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"Pirates compete the same way we do - through quality, price and availability."
 Giving the Keynote address
at Mipcom, Disney co-chair Anne Sweeney has broken with studio
convention and recognised piracy as a business model to compete with,
as opposed to simply an illegal threat to be battled. Sweeney's pragmatic
conversion came after seing - within 15 minutes of the ABC network
premiere of Despearate Housewives - a high-quality, ad-free version that had appeared on P2P networks.
“We understand now that piracy
is a business model,” said Sweeney, twice voted Hollywood's most
powerful woman by the Hollywood Reporter. “It exists to serve a need in
the market for consumers who want TV content on demand. Pirates
compete the same way we do - through quality, price and availability.
We we don’t like the model but we realise it’s competitive enough to
make it a major competitor going forward.”
In the year since
the iTunes deal was first done with Apple, Disney has sold 12.8 million
episodes via iTunes and 51 of the 272 TV series available on the
service are Disney products.
"audiences have the upper hand and show no sign of giving
it back.”
As reported on PaidContent.org, Sweeney's address also pointed out:
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Eighty-four percent of those that used the on-demand service said that
it was a “good deal” to get a free episode in return for watching an ad
and, significantly for advertisers, 87 percent of those could recall
the advertiser that sponsored the programme.
- Sweeney outlined
Disney’s strategy as: being primarily about content because it drives
everything else; being about maximising new platforms for both content
and advertisers; and sharpening its brands, because consumers choose
brands they know and trust.
- Partnership, she said, is critical
because Disney needs “compatible brands” to focus on its core aims of:
a quality user experience; growth on delivering consumer value; content
valuation and protection; and a commitment to market products and
services.
- “The digital revolution has unleashed a consumer coup. We have
to not only make in-demand content but make it on-demand. This power
shift changes the way we think about our business, industry and our
viewers. We have to build our businesses around their behaviour and
their interests.”
- “The most powerful creativity comes in response to a challenge - as long as you know who you are and where you want to go.”
- “All of us have to continually renew our business in order to
renew our brands because audiences have upper hand and show no sign of
giving it back.”
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:x :cry :? :roll 
:grin 
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