Disney and YouTube Partnership

Today Walt Disney Co. announced a new partnership with YouTube, to release original video series produced by Disney for YouTube.com, as well as Disney.com. With rapidly declining sales and web traffic, Disney knew it had to look to other outlets to reach its consumers. With more than 30 billion views a day, YouTube is a powerhouse of online video content and an extraordinarily viable platform for advertisers. Co-President of Disney Interactive told the New York Times “It’s imperative to go where our audience is,” He added that the idea is to ‘bring Disney’s legacy of storytelling to a new generation of families and Disney enthusiasts on the platforms they prefer.'” The first web series will be based on Disney’s popular iPad/iPhone app “Where’s My Water?” with Swampy the alligator – click here to see.

Clearly the viewers are on YouTube, but is this the right medium for the wholesome Disney brand and will parents be apt to allow their children to spend long periods of time viewing video content on YouTube? According to CommenSenseMedia.org 42% of parents say language is an issue they are concerned about on YouTube’s site, while 38% say they are worried about sexual content that children may be exposed to. Their concerns are valid given the broad range of user generated content available on the site however YouTube has taken measures to address parents concerns by offering an opt-in Safety Mode feature to filter out the content you do not want children to view. Ultimately it is up to the parents to monitor the content their children view online.

YouTube hopes to use this project as a catalyst for more original content channels, for example comedians, sports and other celebrity entertainers. “The investments in the channels reflect Google’s belief that the Internet is the third phase of the television business, after network TV (with a few channels) and cable TV (with hundreds).” No surprise there! So how will competitors like Hulu respond, I guess we’ll have to stay tuned to find out.