Latest from Next TV in Tweens

Disney Channel Looks to Draw Tween Viewers with 'Raven's Home,' 'Bunk'd' Crossover Special

thomas.umstead@futurenet.com (R. Thomas Umstead) — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 17:25:23 +0000

Disney Channel will resurrect it’s successful series crossover programming stunt on July 24 by bringing together two of its biggest shows, Raven’s Home and Bunk’d, for a primetime special.

Disney vice president of current series Kory Lunsford, who has worked on the previous 10 network series crossover specials dating back to 2007 with the That’s So Suite Life of Hanna Montana event, talks to Multichannel News about the popularity of the specials as well as why the pairing of these two shows will resonate with the network’s core tween audience. An edited version of the interview appears below.

What’s been behind the previous success of Disney’s crossover series strategy?

I’ve actually worked on every single one of the crossover episodes going back to That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana. They are fun, and this one fell in place. There was a clamoring among our showrunners and writers to want to do one and we wanted to make a big summer splash for the channel, and I think we accomplished that.

Why did Raven’s Home and Bunk’d work best in a crossover special?

You want to make sure you’re authentic in creating these shows. When we had That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana you had the [Suite Life of Zack & Cody] hotel serve as the gathering point. We thought, ‘what's a more fun and aspirational setting than summer camp?’ These two shows resonate the most with our audience so that was a great starting off point. They also have great, diverse ensemble casts. We were able to work with each camp -- no pun intended - to mix and match characters from each show and were able to create multiple, rich storylines.

Raven About Bunk’d is premiering in a different television environment than the first Disney series crossover event in that fewer young viewers are now watching linear television. Do you feel this special will attract more eyeballs to the linear Disney Channel service?

Back in the day if we made it, everyone tuned in. What we’ve learned over the years as consumer viewing patterns have shifted is that if you make great content, viewers will find it. We’re focused on all platforms that offer our content -- whether it’s Disney Now or Disney Plus -- so it's all about making content that appeals to our viewers. We know word of mouth is very powerful with our audience these days, so we believe in our content and know that this story will be aspirational and will resonate with our audience.

Will you look to do future crossover specials featuring other Disney Channel shows?

Absolutely, and it’s something that we’ve already discussed. They are a bit challenging -- it takes two separate production entities merging together and working together when they normally don’t -- but they’re usually always successful.

Parents Average 9-Plus Hours of Daily Screen Time

john.eggerton@futurenet.com (John Eggerton) — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 05:01:00 +0000

Parents of tweens and teens are similarly wedded to their screens, a new study confirms.

"The Common Sense Census: Plugged-In Parents," which is being released today by Common Sense Media, found that, on average, those parents spend more than nine hours (9:22) with screen-based media each day. That includes time spent for work, but 82% of the time spent (7:43) is for personal use.

More than 3/4 of the respondents (78%) said they believe they are good media and technology role models for their children.

Of the 7-plus hours of personal time the parents spent for personal use, the biggest single biggest chunk of time (3:17) was spent viewing TV, movies and videos accessed over whatever technology was used (broadcast, cable, satellite, online, DVDs).

That was followed by gaming (1:30), social networking (1:06), Web browsing (0:51) and using an e-reader (0:15).

The age-old ("our house" versus "my Stuff!") debate between parents and kids over privacy definitely extends to online activity.

The vast majority of parents (85%) said that monitoring their children's media use is important, and 41% of parents said that they have checked the content of their children's devices and social media accounts either always or some of the time, while another 21% said they did so some of the time.

Most parents also said they had rules for their children's media watching, such as no mobile devices at mealtimes (78%) or after bedtime (63%).

The parents had concerns about their kids media use, including 43% who were concerned they were spending too much time online, 38% concerned about "over-sharing" personal information and 36% concerned about potential exposure to violent and pornographic images. Also on the list of worries were hurtful comments (34%), sexting (33%), exposure to drug and alcohol use (32%), consumerism (30%) and losing the ability to communicate well (27%).

But those concerns notwithstanding, the parents had a generally positive view of technology in many ways, perhaps not surprising given their own heavy diet of bits and bytes. The majority said that technology helps kids do schoolwork (94%), prepare to join the 21st Century workforce (98%), learn new skills (88%), use their creativity (79%), expose them to other cultures (77%), enable them to express opinions and beliefs (75%), find friends (69%), and build social skills (54%).

The report is based on a survey of 1,786 parents of children 8-18 living in the United States. It was conducted July 8-25, 2016. Common Sense Media defined parents' media screen time as including "watching TV, movies, and videos; playing video games; listening to music; using social media; reading either print or electronic books; and using digital devices for other purposes, such as browsing websites, playing games or any other activity." The survey also included questions about computer, smartphone and tablet use for work purposes.

Disney Renews ‘Austin & Ally’

thomas.umstead@futurenet.com (R. Thomas Umstead) — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 17:15:00 +0000

Disney Channel has ordered a fourth season of its comedy series Austin & Ally, the network announced Saturday.

The series, which stars Ross Lynch, Laura Marano, Raini Rodriguez and Calum Worthy, finished as the top series on TV among tweens in 2013, as well as the second most watched series among kids 2-11 and kids 6-11.

"The strength of this series helped make 2013 Disney Channel's highest rated year ever among Tweens, an audience that is invested in the Austin & Ally stories, and the fun they experience on a journey with the characters,” said Adam Bonnett, executive vice president of original programming for Disney Channels Worldwide. “We're looking forward to delivering many more engaging stories soon."