Vision - January/February 2009 - (Page 12) visionary CE’s Cutting EdgE LEadErs ] • [ by Cindy LoffLEr stEvEns Disney-ABC’s Anne Sweeney C learly the union of consumer electronics devices and broadband content will continue to gather speed in 2009. For content providers, streaming content to a DTV solves the previous challenge for broadband video services— the requirement to watch content on a PC. As the industry provides a more seamless video-on-demand (VOD) experience on both DTVs and mobile devices, consumption of video and other broadband services will increase. For CE makers, Web connectivity allows them to differentiate on content and services. It also opens the door to recurring streams of revenue, either by profit sharing with the content delivery services or via ad-support content. During the last several years, IP-delivered video services from companies like Google, Amazon, and ABC, as well as newer entrants like Joost, are aggressively beginning to bring content to consumers via the Internet to the PC or via IP to the DTV set or to portable devices. And leading the content charge is Anne Sweeney, the co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney-ABC Television Group. She is at the forefront of a multi-billion dollar global industry—television. She took on ABC when it was struggling in the ratings; today it is the market leader, thanks in part to hits like Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty. Since 2004, Sweeney has been responsible for The Walt Disney Company’s entertainment and news television properties globally. She oversaw the groundbreaking deal to offer both broadcast and cable shows for download on Apple’s iPods and is credited with the network’s tween revolution, which boosted programs like Hannah Montana and High School Musical into multibilliondollar international franchises and brought a host of teen stars to the Disney Channel. ABC series’, mostly produced by ABC Studios, are distributed to more than 200 territories across the globe. During her tenure, ABC’s primetime audience has grown significantly and ABC Studios has expanded its creative product output from 11 series in 2004 to more than 20 across broadcast and cable television. Consistently ranked as basic cable’s No. 1 network in primetime among kids 6–11 and tweens 9–14, Disney Channel has continued to develop branded programming and ABC Family continues to grow its audience with programming like “The Secret Life of the American Teen”. From 2000 to 2004, Sweeney served as president of ABC Cable Networks Group and Disney Channels Worldwide and more than quintupled its subscriber base with a mix of original series and movies and acquired programming. Her career began at 19 when she was hired as an ABC page. After earning a master’s degree in education from Harvard, she joined Nickelodeon in 1981 and spent 12 years at the children’s network. In 1993, Rupert Murdoch chose her to launch FX. It became the largest basic cable launch in history, in terms of the number of homes initially reached. She took over the Disney Channel in 1996 as president. Sweeney has been named the “Most Powerful Woman in Entertainment” by The Hollywood Reporter, one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” by Fortune and one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes in addition to numerous other honors. Thanks to Sweeney, ABC can be watched online at ABC.com, its shows are available on Apple video iPods and, in the latest deal, on video Sprint phones. Sweeney’s decision to embrace digital technology has had a huge impact: since launching the free-episode player in September 2006, more than 450 million episodes of ABC programs have been viewed online. Disney has stayed competitive in the rapidly changing world of entertainment because Sweeney has embraced new media. Episodes of ABC shows—can be paused, rewound and fast-forwarded—but still contain commercial breaks that viewers can’t skip to appeal to advertisers. It was the first time a TV company offered major shows free online without restriction. Now everyone else is following her example.. Sweeney now is steering Disney through the challenges of rolling out broadband and wireless technologies that dramatically will change how people watch TV and how TV companies collect revenue. Her decisions will help shape the TV industry as a whole. Viewers will access content from ABC News on mobile phones, video-enabled handheld devices and computers. Sweeney’s team recently brokered a deal with Verizon Communications to deliver content from ABC’s stable of soaps on the Internet. Disney Channel, meanwhile, is experimenting with VOD offerings. To learn more about Sweeney’s plans to work closely with the consumer electronics industry, don’t miss her Industry Insider’s Keynote at the International CES in Las Vegas on January 8. www.ce.org 12 January/February 2009 http://www.ABC.com http://www.ce.org
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