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LAS VEGAS - Lost actors Evangeline Lilly and Matthew Fox lent the Consumer Electronics Show some added star power as they took to the stage to help Walt Disney Co.’s chief executive with his keynote address. Company chief executive, Robert Iger was using his speech before the packed crowd at CES to explain how important the Internet has become to TV networks. He said, sports fans spend an average of two hours each day on ESPN’s website, researching their teams. Disney owns ESPN. Shows offered on the company’s website have been played or download 120 million times over the past year and Disney was the first to offer its movie catalogue to viewers over Apple’s iTunes music service. Mr. Iger said, there is no show that demonstrates the importance of the Internet, than Lost. “ABC created this worldwide phenomena called Lost,” he said. “It has become the most successful multi-platform show ever. ABC.com has been overrun with fans coming to watch podcasts, discuss the show or view full length episodes.” Ms. Lilly, a Canadian originally from Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., who plays the character Kate on the show, said it’s particularly challenging to work on a show that has such a loyal online following. “The fans have a lot more control over the show than we do as actors,” she told the attendees at the conference. “We are really at the mercy of the fans. Producers go online to look at what is being said and they react to that.” Furthering Disney’s online offerings has been a pet project of Mr. Iger, who took over as chief executive from Michael Eisner in September 2005. In less than 16 months at the helm of Walt Disney, Mr. Iger has engineered a huge turnaround that has seen the company’s shares increase in value by more than 50 per cent. He also spearheaded the controversial takeover of Pixar Animation studios in January 2006 for $7.4 billion U.S. in stock. The move saw Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs become Disney’s largest shareholder and gave Mr. Jobs a seat on Disney’s board. Mr. Iger believed the takeover was necessary because a partnership agreement between the two companies was coming to an end and talks to extend the agreement were not going favourably. Pixar — which is responsible for movies such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Cars — has arguably turned out the most profitable Disney pictures over the past decade. Last night, he told the audience that Disney’s online content push has helped it to turn ESPN into the No. 1 sports network in the U.S., make shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy into worldwide hits, turn Disney.com into one of the most popular destinations for children and cement Disney movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean as smash hits. “Disney has had one key to its success and that is bringing the timelessness of great characters … to the timeliness of the cutting edge,” he said. “From a camera that re-invented animation in 1942 to the mega-gigahertz processing of computer animation today, Disney is a company where art challenges technology and technology inspires art.” With more than 59 per cent of Canadians and Americans using high-speed connections to access the Internet from home, the number of people watching video on their computer screens is growing and expected to take off sharply. The demand is already high enough to justify offering sports tournaments, such as the recently completed world junior hockey tournament in Sweden on the web. TSN offered coverage of the tournament on its website TSN.ca, the station said close to one million people watched the semifinal between Canada and the United States over their Internet connections. Source: Canada.com |
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