Interview: Disney’s Anne Sweeney

PREMIUM: Anne Sweeney, who announced her decision to step down as co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group as of January 2015, recently spoke with World Screen about the strength of the Disney portfolio of brands.

WS: How are ABC Studios and Signature approaching the diverse U.S. television landscape that includes both broadcast and cable?
SWEENEY: We launched Signature in January of last year and it is quickly becoming a very prolific producer of scripted TV for cable networks and emerging digital platforms. This unit actually looks for straight-to-series orders that are currently targeted to the ABC summer launch. It also gives us what I think is a really unique opportunity for our ABC Studios producers and writers to develop projects at a wide variety of price points, off cycle and year round. So they are not held to the traditional process where scripts come in in November, pilot pick ups are in January/ February, pilots are produced from that point on, are screened in April and scheduled in May. [Signature] is a 12-month business and I give Paul Lee [the president of ABC Entertainment Group] and his team a lot of credit. They took a very immediate and very aggressive approach to setting up development in the world of cable. They've got about 30 projects right now in different stages of development, drama and comedy, and they actually have a property called Benched, which is a half-hour single-camera comedy produced by Mark Gordon and it was recently picked up by USA Network.

WS: ABC is the one broadcast network that doesn't have much sports programming in its schedule. This could be considered a challenge by some but what opportunities, particularly in drawing female viewers, does this type of schedule offer?
SWEENEY: It's important to note that The Walt Disney Company owns what I believe is the greatest sports brand out there, which is ESPN. All sports that are on ABC are branded as ESPN on ABC, whether it's our college football in the fall or our NBA Finals in June. We don't air NFL games any longer. If you view the broadcast business through the traditional prism that certainly might seem a challenge, but we really don't see it that way. We are a content-creation engine for The Walt Disney Company, and we believe that our true strength and value to The Walt Disney Company really lies in our ability to create compelling content that we then monetize around the world. We have an ability with ABC to over-index with affluent audiences. We have a larger delivery of women, and as we know, women watch more television than men, which is a huge strength with advertisers. And another benefit to not having sports is the cost. The tier one sports are increasing in cost and we are not subject to absorbing those skyrocketing fees, and at the same time, we don't have to impact the 5,000 hours of valuable prime-time entertainment and daytime and news that we produce each year.

WS: Scandal on ABC and Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family are two of the most chatted about shows on Twitter. What have you learned about viewers and “must tweet TV”?
SWEENEY: Social media is continuing the conversation after the episode airs and what I love about Scandal and Pretty Little Liars being the most tweeted shows on television is really the fact that their showrunners, Shonda Rhimes on Scandal and Marlene King on Pretty Little Liars, are the impetus for all of this. It's very interesting to see them work with social media because they want to talk to their fans. They want to engage viewers in conversations about the shows. This is not about marketing; this is about the larger relationship that we have with our fans. They are good to their fans because they create a number of OMG moments for them that make the conversation even richer.

WS: Is there any marketing benefit to the buzz and the water-cooler effect that social media create around shows?
SWEENEY: I think there is definitely some impact. The use of social media platforms has become an integral part of the overall marketing strategy, not just for Scandal and Pretty Little Liars, but for all of our shows. And from a paid advertising perspective we are now able to run these micro-targeted campaigns that reach potential viewers where they are likely to engage and share with others. So our paid campaigns work to build strong fan communities that provide us with a tremendous promotional platform that we are able to use on an on-going basis. As I said earlier, the whole social media space is not a monologue—it's a dialogue and it's about sharing interesting content that fans will share with friends and with other fans. That's what creates viral buzz and incremental earned media impressions. Twitter has created an entirely new way for us to get our fans excited and engaged in real time with their favorite shows. And we are always encouraging fans to re-tweet popular hashtags related to what is happening on air. And I think it's because all of this happens in real time that it helps us understand how critical it is for us to maximize social media platforms and to build buzz and also tune-in.

WS: Compared to the days when three networks dominated the landscape, it must be so much more complicated to market shows nowadays.
SWEENEY: It's more complicated on one hand and it's more exciting in another because you're actually getting a return on the message that you put out and the return is, I like this, or, Well, what about this?  We’re engaging in the conversation with viewers.

WS: And it sure doesn't hurt to have shows like Scandal!
SWEENEY: Oh my goodness! A day doesn't go by that I am not grateful to Scandal and to Shonda and that talented cast!

WS: If we look at ABC Family, how does it keep connected to its audience and what is driving the success of that channel?
SWEENEY: I do believe the success of ABC Family and our other channels is that they have done quality storytelling and in the case of ABC Family it is quality storytelling for the Millennial audience. If you look back at our early days and Kyle XY, Greek and Wild Fire, these were shows that were beginning to scratch the surface of this audience and they helped us understand who is coming to watch and learn who our audience was. With Secret Life of the American Teenager and then other dramas like Switched at Birth, Pretty Little Liars [and] The Fosters and then we broke comedy ground with Baby Daddy and Melissa & Joey, that was when we started to see ABC Family really hit its stride with its audience. Pretty Little Liars is ABC Family's number one series of all time, which is amazing. Last summer it wasn't just the number one series on all TV, broadcast and cable with the Millennial audience 12 to 34, but in the first seven days that it was available on video on demand it added another 2 million views per episode. Again, it just shows you the power of great storytelling. And it is a social media smash hit.

WS: These Millennials of course watch on different devices, but do they go back to the linear channel?
SWEENEY: They do and that is what's so amazing to me. There are Pretty Little Liars parties. There are Scandal parties. I am just amazed by the stories I hear about people who have gone out to buy the wine glasses that Olivia Pope uses and they celebrate episodes with friends, drinking red wine, eating pop corn and drinking out of those glasses while they watch the show!

WS: Tell us about Fusion, the joint venture with Univision, and Disney/ABC’s desire to target English-speaking Latinos.
SWEENEY: Fusion is so exciting! We launched on October 28 and when I walked into Newport, which is where all of the action takes place with all of the stages, all of our correspondents, all of the newsgathering, I was struck by the fact that I was looking at the future. It was so powerful, it was so profound and it was so exciting that I almost didn't want to leave. This is a very exciting demographic. This is the most mobile demographic. The English-speaking Hispanic audience is projected to have incredible spending power. I believe by 2016 this audience will have $1.5 trillion in spending power, up from $1 trillion today, which is larger than the economies of all but 13 countries in the world. It is mind blowing.

WS: Tell us about some of the international growth of the Disney bouquet of channels.
SWEENEY: We have tremendous pride in the growth of Disney Channel. It really has become the touchstone for our brand in homes around the world. It has introduced Disney to new markets; it is a terrific global brand ambassador and today we have 108 Disney channels in 34 languages reaching more 428 million homes in 164 different markets. When you add the extended reach of our partners around the world, meaning where we appear on broadcast, the Disney and the Marvel branded kids’ TV content is now available in almost 1 billion homes.

WS: Is there is still growth opportunity for Disney Channel?
SWEENEY: There still is. We launched our first free-to-air Disney Channel in Russia almost two years ago. It was the number one free-to-air channel for kids 4 to 12 for all of 2013. This is due in large part to our country manager Marina Zhigalova-Ozkan. She launched a spectacular business for us that is resonating with children and families in Russia, and introducing not just a new generation but generations to the Disney brand. In January, we launched a new free-TV version of Disney Channel in Germany, which is Europe's largest TV market. It topped Nickelodeon in the ratings its first weekend on the air, pretty amazing! And it came in number three among kids’ networks in Germany behind Super RTL, which as you know is the joint venture between Disney and the RTL Group, and the public broadcaster KiKA, but still ahead of Nickelodeon.

WS: Is the choice to go free to air opportunistic?
SWEENEY: Yes it is purely opportunistic. We look at the options available to us and the decision is made based on what is best for the Disney brand. Then our team goes forward to see what is the best deal that can be made for the company. But again, another very talented country manager, Robert Langer, who really led the charge on the Disney Channel launch in Germany.

WS: What are you learning about how kids are watching shows and what is Disney doing to keep them happy no matter what screen they have in front of them?
SWEENEY: We have a lot of good learning going on out there, for example, with the Disney Junior business. We launched ten channels for preschoolers outside the U.S., they were originally called Playhouse Disney, and have all since been converted to Disney Junior channels. We had a lot of good learning about a 24-hour channel for preschoolers, their parents and their caregivers, that we brought to the U.S. when we launched Disney Junior here just a bit more than a year ago, and it's been a very good channel for us.

We've learned a lot through technology. Our WATCH Disney Channel app in the U.S. provided us with some very good learning around video on demand. We know that with little ones, 2-to-6 year olds, there is a lot of repeat viewing. What we didn't know is that there is a lot of repeat viewing with the older demos as well.

WS: Do they still watch linear channels as well?
SWEENEY: Yes, they still go to the linear channel when they have one. It was interesting, I was in China in September with Gary Marsh [president of Disney Channels Worldwide] and our country manager, Stanley Cheung, organized for us a visit to a school. We got to spend an hour with a classroom of second graders and an hour with a classroom of third graders. I’m always very interested to hear about the stories that they kids like, the songs that they sing, the music they gravitate towards, do they play instruments, what do they do after school, things about their lives. One of the questions we asked them was, “How many people have a television?” and everybody in both the second and third grade very politely raised their hand. Then we asked the question, “How many people have an iPad?” and every kid jumped out their seat "I have one, I have two." We thought, wow! In China, we have the Dragon Club that carries our Disney-branded programming. Then we asked the question, “What do you do with your iPad?” And you know what they said that amazed me? “Watch TV!” I was not expecting that—not at all. Over-the-top services like Youku are very popular among kids. It was a key piece of learning, but also a good illustration of our corporate culture. We are a very curious company and we are always interested in how people are engaging with our stories and always trying to figure out the best way to engage them.

WS: With technology offering so many platforms and screens, how do you balance the need to satisfy viewer demands against the need to protect and monetize your content?
SWEENEY: The ascent of the consumer demands that we create new business models that are built around consumer needs, rather than the needs of a particular channel or platform or advertiser. We make content and we distribute it on many different platforms in many countries around the world. We can really fulfill the promise of giving people what they want, wherever they are, whenever they want it and on whatever device they are using. At the same time, we are always looking to create value for our advertising and our distribution partners. We have created a number of business models to help us monetize content: everything for us still begins with the traditional network window, but within 24 hours we are on a multitude of windows on a worldwide basis. In the U.S. alone you will see us almost instantly on iTunes, Hulu and ABC.com. And usually within the first 12 months you'll see us on DVD, Netflix, Amazon and television syndication is still in the mix as well. We believe that we are responding to the emerging trends in the marketplace with very innovative product. Sometimes that means we are taking a risk on an unproven technology or strategy, but our team is ready to do that.

WS: ABC recently announced it is restricting next-day access to new episodes of shows. Why was this an important move?
SWEENEY: Last year in May at the ABC Upfront, we announced our WATCH ABC app. We had an open preview in the eight markets where we own stations, so people could experience this live streaming. They could watch their [local ABC] station on their iPads or phone and also enjoy some of the programming in the video-on-demand section of the app. We wanted to make sure people understood the product, but the plan all along was to put this into the MPVD [multichannel video programming distributor] ecosystem. So the wall went down on January 6 and you have to be a subscriber to an MPVD that has done a deal with us for this WATCH app. Otherwise, you can still get the programming on video on demand, but it is a week later than people who are subscribers to an MPVD.

WS: What has been consumer reaction to the WATCH ABC app?
SWEENEY: Very, very, positive. You know that we love to do research at our company because we love our consumers and we want to stay connected to them and find our what they like and what they don't like, but we’ve had very positive response to the live streaming capabilities. People are very happy with the video-on demand options. The frustration really comes from people who either weren't able to authenticate or had trouble authenticating. It's a little lumpy right now; we are working very hard and fast to get all of our deals done with all of our MVPDs and also all of our broadcast affiliates so we can supply this linear feed of ABC and the immediate video on demand to all of our consumers.

WS: What is the role of a linear network these days?
SWEENEY: Research still shows us that fans will watch TV on the best screen available to them. Obviously if you are home, your choice is probably going to be your television screen, but if you are traveling and you have access to your iPad or your phone, that is what your choice will be. So the television screen still does a lot of business for us. That was really, in part, the inspiration for the WATCH app—to continue to provide people with the programming that they have come to love, and also honor our commitment to MVPDs and advertisers.

Linear networks are still the largest platform and they serve as brand builders for all of the content that we create. In a world where there is so much choice, brands really are the key to viewer navigation and the brands that are most important, certainly in our company, ABC and Disney, are the ones that will have the most clout.

WS: Are you satisfied with the quality of the audience measurement across all screens or do you feel there is more that needs to be done?
SWEENEY: There is definitely more that needs to be done. That said, we are very happy with the progress that is being made. I am very impatient by nature but we do have to stop ourselves every so often and remember that we did our iTunes deal in 2005 and we launched ABC.com in 2006, so we haven't been living in this digital space for very long. Companies like Nielsen and comScore have been working very hard to expand the cross-platform measurement capability. As the tools have evolved, they have been able to provide us with a much more comprehensive picture than we had in the past. We are able to have a better understanding of our viewership on these new platforms and hopefully it will make us smarter about the things that we offer on these platforms going forward.