Toon Disney became Disney XD Fri, all part of a rebrand intended to draw more tween boys to the channel. But we had to wonder if the Disney brand conjures up images of princesses, Mickey Mouse and Hannah Montana. Those aren’t exactly the kind of things most 11-year-old boys want to be associated with. But Disney Channels Worldwide pres Rich Ross assured us that the net purposefully put the Disney name first and foremost in the new moniker

“The parks have huge boy affinity and movies like “Pirates (of the Caribbean)” and “Cars” and a lot of the products over time. It’s never an issue,” Ross tells us. “We know with Disney Channel we certainly skew more girl than boy, but its preschool block, ‘Playhouse Disney,’ is 50/50.

So part of the idea behind XD is that when boys outgrow Playhouse Disney, they’ll have a complementary branded Disney Channel for them.

“And while we think this new brand will track boys, we’re never exclusionary from girls as 40% of our audience at Disney Channel are boys,” Ross said.

Disney XD is off to a strong start with its 1st original series, “Aaron Stone,” drawing 303K kids 6-13, driven by boys 6-14 (232K). The new net reached 6.5mln unduplicated total viewers in its Fri launch.

 

The Daily

Subscribe

FCC Approvals Raise Speculation for More Mergers

The FCC’s approval of a trifecta of deals—T-Mobile-UScellular, Intelsat-SES and T-Mobile-Metronet—could open the floodgates for more consolidation

Read the Full Issue
The Skinny is delivered on Tuesday and focuses on the cable profession. You'll stay in the know on the headlines, topics and special issues you value most. Sign Up

Calendar

Sep 11
2025 Faxies Awards Faxies Nominations Open! Final deadline: 4/4/25
Full Calendar

Jobs

Seeking an INDUSTRY JOB or hiring for one?
VIEW JOBS

In conjunction with our sister brand, Cynopsis, we are offering hiring managers a deep pool of media-savvy, skilled candidates at a range of experience levels and sectors. The result will be an even more robust industry job board, to help both employers and job seekers.

Contact Carley Ashley, [email protected], for more information about posting a job on the website and our Jobs newsletter, sent twice weekly to 85,000 media professionals.