by Richie Calabro

Courtesy: Disney/ABC

Disney/ABC Television Group

500 South Buena Visita Street

Burbank, California 91521

Anne Sweeney – President
Courtesy: Disney/ABC

If you’re a TV watcher, a fan of sports, entertainment or movies, it is highly likely that at one point you have stumbled upon content that has been produced by Disney/ABC. The Disney/ABC Television group operates all kinds of entertainment platforms such as ESPN, ABC News, Lifetime, The History Channel and Disney’s wide network of films just to name a few. This vast encompassing company employees nearly 150,000 in the United States and around the world, can be seen in 97 million homes and has yearly revenue of in the tens of billions.[1]

Programming

2013 has been a banner year so far for the ABC/Television group. There has been a lot of exciting changes going on within the company in terms of programming, digital innovation and strategic partnership. One of those partnerships, a crossover plan between Marvel Comics and Disney/ABC, looks to be a revolutionary experiment for the TV industry. [2]

Courtesy: Hollywood Reporter

Under the proposed plan announced at the end of March, a wide range of the network’s scheduled television programming would be affected by bringing them into the Marvel world through a series of crossover events with the upcoming Avengers related show S.H.I.E.L.D.

“With each major story line other stories in ongoing books are brought in, featuring characters that might not otherwise be seen in the main event,” said Joss Whedon, director of the movie The Avengers. [3] Other shows that are possibly in the mix are Once Upon A Time, Scandal, Red Widow and Rookie Blue. The plan is sure to be an interesting event to watch and if successful, will look to be duplicated by other networks.

Courtesy: Politico

Disney/ABC and Univision

Strategic partnership has been a theme so far this spring for Disney/ABC. In early February, ABC and Univision announced a fresh and exciting news and lifestyle network for U.S. Hispanics. The new network, called Fusion, is set to launch in the fall of 2013. [4] The new network will bring together the powerful journalistic and reporting assets of ABC News and Univision, creating a unified place for U.S. Hispanics to go for news surrounding their world and culture. “Our collaboration will bring unmatched reporting capabilities and understanding of issues and entertainment that resonate with the Hispanic community,”says Anne Sweeney, President of Disney/ABC. [5]

Courtesy: Mediabistro

Fusion will be able to reach millions of Hispanic and American viewers, already having 5 of the nations largest cable distributors on board to broadcast the content. The network will focus mainly on issues relevant to U.S. Hispanics like the economy, health, entertainment and immigration. [6]

Good Morning America At The Top

For years NBC’s “The Today Show” had been at the top of the morning show network ratings. However, this past February, ABC’s Good Morning America won the first quarter ratings for the first time since the mid-1990s. [7] GMA’s rise in popularity is due in part to the heart wrenching story of anchor Robin Roberts’ battle with a rare blood disease and the public relations nightmare that was Matt Lauer and Anne Curry.

Courtesy: TV Listings

GMA topped the morning show wars for the first quarter of 2013 in total viewers. They won the critical 25-54 demographic over the Today show, averaging an audience of 5.389 million. It was the first time the top-rated morning show has won the quarter in total viewers since 1994. GMA also won for the second quarter in a row in the 25-54 demo, first time since the second and third quarters of 1994. [8] It is thought that Robin Roberts’ illness has helped GMA jump NBC. The disease, myelodysplastic syndrome, causes the body to produce fewer red blood cells and forced Roberts to have a bone marrow transplant that came from her sister. Below is a clip of Robin Roberts’ journey.

Digital Innovation

Along with the many programming feats Disney/ABC has achieved this spring, there has been a new wave of digital innovation that has swept across the company. Disney/ABC announced in the middle of March plans to develop a live streaming TV app that can be groundbreaking in an industry where smart phones and tablets are becoming more prevalent and a danger to TV audiences. [9] The company has plans to continue work on a new live streaming television app for its broadcast network ABC that will make the platform’s content available to cable and satellite subscribers.

Courtesy: Disney/ABC

Although ABC is a free over-the-air public network, the streaming capabilities would only be available to cable and satellite subscribers so that Disney would not upset providers. [10]

Disney/ABC is no stranger to making groundbreaking digital application moves. The launch of the “Watch ESPN” app has been a phenomenal success for the company. It has expanded viewership on all platforms making content more accessible on the go.

This comes at a monumental time for digital innovation at Disney/ABC. Recently it was announced that the Disney/ABC app released several years ago ahead of the first iPad, has reached 10 million downloads. [11] With the reaching of this mark, the app has become one of the most successfully downloaded applications of all time.

ABC.com Comedy Shorts

With the success of recent comedy shorts in the past and the desire to boost exposure online, Disney/ABC has recently announced plans to add more digital elements to its network. [12]

Courtesy: Disney/ABC

In an effort to expand offerings online, the network will debut pop culture and show related videos under its ABC.comedy platform. The first will be Taye Diggs Destroys Hip Hop and Dancing With the Stars Judge Bruno Tonioli’s Writer’s Room.

“Humor is a hallmark of the ABC Network, so it makes sense that we infuse our digital video content with as much comedy as possible,” said Chris Thomes, Vice President of Disney/ABC Television Group’s Digital Media Studio. [13]

The ABC comedy series began in fall 2011 with video recaps for the network’s Wednesday comedies and grew the following year to include comedic rundowns of the network’s dramas. The success of Modern Family’s Halloween short has inspired the push for new content on this platform.