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Walt Disney attempts to turnaround digital biz, overhauls Disney.com

Indiantelevision.com Team

(22 October 2012 6:12 pm)

MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company has re-designed its website Disney.com for the third time in five years as it looks to turnaround its digital business.

The re-designed Disney.com comprises games, children’s books, TV, movies, music, Broadway and online worlds like Club Penguin in order to cater to a broad audience.

The new site comes at a time when TWDC CEO Robert A. Iger is hoping that the gaming, mobile and Internet division will turn profitable after 15 consecutive quarters of $977 million losses.

Iger has told Disney shareholders that Disney Interactive will turn into profits sometime next year. The company is also planning an ambitious gaming initiative code-named Toy Box.

Figuring out the Internet as being critical for all media companies, Disney’s future in particular depends on a winning strategy, says a New York Times report.

"The children it hopes to turn into lifelong consumers of its products are increasingly living online. Disney Channel used to be the company’s most important welcome mat. Now executives refer to Disney.com as the “front door.”," the report added.

Guiding Disney on its digital business was none other than tech czar and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs who was on its board from 2006 until his death last year.

Disney Interactive is run by former Yahoo executive James Pitaro and John Pleasants, Playdom’s former chief executive. Its current board members include John S. Chen, chief executive of the software developer Sybase, and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer.