Squeegees 

The Los Angeles Times has a story about Disney returning to “its short-form roots with the debut of a digital studio that will develop original content for the Internet.” Stage 9 Media released the first of their new series titles “Squeegees”. You’ll be able to find the series at ABC.com and YouTube. This is the first of 20 programs in development. Disney has already returned back to its animation roots with traditional animated shorts appearing before ‘National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets’ as well as the feature film ‘The Princess and the Frog’

The big break for this new studio comes from Toyota Motor Co. who will sponsor the initial 10-episode run. Major advertisers have shied away from amateur content found on YouTube but are a little more comfortable getting behind the big studios with their brand protection and distribution breadth. Anne Sweeney, president of ABC Television Group said, “We’ve all seen the appeal of short-form content grow over the past few years… The launch of this experimental new media studio allows us to play in this space with some quality content, while giving us an interesting venue for telling stories in a different form.”

I’m sure the YouTube feature on the iPhone just felt it’s ears burning.


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