Disney capitalizes on the opportunities within YouTube

We’ve all parked our 8-year-old selves in front of the television on early Saturday mornings. This habit of waking up early to catch all the Disney and Nickelodeon classics continued through middle school as we all spent hours channel surfing and ignoring the seemingly copious amounts of homework.

But these days, kids are powering off their TVs and instead turning to their desktops, laptops and phones; all this in the name of YouTube.

YouTube has taken recent generations by storm, generating more than 6 billion hours of entertainment a month, according to the official YouTube statistics. In addition, there are over “one billion unique users [that] visit YouTube each month.”

Meanwhile, kid channels such as Nickelodeon and Disney have been consistently lacking in viewers. Their programs are retiring after only a few years and their viewership is declining.

To combat this, Disney’s turning to the web more now than ever. In an attempt to boost ratings, Disney recently bought YouTube channel Maker Studios for a whopping $500 million.

Maker Studios is essentially a company that produces, promotes and distributes other YouTube channels. They’re responsible for the success of YouTubers such as Kassem G, Timothy Delaghetto, Glozell and Shay Carl.

This partnership means that Disney will now be at the head of roughly 55,000 channels, YouTube and television alike. And with these 55,000 channels comes an entirely new range of viewers.

More than that, YouTube offers a new crop of potential Disney child talent. One of the billions of YouTube accounts could be the next Fred or Annoying Orange, both “YouTube sensations” that graduated to mainstream television and even music.

In addition to broadening its audience and having ties to potential stars, Disney is utilizing YouTube, its biggest competitor in the fight for the fidelity of viewers.

The company was offered an additional $450 million, given they reach their target performances. It is obvious that Disney has complete faith in the success of YouTube and its ever-growing audience.

Considering that YouTube reaches an audience of all ages, Disney is correct to assume that it is easily accessible considering the commonality of computers and YouTube’s content can range from 30-second funny fail videos to elaborate, well-made, 30-minute short films to running shows similar to those of television, complete with episodes and behind-the-scenes footage.