I dont have a specific explanation for what they did, but I do have some background.
The Disney Channel these days only has one purpose to beat Nickelodeon. The Channel is not there to promote Disney, its not there as an outlet for Disney programming, and its most certainly not around to please Disney fans.
No doubt there is a PowerPoint presentation that worked its ways up the Disney Channel tower in Burbank that showed Nicks overnight ratings beat Disneys overnight ratings. Hence the word went out drop all the stuff from the dead guy (which makes the people in Team Disney very, very happy) and rerun more cheap, bland tweener sitcoms made with Canadian tax dollars.
It doesnt really matter that the shows cost more than the tapes from the vault, or that these programs are trounced by Nick in normal viewing hours (both Nick and Cartoon trounce The Disney Channel in every category). But they make Disney look more like Viacom and TimeWarner and that passes as competition for The Mouse these days.
Like all the other divisions within Disney it is more important not to fail than it is to succeed. Getting poor ratings with an original program exposes you to blame, getting poor ratings with a copy-cat program shields you from risk of making a decision. Its the same thinking that behind all the sequels and remakes; if theres no creativity up at the very top of the management food chain theres a tendency for that vacuum to suck it out from the entire company. And theres a massive black hole at the head of Disney at the moment.
The other question is why is so important for The Disney Channel to beat Nick? The Channel is, after all, making gobs of money so whats wrong?
The Channel makes gobs of money because Disney basically extorted the cable companies out of it. The capsule history and business: A while ago, Disney was a premium channel the cable customer paid for on a voluntary basis. You plopped down you $4.95 a month and you saw mice. This made a bundle of money for everyone and forced the mouse to please its subscriber base with lots of original and Disney-centered program. Everyone was happy.
Well, almost everyone. Its seems that the Channel wasnt growing fast enough for some and coming up with original programming is very hard (especially for executives without creativity). Worse, there were eyeballs staring at those other channels taking away money that rightfully ought to be going to stock options. So another PowerPoint presentation was created with a simple premise. If people dont want to give you money FORCE them to give you the money.
For basic channels your cable company pays the channel a monthly fee for each viewer on the system stuff like CNN and USA Networks and Lifetime. Its usually a small amount but given the millions and millions of cable subscribers these days, it adds up very fast.
So Disney decided to play a game. Instead of being a premium channel, it was going to become a basic channel. Everyone watching cable television was going to be forced to pay for The Disney Channel whether you wanted it or not since the cable companies would add that expense into the basic cable rate. And since The Disney Channel was commercial-free, Disney was going to charge more than most other basic channels for this unique Disney benefit.
And if the cable companies didnt like that arrangement, then they couldnt have ESPN.
In a less polite society, many would call that extortion. Worse, it fulfills the worst nightmares of all the critics of Big Corporate Media: the consumer have no choice over the products available for purchase. But the cable companies knew they couldnt offer service without ESPN because there are a lot guys watching. So they buckled and gave Disney what it wanted.
Or for a while anyway. It turns out that the ratings for The Disney Channel are absolutely awful compared to what Disney had promised all the cable companies. It simply isnt worth it for the cable operators to pay the bloated fees The Mouse demands especially when all the eyeballs are glued to Nick, Nick at Night, TVLand, Cartoon and all the other (and better) competitors for family channels. There isnt any cable operator that feels it has to carry The Disney Channel.
And ESPN
They read the newspapers too. Everyone in the entire industry now knows that Disney needs the cable carriers much more than the cable people need ESPN. Disney tried the same ESPN trick when several large systems tried to remove ABC Family. It didnt work and Disney was forced into getting a temporary court order to keep the channel on the systems. Disney now understands that it cant force The Channel down peoples throats it has to provide ratings like all the other channels do. Then again, this is the same company that thrashed ABC into fourth and fallen. It shouldnt be a surprise that the efforts to improve the ratings at The Channel are just as tightfisted, shortsighted and incompetent as the efforts at the broadcast network. Or Disney could simply reduce the fees it charges for The Disney Channel or return to its premium status. But you tell Eisner that
.
When all the new contracts come up, expect many stations to drop Disney Channel unless Disney cleans up its act.
Aint payback fun?
P.S. Efforts to launch Playhouse Disney as a separate channel seem to be doing little except leaving a crater in the cash flow.
