It would appear that Disney plans to massively upgrade its Disney+ app beginning next year with the end result being a “comprehensive membership ecosystem” that incorporates all things Disney.
What You Need to Know
- Disney plans to evolve Disney+ into a massive membership platform that connects streaming with perks, experiences, and more.
- The change builds on the ‘Disney Prime‘ concept first reported in 2022.
- Disney’s move reflects a wider industry trend to improve retention, with services like Peacock launching their own membership programs.
Last year, Disney launched Disney+ Perks to reward subscribers with benefits including discounts on third-party products and services, entries into sweepstakes, access to exclusive experiences, and more.
While Disney+ Perks is alive and well, it looks like this is only a taster of what the company has planned.
As part of the company’s Q3 FY26 earnings release today, Disney confirmed its goal is to turn the Disney+ service and app into a one-stop Disney membership service and platform.
“Long-term, we aim to evolve Disney+ into a comprehensive membership ecosystem. By integrating high-value, always-on benefits with our storytelling, we can reach more fans, deepen engagement, and increase subscriber retention,” Disney explained.
According to Disney, the first building blocks of this app evolution will begin to be introduced in Spring 2027.
‘Disney Prime’ Begins to Take Shape
Back in 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported how Disney was exploring a membership program that would look to encourage customers to spend more on streaming, theme parks, resorts, merchandise.
Internally referred to as ‘Disney Prime‘ by some executives, the idea was to create something similar to Amazon Prime, where a subscription goes well beyond, in Amazon’s case, free shipping.
With the launch of Disney+ Perks in 2025, the company took those first steps by bringing non-streaming discounts and experiences into the Disney+ app.
Based on the comments from Disney today, Disney+ users can expect the app to become far more like that original Disney Prime idea than the ‘Disney+ with some additional perks‘ experience that’s currently in effect.
While the expectation here isn’t so much that the streaming content will vary in the future, the suggestion is the Disney+ app will soon become much more of a centerpiece for the entire Disney experience.
Basically, the Disney+ streaming service might technically become a smaller part of a much larger Disney+ app experience.
Memberships the New Solution to the Retention Problem
From today’s announcement it is clear that Disney sees a lot of room for growth in utilizing the Disney+ app and service as a way to improve spending across all of its products and services.
However, the announcement also highlights how expanding its existing Perks program into a fully-fledged membership program can be a good way to retain existing subscribers, and especially at a time when streaming dollars are being more cautiously spent.
Disney does not appear to be alone in this thinking either. As first reported by Streaming Better, Peacock quietly launched its own ‘Peacock Membership‘ program earlier this week.
While currently not widely available, nor as varied as what Disney seems to have planned, the new Peacock Membership program is designed to provide subscribers with everything from everyday perks and special discounts to ‘epic experiences.’
Peacock’s membership program also looks tailor-made to improve subscriber retention. Subscribers who remain subscribed to the streaming service for longer will be rewarded with better membership benefits.
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