Ben Pyne

This interview appeared in the April 2009 MIPTV edition of World Screen.

With a huge output of product ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to hit network series, tween megahit franchises and charming preschool animation, Ben Pyne, the president of global distribution at Disney-ABC Worldwide Television and Disney Media Networks, has a wide variety of programming to fill broadcasters’ many needs. He’s also well aware that consumers want content on a variety of devices and is pursuing deals on numerous new-media platforms.

WS: What are the categories of Disney product that are selling well right now?
PYNE: We have been very fortunate to have some great hits. There is clearly strong interest around Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Lost and Legend of the Seeker in several territories. Based on what Disney Channel has done with their properties, there is very strong interest in shows like Hannah Montana. And series created for ABC Family in the U.S., like Kyle XY, Greek and The Secret Life of the American Teenager, have garnered a lot of interest around the world.

Thankfully, we’ve been able to bring about some big franchises like Lost, High School Musical, Camp Rock and Desperate Housewives, which have a known brand that drives interest in the market and also drives viewership for broadcasters.

WS: Are you are looking to expand the reach of Disney product in new territories?
PYNE: From a global perspective, Russia, India and China continue to be of interest and provide growth for our product, but some of the other developing markets, like Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, Greece and the Middle East, are all markets where in some cases we have a very small presence that we’d like to grow, and in other places we don’t have much presence at all. There is opportunity for our product, and over the last six months or so we’ve done a number of deals in Romania, Serbia and Greece.

WS: How do you balance filling the programming needs of Disney Channel against selling to third-party broadcasters who are eager to have High School Musical or Hannah Montana?
PYNE: We work very hard because it’s a real strength that we bring to our company, but also to the market. It’s something we call the Disney difference. The way we are able to window product so that it reinforces the brand but also helps support broadcasters like ProSieben or the BBC is that we sit down with the Disney Channel teams and try to understand what their strategy is, what we can do to reinforce it and ultimately provide additional revenue.

And the consistency of the promotional messages and marketing materials reinforces the Disney Channel brand. One of the great successes, and I credit the team around the world, is that when Camp Rock premiered last fall on Disney Channels, within a period of time, it also had premiered on 70-plus free-to-air broadcasters. And the amount of buzz that creates for a movie like that actually helps turn it into a franchise, which has a lot of other benefits—so it becomes bigger than life.

WS: Are you seeing the VOD and SVOD businesses picking up momentum in various territories?
PYNE: We do. We have more than 50 international new-media partnerships for all the stakeholders we represent: ABC, Disney Channel, ABC News, and for the studio movies. We have been pretty aggressive in this area. I actually did one of the first VOD deals in the U.S. for Disney Channel in 2003 with Cablevision. We continue to look at how we can window product to reach consumers in a different way, but also to create another revenue stream for the platforms and us.

What we have done with Lost and TF1’s online player in France is, 24 hours after the U.S. broadcast of an episode, on a SVOD basis, viewers can see that episode in France—in English with French subtitles. People will pay for that, and we were able to create another window. If we are smart, we can continue to find ways to create value all the way around—create new windows—and not cannibalize in any way the broadcast transmission.