Putting its cast of characters to work online, Disney has teamed with Terra Lycos to offer family-friendly broadband content in Spain.
By year’s end, the entertainment giant and Internet service provider plan to roll out the access/content bundle, dubbed Disney Connection, in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Peru — countries where Terra Lycos is strong.
“As broadband penetration continues to grow in Europe, providing engaging broadband content is critical in both driving more demand and increasing revenue per user,” said Attila Gazdag, who heads up Disney’s Internet operations in Europe.
Disney Connection consists of four sections: “watch,” featuring animated shorts, interviews and sneak previews of films and TV shows; “play,” providing online games for kids of all ages; “learn,” an assortment of educational game and activities; and “listen,” where kids can listen to music and watch videos.
Content will be regularly updated, and Disney and Terra Lycos hope subscribers will opt for additional premium content. Pricing information was not announced.
A spokeswoman for Disney in North Hollywood, Calif., was not immediately available for comment.
Lee Black, a digital content analyst at Jupiter Research, said it makes sense for Disney to seek an ISP partner in Europe.
“In the United States, Disney has enough clout to be ISP agnostic,” Black said. “In Europe, ISPs are much more regionalized, much more dominant, so (content players) have to go through them.”
For Terra Lycos, the deal gives users another reason to choose, or stay with, the Madrid company for broadband Internet access. Once they are locked in, Terra Lycos, which has U.S. operations near Boston, will try and upsell premium content.
Javier Martinez, Terra’s executive vice president for Spain and Latin America, said he’s “confident that Disney Connection will further enhance our ADSL