Disney has ordered 20 original episodes from Dhar Mann Studios, bringing one of digital video’s largest creator-led production operations into its content ecosystem. The deal gives Disney access to a production model built around frequent releases, rapid audience feedback, and lower development friction as Disney+ expands its use of short-form and creator programming.
Verts Gives Disney Somewhere to Put Faster-Moving Programming
Disney launched Verts on Disney+ in March with a swipeable feed built largely from scenes and moments pulled from its existing catalog. Subscribers can move through short clips, add titles to a Watchlist, or jump directly into playback, turning short-form video into a discovery layer for longer-form programming.
Disney has since widened the supply feeding that experience. Its August agreement with TikTok will bring curated fan-made videos featuring Disney properties into Verts, with participating creators able to distribute the same content on TikTok.
The Dhar Mann order adds commissioned creator programming to Disney’s broader content strategy, although Disney hasn’t disclosed whether the episodes will appear in Verts or whether they’ll use a vertical format.
The expansion fits Disney’s effort to make Disney+ the digital center of its consumer relationship. Hulu integration, sports, personalization, commerce, and short-form video give the service more jobs beyond hosting movies and series. Creator programming adds inventory that can operate on a faster release cycle than Disney’s traditional premium originals.
Commissioned creator content could also expand the role of Verts beyond catalog discovery. Fresh programming produced specifically for frequent consumption would give Disney inventory that doesn’t depend on repackaging library scenes or importing fan-created videos.
Dhar Mann Gives Disney a Production System Built for Volume
Dhar Mann Studios reaches roughly 170 million followers globally, while its programming generates nearly 300 million weekly views across major social services. Disney is gaining access to a creator with enormous reach and an integrated production operation designed around frequent digital distribution.
The studio develops, shoots, edits, distributes, and measures scripted programming in-house. Multiple production crews operate simultaneously, while audience response can feed back into creative decisions quickly enough to change projects already moving through the pipeline.
That operating model is increasingly attracting traditional media companies. Earlier this year, Dhar Mann Studios struck a 40-title vertical programming agreement with Fox Entertainment and Holywater, with the initial programming scheduled for MyDrama and Fox Entertainment Global handling subsequent worldwide distribution. Mann retained ownership and creative independence.
Disney can use the same production capability as another programming lane. Faster development creates more opportunities to test formats, talent, characters, and audience response without committing every concept to the cost structure and timeline of a conventional premium Disney+ original.
Mann’s audience also provides distribution beyond Disney+. Creator audiences increasingly function as distribution channels with built-in demand, allowing the same operation to produce programming, promote it, measure response, and redirect viewers across services.
Creator Programming Can Increase Frequency Between Premium Releases
Disney+ still relies on franchises, movies, series, and live programming to drive acquisition, retention, and cultural attention. Those releases operate on schedules that leave long stretches between major audience events.
Creator programming gives Disney another supply curve. A steady flow of lower-cost, faster-turn originals can create additional app opens, generate more viewing signals, and give Disney more opportunities to route subscribers toward premium programming.
Short-form can serve several functions inside the same product. Catalog clips reduce discovery friction, fan-created videos extend participation around Disney IP, and commissioned creator programming can supply fresh entertainment between larger releases. If Disney places Dhar Mann programming inside Verts, the company would also gain a source of original inventory that it can schedule independently of TikTok submissions and library material.
Keeping those behaviors inside Disney+ gives Disney control over what happens after discovery. A viewer moving from a short video into a movie, series, sports event, or other Disney experience remains inside an environment where Disney controls the subscription relationship, viewing data, advertising inventory, merchandising opportunities, and the next recommendation.
Disney’s Processes Will Determine Whether It Keeps the Speed It Bought
Disney hasn’t disclosed what the 20 Dhar Mann episodes will cover, whether they’ll use a vertical format, or where they’ll appear.
Placement will determine how aggressively Disney intends to integrate creator programming into its core streaming product. A Verts-focused order would give the feed a dedicated source of commissioned programming. Distribution elsewhere on Disney+ would place a creator studio alongside more conventional production suppliers.
The larger operational question sits upstream of distribution. Dhar Mann Studios derives part of its advantage from the speed at which it develops programming and incorporates audience response. Disney operates with more layers of brand oversight, standards, approvals, and coordination across a global entertainment company.
Adding enough process to slow Mann’s production cycle would reduce the economic advantage Disney is buying. Preserving more of the creator studio’s operating model would give Disney a programming pipeline with development economics and feedback loops that look materially different from its premium originals business.
The 20-episode order therefore gives Disney a controlled way to determine how much creator-speed production can survive inside its own system before the company has to decide how broadly to use it.
The Streaming Wars Take
Disney can now compare creator-produced programming against conventional development using its own audience data. Cost per episode, production time, completion, repeat viewing, downstream catalog consumption, and the ability to move viewers from social distribution into Disney+ can all determine whether creator programming deserves more capital.
A successful model would give Disney another place to validate talent and concepts before committing premium-original budgets. Dhar Mann Studios already tests storytelling against a large external audience at a pace traditional development rarely matches. Bringing some of that feedback loop inside Disney+ could give Disney earlier evidence about what earns repeat attention and where larger investments make sense.
Disney also gains greater control over the endpoint of creator-driven discovery. YouTube and TikTok can continue supplying reach, while Disney+ captures more of the resulting viewing behavior, customer data, advertising opportunity, and movement into the rest of Disney’s catalog.
The constraint is Disney’s own operating system. Dhar Mann Studios became valuable by producing quickly, measuring directly, and adjusting without traditional development cycles. The economics deteriorate if Disney imports the creator while replacing that production model with studio-speed approvals. Preserving the operating advantage would give Disney+ a genuinely different programming tier rather than another supplier feeding the same development machine.
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