Disney Channel's New Look and Website

[Tommy Lawson]

The Disney Channel has changed its look on-air and the look of its website as of Monday. I guess it was inevitable after both ABC and Toon Disney renovated their on-air look for this season. There is a new bug that appears in the far lower left-hand side of the screen. The bug now shows an angled Disney "mouse ears" logo and the words "Disney Channel" in it with the famous Disney text logo. The bumpers now use derivatives of the music cues from the modern version of America's Funniest Home Videos. Seriously, they do. The bumpers also sometimes use cell phone/computer-like symbols such as hearts when going to commercial. Also, after returning from commercial, the name of the current show appears on a blue background. It is very similar to the ones used on the ABC Family kids block, although the ones on ABC Family tell you what's coming up rather than what's currently airing.

As for programming, the next Disney Channel original movie "The Scream Team" debuts on Friday. The next new episode of Kim Possible, "October 31st," debuts on Friday, October 11th at 6:30pm. On Monday, October 14th, there will be a Kim Possible "Villain-a-Thon" running from 2pm to 8pm (12 episodes). On October 31st, Disney Channel will be airing a bunch of Santa-themed shows. As the promo says, they'll explain later.

The website has been renovated as well. http://www.disneychannel.com will take you to a new Flash site for the network. I warn you to be patient though. Even at broadband speeds, it takes a long time to load. On the main page, there are direct links to the following shows: Kim Possible, Lizzie McGuire, and The Proud Family. These shows are the Disney Channel's highest rated shows and are also the ones being aired on ABC Kids on Saturday mornings. They have several neat animations if you highlight the show's name with your mouse.

Now only one cable network airing cartoons and owned by Disney has not had its look completely renovated yet: ABC Family. That network's website is a total disaster at http://www.abcfamily.com . From that site, you couldn't even tell a kids block existed, let alone any other programming on the network. No site for the Power Rangers, Beyblade, Spiderman- there's absolutely no link on abcfamily.com for any information about the kids block. You would think that in this era where the Internet is become more and more a part of daily life, networks would realize that the website is very important in communicating information to the masses. According to a Laughing Place board post, a Broadcasting and Cable article stated ABC Family will soon start targeting MTV-like demographics in prime-time, which is oh, about the 50th different strategy or so the network is using from its start as Fox Family on August 15th, 1998. My guess is they'll probably change the ABC Family logo again as well, just as Fox Family did in 2000. They can start appealing to the MTV masses by making a better website. Here's the link to the article:

http://www.tvinsite.com/broadcasting...ate=09/30/2002