The other week when I was in the States, I saw a bit of the Disney Channel on TV in the hotel room. Like most channels, commercials appeared. However, what was weird was that the commercials were all related to Disney. This has got me asking a few questions...
1. Why are only Disney things advertised on the Disney Channel?
2. Have mass amounts of non Disney stuff been advertised on the Channel?
3. I once heard that there were once no commercial breaks on the Disney Channel. In these days, were the slots shorter or the original programming longer (example around 20-25 minutes for a half hour show or a full 30 minutes)?
4. Are there such commercial breaks as mentioned above during movie screenings (I didn't see any films on the Disney Channel when I was over the Atlantic)?
5. I don't have it, so I must ask; does the Disney Channel in the UK have a similar policy to the US equivalent?
Disney Channel and Advertising
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Wonderlicious
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magicalwands
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Re: Disney Channel and Advertising
Part of the reason I believe is because Disney doesn't want horror movies being advertised on commercials; it will scare the kids and the parents won't want their kids to watch Disney Channel anymore.Wonderlicious wrote:1. Why are only Disney things advertised on the Disney Channel?
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AwallaceUNC
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^Well, Disney Channel could select which commercials got shown. It's not an all-or-nothing thing.
To answer the question (at least partially)... The Disney Channel used to be a premium/subscription channel. In other words, you had to pay an additional fee ontop of your standard cable fee to access it and/or subscribe to a premium cable service package that included the Disney Channel as one of the channels you received ontop of the more basic cable packages. In most places, the Disney Channel is now part of standard cable (i.e. the 70-ish channels that is offered as the most basic package by most cable companies, beyond using an attena to get just the broadcast channels), though I think it may remain a premium channel in some places.
In those days, yes, Disney was commercial-free. There were fewer restrictions on program running time. For example, an episode of "Road to Avonlea" could run almost a full hour, rather than the 45 minutes or so that is standard for hour-long series. If memory serves, instead of commercials, they had interstitial programming, kind of like "Mike's Super Short Show" and "MovieSurfers" that we have now. They used to show a lot of movies -- also uninterrupted by commercials -- and things like cartoon shorts with some regularity.
Today, the Disney Channel operates a little more like other networks. There are commercials, but as you pointed out, they're for Disney. I believe that Disney wishes not to dilute the Disney brand by bringing other advertisers and maintain the commercial-free reputation of the Disney Channel. Also, I think Disney sees the entire network as a commercial for themselves, and so they stand to profit off of high ratings for the same reasons that other advertisers and networks do. (Instead of Coke and CBS getting $ from one another, for example, Disney and Disney get $ from... themselves
). By constantly playing Disney-related programming or promotion, they keep their viewers continually immersed in Disney. Still, the Disney Channel's commercial breaks are shorter and more infrequent than are other network's.
The movies that they play do have commercial breaks these days, just like the TV shows do. As for the UK version, I don't know.
-Aaron
To answer the question (at least partially)... The Disney Channel used to be a premium/subscription channel. In other words, you had to pay an additional fee ontop of your standard cable fee to access it and/or subscribe to a premium cable service package that included the Disney Channel as one of the channels you received ontop of the more basic cable packages. In most places, the Disney Channel is now part of standard cable (i.e. the 70-ish channels that is offered as the most basic package by most cable companies, beyond using an attena to get just the broadcast channels), though I think it may remain a premium channel in some places.
In those days, yes, Disney was commercial-free. There were fewer restrictions on program running time. For example, an episode of "Road to Avonlea" could run almost a full hour, rather than the 45 minutes or so that is standard for hour-long series. If memory serves, instead of commercials, they had interstitial programming, kind of like "Mike's Super Short Show" and "MovieSurfers" that we have now. They used to show a lot of movies -- also uninterrupted by commercials -- and things like cartoon shorts with some regularity.
Today, the Disney Channel operates a little more like other networks. There are commercials, but as you pointed out, they're for Disney. I believe that Disney wishes not to dilute the Disney brand by bringing other advertisers and maintain the commercial-free reputation of the Disney Channel. Also, I think Disney sees the entire network as a commercial for themselves, and so they stand to profit off of high ratings for the same reasons that other advertisers and networks do. (Instead of Coke and CBS getting $ from one another, for example, Disney and Disney get $ from... themselves
). By constantly playing Disney-related programming or promotion, they keep their viewers continually immersed in Disney. Still, the Disney Channel's commercial breaks are shorter and more infrequent than are other network's.The movies that they play do have commercial breaks these days, just like the TV shows do. As for the UK version, I don't know.
-Aaron
• Author of Hocus Pocus in Focus: The Thinking Fan's Guide to Disney's Halloween Classic
and The Thinking Fan's Guide to Walt Disney World: Magic Kingdom (Epcot coming soon)
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and The Thinking Fan's Guide to Walt Disney World: Magic Kingdom (Epcot coming soon)
• Host of Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Pod, the longest-running Disney podcast
• Entertainment Writer & Moderator at DVDizzy.com
• Twitter - @aaronspod
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Kingpopper
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Kram Nebuer
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Very very few times there have been non-Disney commercials from sponsors. I remember seeing McDonald's and Danimals Yogurt.
I remember the old Disney Channel! They had DTV a lot! No, not Direct to Video, but Disney TV, a parody of MTV. Also, we have on tape Mickey and the Beanstalk, which played after Freaky Friday with Shelly Long and Gaby Hoffman. I also remember the original original scripted Movie surfers. That was so lame, but cool at the time.
I remember the old Disney Channel! They had DTV a lot! No, not Direct to Video, but Disney TV, a parody of MTV. Also, we have on tape Mickey and the Beanstalk, which played after Freaky Friday with Shelly Long and Gaby Hoffman. I also remember the original original scripted Movie surfers. That was so lame, but cool at the time.
