"Noting that tablet computers like the iPad are increasingly the ‘first screen’ for pre-school-age viewers, Disney executives said they would make the first nine episodes of a prominent new series available on mobile devices first. The series, ‘Sheriff Callie’s Wild West,’ will arrive on the Watch Disney Junior app and a related Web site on Nov. 24. Then, early next year, the series will have its debut on two traditional TV networks, Disney Channel and Disney Junior."
So writes Brooks Barnes in The New York Times. The story continues: "’This is an entirely new approach for us,’ said Nancy Kanter, executive vice president and general manager of Disney Junior Worldwide, which is aimed at children age 2 to 7. ‘We have been amazed at how quickly kids have embraced this new technology. We’re talking billions of minutes spent watching.’”
Enabling this phenomenon, according to the story, is the fact that in more that half of the nation’s homes with kids, someone owns a tablet, of which Apple’s iPad continues to be the market share leader.
Check out the astonishing stat in this paragraph from the story: "’We get a lot of e-mails from dads saying, "Thanks for giving me back my TV,"’ said Albert Cheng, the Disney-ABC Television Group’s digital media chief, referring to the Watch Disney Junior app, which the company says has been downloaded 5 million times and has generated more than 650 million video views since its introduction in June 2012."
To read more about Disney’s new "tablet first" strategy, please click on the link above, which will take you to Barnes’ original story.
The iPad App for Disney’s kids show "Phineas and Ferb"
What’s so amazing? The screen size at arms-length is the same relative size as a normal screen at rooms-length. It’s personal. It feels like a toy. Someone told me that toddlers have learned the right-swipe gesture so well that they try to use the same hand motion on still photos and other non-electronic surfaces.