"TV" Shows Premier on Digital Platforms

Disney announced this week that it will premier its new Star Wars kids TV show on its digital Watch Disney XD App.  Each week a new episode will be made available exclusively via the digital platform, preceding the debut on the linear TV channel.  This represents a meaningful shift in behavior for Disney, and demonstrates the importance that they are ascribing to delivering content to young audiences via digital platforms.  In particular, it is noteworthy that Disney has chosen to take this initiative with perhaps its premier property in the Star Wars franchise. 

This development will be interesting for marketers, as this creates an even more valuable digital advertising property.  The nature of digital On Demand delivery is such that an advertisement in a program does not draw the same number of instantaneous viewers as does traditional television, but by embedding an advertisement within the programming, the advertiser may in time be able to reach a larger audience.  By moving premier, first-run content onto digital platforms, Disney is creating an increasingly valuable digital marketing opportunity.  If this distribution model becomes more prevalent, marketers will need to think about the allocation of their marketing budgets, and may be inclined to increase the share of marketing dollars allocated to digital platforms while decreasing from traditional television marketing.  Mobile and digital advertising are projected to increase significantly in the next few years, and development of elite, high-quality digital viewing properties such as this may cause that trend to take place in an even quicker time frame.