Anne Sweeney

April 2008

Anne Sweeney is responsible for a media group that caters to all viewers, from the youngest, with Playhouse Disney and Disney Channel, up to fans of ABC Family and the ABC Network. Her priority is to find the right business models to provide content on whatever platform and device consumers want.

WS: What kind of creative environment do you want Disney-ABC to offer talent?

SWEENEY: I want an environment where people feel a great sense of empowerment. I want a culture built on respect for one another, respect for the work that we do and the people we work with. Probably most important to me is that we have a culture that values experimentation.

WS: What is the best way to nurture the talent?

SWEENEY: You have to start by hiring the best, the most talented people, and then you give them very clear goals, and I do everything in my power to create an atmosphere and a culture that helps them achieve that.

WS: Looking at the Disney channels or any other part of the company, what kind of additional international growth are you aiming for?

SWEENEY: International growth is huge for us. It really is where the future of our business lies. Disney Channel’s penetration in the U.S. is very high, and Disney Channel does serve as a daily touchstone for people with the Disney brand. And the more we expand that reach into more homes and more markets around the world, it becomes that much more important for the entire Walt Disney company. The thing to remember is, distribution is one side of this. The other side of this is expanding creatively, whether it’s local productions of hits like Hannah Montana that we’re doing in Japan and Korea, or locally produced content like Quelli dell’Intervallo, which originated in Italy and is being exported around the world. Probably one of my new favorite pieces is a clip that Rich Ross [the president of Disney Channels Worldwide] sent me from India of kids doing some of the High School Musical songs. It will knock you out of your chair. This is not a group of kids doing exactly the number as it’s done in High School Musical. These are kids who have embraced it, made it their own, and you feel like this music was born in India. It’s very exciting.

WS: That must be very satisfying for you and for all of the team at Disney Channel.

SWEENEY: It is. It was so exciting to see it and I sent it to Bob Iger [the president and CEO of The Walt Disney Company] and he showed it at our annual retreat as an example of a great piece that really spoke to all of the goals of The Walt Disney Company: creating great [content], expanding internationally through creative and distribution, and leveraging technology.

WS: And what about the Hannah Montana 3-D movie? I saw it with my daughter and it blew me away.

SWEENEY: It’s amazing. I couldn’t get over it. When I heard, “Hannah Montana concert movie in 3-D,” I thought, Oh, this will be interesting. Then, I was really knocked out when I saw it. She is an incredible performer. She owns that stage. You just feel it from minute one.

WS: There are a lot of bad role models out there for tweens. I asked my daughter and her friends why they like Hannah and they said, “because she’s real.”

SWEENEY: I think that’s [key to] the success of Disney Channel, because the live-action strategy is what really put it on the map. The fact that they could create series like Lizzie McGuire or Hannah Montana or That’s So Raven. These shows resonate with kids because they see themselves.

WS: Disney-ABC was one of the first major media companies to embrace the multiplatform strategy. Because technology is advancing so rapidly, what governs your decisions to try a new platform or device?

SWEENEY: When we did the iTunes deal [making selected episodes of series available for sale on Apple’s iTunes Store] we were able to craft criteria for looking at new-media opportunities. The criteria really became very clear guiding principles for us when it came to partnering with other platforms. I’ll step you through some of them. For example, we want partners whose brands are compatible with ours, and certainly Apple fit the bill with that. We want to partner with companies that deliver a great consumer experience. We want to partner with companies that base their growth on delivering consumer value. We want partners that will value and protect our content as much as we do—this is obviously very important to us in a world of piracy. We really want partners who believe in their own products and services enough to market them very aggressively instead of just relying on our content to drive their sales.

WS: And iTunes is still a great model for you, isn’t it?

SWEENEY: It is. iTunes has worked out beautifully across the company for the ABC product, Disney Channel product and ABC Family product.

WS: There are many places to access content online, but the beauty about iTunes is that you can really bring it with you.

SWEENEY: You do. And the beauty of abc.com—have you been on our free-episode broadband player?

WS: Oh, yes. I didn’t know Brothers and Sisters had a new episode last Sunday.

SWEENEY: There you go!

WS: And I found it on the broadband player!

SWEENEY: We’re there to let you catch up! [Laughs] That’s our job. It’s a great example of how busy people’s lives are. Last year we were talking with our research group, and realized that the fan of a television show only sees on average eight episodes during the course of the season. Life gets busy. You don’t TiVo it. You don’t tape it. You think it will be on again when you’re home. You miss it. So, built into the design of the free-episodes player is [the concept of] giving people a chance to catch up.

WS: Which is so valuable nowadays.

SWEENEY: It is, because it reaffirms your love of that show, your relationship with that show, and your relationship with our brand.

WS: What have you learned from Nielsen’s C3 rating system that measures ratings for a show the day it airs and for the three days of DVR viewing following the live airing?

SWEENEY: It’s been fascinating. In DVR homes we actually see huge boosts for our biggest shows based on the new C3 metric. And the C3 ratings are giving advertisers for the first time a measure of the commercials [being viewed], and that’s obviously what we sold [our advertising time] against this year.

WS: Speaking of advertisers, how is the relationship evolving between advertisers and broadcast or cable networks? Disney-ABC has both. So what do advertisers look for when they come to you?

SWEENEY: Across the board, in both the broadcast and cable sides of our business, I feel we are developing an even closer relationship because of all the technology that we’re confronted with right now. Because as viewers demand more control and more flexibility over where, when and how they view content, we play a very important role in helping advertisers and agencies figure out how to get their messages to their target audience on whichever platform they choose to use. And we can take advantage of new technology to offer advertisers better data on performance, better targeting, more interactivity. You’ve seen on our [broadband] player the interactive ads. It is a wonderful opportunity and, again, it is one that we look at in partnership with our advertisers.

WS: And Disney-ABC cuts across all demos, and if you take ESPN into consideration, advertisers must be very happy about getting those supposedly elusive male viewers.

SWEENEY: Yes. It’s a wonderful company in that regard, because the portfolio we have in the television business is broad and diverse and multigenerational. We do cover every demographic and just about every interest.

WS: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?

SWEENEY: To continue to explore the opportunities that this digital world presents us with. That goes hand in hand with staying as close to our viewers and our consumers as we can and making sure that we’re constantly aware of how media is being used in their lives, how technology is being used in their lives, what’s concerning them—everything from the election to the recession—and making sure that we’re deploying all of our assets to give them either the information or the entertainment that they need.

WS: Did you have mentors or role models during your career?

SWEENEY: I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had mentors—never formal mentors, but certainly wonderful role models at every stage of my career. I’ve learned something different from everyone I worked for and worked with.

WS: Do you encourage your staff to help the younger employees?

SWEENEY: Yes. Absolutely. We have a formal mentoring program at ABC, which is just a great gift to employees, but I encourage informal mentoring across the board. It works both ways. I love the mentoring program because I’ve always been given these wonderfully smart people to meet with, but I find that I get back as much as I give.