New Disney Show Will Air On Tablets First, Then TV
What’s the Latest Development?
In yet another sign of the shift from traditional television to mobile technology, Disney executives have announced that the first nine episodes of their new series “Sheriff Callie’s Wild West” will only be available online via a Web site and the Watch Disney Junior mobile app starting next month. The series will then debut on the Disney Junior and Disney Channel TV networks early next year. Disney Junior Worldwide executive vice-president Nancy Kanter says, “This is an entirely new approach for us. We have been amazed at how quickly kids have embraced this new technology. We’re talking billions of minutes spent watching.”
What’s the Big Idea?
Television executives throughout the industry continue to pay close attention to how viewers of all ages use mobile technology. After company research revealed that more than half of homes with children also contain a tablet, Disney redesigned its Disney Junior site to reflect a “tablet first” sensibility to further capture its target audience of kids ages 2-7. Disney-ABC Television Group executive Albert Cheng says that ever since the Watch Disney Junior app debuted in mid-2012, they’ve gotten “a lot of e-mails from dads saying, ‘Thanks for giving me back my TV.'”
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