Vertical formats, designed for mobile-first content consumption, are beginning to gain traction in the broadcast industry. Several recent announcements support this emerging trend: Disney’s decision to introduce vertical content on its platform in the United States, and NBC Sports’ adoption of an on-device AI solution, developed together with Nippon TV and FOR-A, capable of generating real-time sports streaming in a 9:16 format with automatic cropping and intelligent player tracking, optimised for smartphones. Netflix has now joined this growing list.

Netflix expansion into vertical formats was unveiled during its live Q4 2025 Earnings Interview. Spencer Wong, VP of Finance and Capital Markets, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters and CFO Spence Newman shared some “forward-looking statements” and answered questions from the analyst community.

When the conversation led to the technology area, Peters revealed that the company is “evolving our mobile UI”. Before ending the interview, one last question from the community helped to explore deeper Netflix’s vision of this new format: “We’ve actually been testing vertical video features for some time, about six months or so, and we’ve had a vertical video feed in the mobile experience that’s been available for several months. So that feed is filled with clips of Netflix shows and movies”, answered Peters. “So just as you’ve seen us do with the new TV UI, we’re working on a new mobile UI that will better serve the expansion of our business over the decade to come. We’re going to roll this out later in 2026. […] So don’t worry, we got more vertical video coming for you”.

Additionally, the company unveiled other news for this year, such as the addition of two more live operation centers, one in the UK and the other in Asia, major investment in sales and go-to-market capabilities, among others. However, one of their big priorities, is the new cloud-based TV games: “It’s an exciting launch for us. We’re still in the early stages of this rollout”.

The team also jump into the content are, remarking the new license deal with Sony “ that includes the first of its kind global pay one movie deal”, a new slate of licensed titles from Paramount “which is going to bring a lot of new series and television shows that Netflix has never had around the world”, and the execution of more live events outside the U.S., “including World Baseball Classic in Japan”.

“We’re excited about it. And we’re investing into them because our members are showing a lot of excitement for them”, affirmed the team.

Disney+

In the case of The Walt Disney Company’s streaming service, the announcement was made at the Sixth Annual Global Tech & Data Showcase, during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.

The company revealed that 2026 will be the year they will bring vertical video to its platform, but only for users in the U.S. The experience will evolve as it expands across news and entertainment. Its objective is to deliver a more personalized, dynamic experience that looks forward to reinforcing Disney+ as a must-visit daily destination.

NBC

On the other hand, NBC is enhancing this format for its sport contents. NBC Sports will use viztrick AiDi – the new AI solution developed by Nippon TV – during coveerage of several live events.

AiDi is designed to deliver real-time player tracking, face tagging, object recognition, 2.5D telestration, auto-score graphics, and motion data analytics—without internet connectivity. Automatic 9:16 cropping with auto-tracking using intuitive operation looks forward to enabling incremental streaming business for mobile phones.