney is hoping to lower churn by filling those gaps with more reasons to engage,” Proulx said.
That could be an uphill battle, though. Games don’t seem to be moving the needle much for Netflix, even after years of investment.
“Netflix is proof that it will take significant time before that becomes any sort of engagement driver,” Conca said.
Read the full article here
