DISNEY-ABC INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION Contact: Sarah Hird – Europe, Middle East and Africa +44 (0)20 8222 1724 Contact: Danielle Nasrallah – Asia Pacific +852 2203 2352
Disney-ABC International Television
Fact Sheet
Disney-ABC International Television is responsible for The Walt Disney Company’s branded and nonbranded program distribution. The division distributes more than 30,000 hours of programming to more than 1,300 broadcasters across 240 territories worldwide and has offices in Europe, AsiaPacific, Japan, Latin America and Canada. Disney-ABC International Television offers movies, TV series from ABC Studios and ABC Family, Disney-produced animated and live action series, Disney Channel Original Movies, pre-school and Jetix programming. The division also distributes reality and scripted TV formats from the ABC Television Network and ABC Studios, and services the worldwide distribution of the Annual Academy Awards® as well as award winning ABC News programming. Acquired Series International Distribution: Disney-ABC International Television (DAIT) distributes many popular television content for the international market, such as ABC hits “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice,” “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Ugly Betty.” The division also distributes other popular series from ABC Studios such as “Kyle XY,” “Criminal Minds,” “Ghost Whisperer” and “Scrubs.” Disney-ABC International Television is the largest international distributor of kids and family programming, licensing Disney-produced animated and live action series, Disney Channel Original Movies such as “High School Musical 2” and “Camp Rock,” and pre-school programming such as “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,” “Little Einsteins” and “My Friends Tigger & Pooh.” Additionally, the division services the distribution of Jetix Europe programming, including “Combo Ninos,” and the successful Power Rangers franchise. DAIT also licenses reality series/formats across the globe such as “Extreme Makeover” in the UK, Dubai, Hungary, India and Colombia; “The Amazing Race” in Asia; in addition to scripted formats for local reversioning such as “Hope & Faith” in Turkey as well as “Home Improvement” in Russia, and “The Golden Girls” in Russia and Greece. And in Latin America, local versions of “Desperate Housewives” have been produced to great success in four local markets. Over the last six months, the division has closed some major agreements in key, fast-developing international markets such as Russia and Eastern Europe, India and China, to bring a wide range of Disney branded and non-branded entertainment to viewers. The division recently completed a major free TV licensing agreement with Channel One Russia - its largest ever TV agreement in the territory which includes a wide variety of titles from “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and “Dirty Sexy Money” to “High School Musical 2” and “My Friends Tigger & Pooh.” In 2007, DAIT renewed multigenre multi-year licensing agreements with major South East Asian terrestrial broadcasters including Media Prima in Malaysia, MediaCorp TV in Singapore and ABC-CBN’s Studio 23 in the Philippines. In October 2006, DAIT closed a groundbreaking agreement with Dish TV in India to bring the ABC News Now channel to international viewers for the first time. Also in India, the division recently became the first U.S. Studio to close a movie licensing deal with the Sahara Filmy channel.
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03/2008
Disney-ABC International TV Fact Sheet (cont.)
Network Series Success Stories: Series such as “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Ugly Betty, “Criminal Minds” and “Grey’s Anatomy” continue their global TV success, with the series often achieving record international license fees. This year will see 2007-08 series such as “Private Practice” and “Dirty Sexy Money” debuting on international screens. Film Product Distribution: Establishing multi-year feature film deals with many broadcasters around the globe, DAIT licenses content from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films. Major agreements closed recently include those with the ProSiebenSat.1 Group in Germany, India’s Sun TV entered its first ever feature film deal with a Hollywood studio when they agreed to license a variety of library titles from the division. In a deal with Asia’s Star TV, such films as “The Princess Diaries 2” and “The Village” will reach 32 million viewers. New Media Agreements: DAIT’s digital media business continues to grow significantly, and the division is partnering with international broadcasters and platforms to bring its wide portfolio of content to viewers. The division now has a network of international movie and network series VOD partnerships in place, and most recent agreements have recently been closed across the globe with platforms such as Sistema in Russia, Telus in Canada, Korea Telecom and Hanaro Telecom in Korea, TF1 in France, GYAO in Japan, Telstra BigPond in Australia, TVNZ ondemand in New Zealand, SingTel’s mioTV in Singapore and VideOnline in Hong Kong. The division has closed groundbreaking advertising-supported VOD deals for network series with Channel 4 and Sky n the UK, both the first deals of their kind in this territory. DAIT also launched its very first international SVOD movie channel, The Film Factor, on SingTel’s mioTV platform in Singapore. DAIT has recently closed an agreement to launch fourth season episodes of “Lost” on the broadband player TF1 Vision in France, in under 24 hours after U.S. broadcast; this marks the first time that Disney has launched a network series to international markets so close to U.S. broadcast. The business also has licensing agreements with broadcasters such as Sky UK, Channel 4 UK, ABS-CBN’s Studio 23 Philippines, and ITI Neovision Poland, for the launch of network series from four days after their U.S. broadcast DAIT’s mobile video content business also continues to expand, closing an agreement with Orange Poland to launch series such as “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” on mobile, its first in Europe for full-length episodes of network series. DAIT was the first U.S. studio to launch full-length episodes on mobile with TU Media in Korea. Also, since August 2007, a selection of hit ABC Studios and Disney Channel series have been available via iTunes in the UK.