Disney looks to OTT for young
September 18, 2014
Disney is turning to OTT to reach 20 to 30 year-olds as pay-TV growth slackens, Ben Pyne, president of global distribution at Disney Media Networks told the CTAM EuroSummit .
“In the United States, we roughly have 100 million multi-channel households and there’s been tremendous growth in households. But…. there’s only so many households in the United States and we have seen growth start to taper,” said Pyne.
“We saw a trend which is that people from the ages of 20 to 30, [are]…. not signing up and this is throughout the industry.” Pyne stresses that Disney still sees cord cutting to be “minimal” but the company is closely monitoring the situation, doing studies every six months. Cord shaving was “more prevalent” than cutting, he said.
Disney’s recent Dish deal will allow the pay TV operator to air linear and video-on-demand content from the ABC-owned broadcast stations, ABC Family, Disney Channel, ESPN and ESPN2, as part of a forthcoming Iinternet delivered, IP-based multichannel offering. Pyne said these Disney channels, bundled with another 10 or 15 services, will be offered OTT by Dish for a price point of US$30 (€23) to US$40 as opposed to US$80 for the full pay TV service.