Disney Channel shows take off online, help ratings

from tv week

Disney's Digital Tryouts
Company Employs Content Assets to Test New-Media Strategies
By Daisy Whitney

Ian J. Ball...

I find it interesting that none of these articles mention that The N
made it's "Degrassi:YNG" episodes available online before pretty much
anyone else, and their offerings are *commercial-free* I'm pretty sure.

In fact, Disney is already amassing data to bolster that point. During
the weekend immediately after Disneychannel.com introduced full-length
ad-supported shows, the Web site generated more than 11.4 million
streams for Disney Channel shows, 3.7 million unique visitors and 78.7
million page views. That's about the same number of streams ABC.com
generated in the first month of offering online episodes of its shows,
but the Disney Channel site includes more programs and is targeting a
younger demo more likely to be comfortable watching TV online.

What's more, Disney Channel contends the availability of online
episodes of its show "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" helped drive the
cable network's ratings. On June 2 the network premiered an episode on
the Web site in the afternoon prior to the evening linear debut. That
episode generated more than 1.2 million streams on the Web site that
day and averaged 4.3 million viewers on the cable network. That made
it the top-ranked basic cable show for kids 6 to 11 that day, Disney
said.

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