Boycott disney channel, whos with me?

**cellarhound** · 06-21-2005, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by saweetmelody7

As much as I'd like to watch the shows on Disney in which I grew up with I can't help but, to think that things change according to the times. Although the new shows may be crap to those who grew up watching the classic black-and-white Mickey cartoons or Pooh's Corner in the 80's, it again may spark the interest of kids today. Change is inevitable and frankly, most people hate it. I mean, we're creatures of habit, can you blame us? So, as much as i'd like to say count me in, i'm afraid I'll have to decline the generous offer! :o

Change is both a good and bad thing... Is is revolution verses evolution...

In my mind, there is all this content that was made, yes... now most channels have an outlet for this... Older cartoons on the Cartoon Channel get sent to Boomerang...

The same should apply with some of the older Disney content... But there is no outlet for these programs for wich many parents are interested in sharing with their family...

No place where I can see Sid & Marty, Zorro, The Scarecrow, Davy Crocket, True Life Adventures, Older live action films of the 60's and 70's... Mickey Mouse Club ephisodes... Even the newer MMC of the 70's and 90's... I can see Johney Shilo or Johney Truman and the Sons of Liberty... No place where we can see the early work of Haley Mills, Jodie Foster and Kurk Russel.

There are also a whole slew of programming that is waiting for someone to put together that directly involve the theme parks... People have been calling on this to happen for years... The need to have productions in Disney MGM studios, and I feel the same needs to happen at DCA...

Yes things change, but this material has valuable interest... And let's face it folks, programming has been slow on the uptake while the focus is on making the ABC line up sparkle... I think it is time to look at the back end of programming as well. A film library is only valuable if folks have access to it... If people don't have access, it becomes irrelivant. I would hate to see that happen.

**J.B.Opie** · 06-21-2005, 12:42 PM

Ah, the good old days.

I used to watch this channel a lot. Walt Disney World, Inside Out was a never to be missed show for me.

These screen captures are from an old recorded tape that I found that had the 1994 Halloween Edition of Inside Out, back when Epcot Center was Epcot '95.

**NWRREngineer** · 06-22-2005, 11:29 AM

A boycott against the Disney Channel would have zero effect.

They don't advertise anything that produces revenue, only their own programming.

A letter-writing campaign to bring to life a premium Disney channel might be worth it, though.

**migitmouse88** · 06-22-2005, 11:42 AM

nice idea

**Little Star** · 06-23-2005, 01:18 AM

Originally Posted by TinkPink

You are right, I forgot about the occasional McDonald's commercial. We have been watching more of PBS lately I guess, which also shows McD's commercials now that I think about it.

But generally they never show food I don't think, not that it makes much difference. Isn't it usually just Ronald or kids or something?

I guess that never bothered me because my son associates McD's with a playground since that is why we go there. During the winter we went there a couple times a week so he could play indoors with other kids.

They used to not do the McDonald's commercial very often, but lately, it's on nearly every day. It doesn't show food, it's just a (really annoying) song and it has Ronald and some other stuff. I still don't really like it though, because kids are still likely to equate Ronald with McDonald's, and I really don't think that McDonald's (or any other company, really) needs to be advertising to young kids in any way. But I also realize that my views on the issue are probably a lot more extreme than most people's.

We've never actually been to a McD's playground, but we're really lucky because we live in So Cal, so we don't really have the need for an indoor playground, and our mall has a really nice playground that I like better than the big structures at McD's, because they're softer and geared more towards younger kids.

I'm really surprised that PBS is allowing McD's to advertise...but then again, maybe I shouldn't be, because I know how badly they need funding. We don't get PBS Kids for some reason, so my 2 choices for kiddie programming are Playhouse Disney, and Nick, and Nick has waaaaay too many commercials, not to mention, the shows are boring. So we'll stick with Disney, though I have no problem getting in on a letter writing campaign.

**Tui** · 06-23-2005, 01:41 AM

Originally Posted by NWRREngineer

A boycott against the Disney Channel would have zero effect.

They don't advertise anything that produces revenue, only their own programming.

A letter-writing campaign to bring to life a premium Disney channel might be worth it, though.

Yeah pretty much what I think...though you would need a HELL of a lot of letters

**laman6** · 06-23-2005, 03:49 PM

On the commercial front - Disney Channel does not take regular commercials. They air promotions for upcoming shows, synergy for the rest of the company and throughout the day they have some sponsors (eg., Kelloggs is proud to present Sports Dreams). After a while those can feel like bad commercials

On the vault disney, I know they tried to launch a Vault Disney Channel about 5 years ago. But there is very little space on regular cable systems - and when cable companies did research - they could not get consumers to pick Vault Disney. If customers only got 1 more channel, they wanted another sports channel or shopping channel. I think that Disney Channel went back recently as Digital cable started to spread to see if they could get a channel with the new services - but the response was the majority of our customers do not want to pay for it - so if you give to us for free that could work.

Another thing that hurt was when Vault Disney went off the air, Hallmark Channel bought a bunch of old classic Disney movies (eg., Appledumpling Gang, Witch Mountain) - and every night that they put the movies on, the Hallmark ratings would drop badly. Hallmark was getting better ratings from another run of Dr. Quinn Medicine Women.

I think one option is Video-on-demand Vault Disney - give the fans the opportunity to buy the ability to watch the classics. Our maybe sometype of computer offering.

**cellarhound** · 06-23-2005, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by laman6

On the commercial front - Disney Channel does not take regular commercials. They air promotions for upcoming shows, synergy for the rest of the company and throughout the day they have some sponsors (eg., Kelloggs is proud to present Sports Dreams). After a while those can feel like bad commercials

On the vault disney, I know they tried to launch a Vault Disney Channel about 5 years ago. But there is very little space on regular cable systems - and when cable companies did research - they could not get consumers to pick Vault Disney. If customers only got 1 more channel, they wanted another sports channel or shopping channel. I think that Disney Channel went back recently as Digital cable started to spread to see if they could get a channel with the new services - but the response was the majority of our customers do not want to pay for it - so if you give to us for free that could work.

Another thing that hurt was when Vault Disney went off the air, Hallmark Channel bought a bunch of old classic Disney movies (eg., Appledumpling Gang, Witch Mountain) - and every night that they put the movies on, the Hallmark ratings would drop badly. Hallmark was getting better ratings from another run of Dr. Quinn Medicine Women.

I think one option is Video-on-demand Vault Disney - give the fans the opportunity to buy the ability to watch the classics. Our maybe sometype of computer offering.

So you make room for it... Take ABC Family consolidate it with the Disney Channel.. Call Disney Family... Move the space over to creat Vault Disney, and then leverage it to get on basic cable... No ESPN, no Disney Channel.

Cable ops will respond... trust me if you hold that over their head, besides most of them are moving toward Digital Cable, which means I have up to 600 channels to choose from... I wouldn't mind Vault Disney on Digital Basic... Right next to BBC America...

**laman6** · 06-23-2005, 04:23 PM

My understanding (through the TWDC grapevine) is they seriously looked... but one of the big issues is a longterm deal... ABC Family has Mr. Pat Robertson on the air forever - and honestly I do not think Disney want to have that association (for better or for worse).. Mr. Robertson may have a good heart - but sometimes the comments he makes are pretty hurtful to a chunk of Americans (Gay / Muslim / Jewish/etc)... his contract is in perpetuity and when he dies it goes to his son... I actually agree that having a Disney-branded channel broadcasting a program 3x a day that could offend many people is the wrong message. I also know that every couple of months TWDC tries to buy Mr. Robertson out or find another channel - but he refuses.

But I think a Disney Family network if there were no restrictions wuold be a great idea - programs like Gilmore Girls and Vault Disney block would work.

On your digital point it would be a great offering - but right now the new channels are getting no money from the cable systems, because they are investing in broadband, mobile, VOD... so you would need advertising. To get advertising you need a lot of more homes - but it is hard to get enough homes to get the advertising.. Cable is so facinating sometimes

I honestly think Vault Disney is a niche offering or block not a channel - and maybe VOD is the best option - people who really want it could pay for access.