Given that they’re both multi-billion dollar businesses, Disney and YouTube embarking on a $US10 million joint adventure seems like small potatoes. But as the New York Times explains, the two need each other in a bad way. And this could be the start of something big.
The bones of the deal: Disney will produce a series of original shorts that will appear on both Disney.com and YouTube. So Disney gets to put content on a site that people actually, erm, visit, while YouTube gets to draw in a bevy of youngsters whose parents are concerned that YouTube is nothing but videos of people co-mingling with animals in unnatural ways. Which, come to think of it, is also a major subplot of every animated Disney movie ever.
There will eventually be eight Disney series up and running on YouTube at any given time, starting with the alligator-themed, app-based (of course) “Where’s My Water?”
Of course, the other videos on YouTube have never posed much of a threat to the hearts and minds of America’s youth. But my word, is there anything we can do to save them from the comments? [NY Times]