More ways to watch leads to watching more, says Disney
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday April 1, 2011
FAR from eating up its audiences, Disney says the growth in alternative ways of watching its shows has lifted the amount of time people are spending in front of the box.US audiences are spending half an hour more watching television than two years ago, despite the proliferation of mobile devices, services such as iTunes and online TV portals like Hulu, said Ben Pyne, the global president of Disney's distribution arm, Disney Media Networks."The conventional wisdom is that if you made more content available on multiple platforms then you'd cannibalise the TV ratings," he said during a visit to Sydney this week. "Our research shows that more people are watching television on TVs than they were several years ago."He cited Nielsen data as proof: the amount of traditional TV Americans were watching each month had increased 3 per cent to 158.4 hours in the first quarter of last year over the same period in 2009.Recent research by Disney's sports channel ESPN found that less than 1 per cent of its customers were ditching pay TV because of alternatives, many of which were free or did not require a subscription.Broadcasters should embrace technology rather than be fearful of it. "I think a lot of technology, whether it's a DVR or VOD [video on demand], allows you do determine what you want to watch versus what the programmer is scheduling."When Disney started premiering shows on its subscription video-on-demand service it found that younger viewers would watch the show on the pay channel first and then tell their friends. It helped build the audience rather than deplete it.Disney was one of the first broadcasters to explore alternatives. Its US TV network ABC was the first in the US to release movies on iTunes in 2005. ABC is also a backer of the ad-funded Hulu.Mr Pyne said the proportion of viewing on those platforms was still in single digits.But he said: "What this has proven to us is that people really want to watch programs, and if they can't then they lose interest in a show."
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald
