Shameless Cross promotion on ABC? (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

Am I missing something, or has ABC been agressively promoting theatrical films during their prime time programing more then ever before or any other network?

A few weeks ago, I saw Jennifer Garner promoting her film "13 going on 30" between commercial breaks during the Friday night line up of comedies. I don't blame her as it was likely asked of her to do it. Maybe Disney produced this film and since she's on Alias on ABC, owned by Disney, they thought they should do this.

I saw the promos for Harry Potter coming up in 2 weeks and the shameless promotion of sneak peaks at the new Harry Potter film.

And I just happen to see in passing the shameless promotion of the new film by director M. Night Shyamalan, The Village, right before The Sixth Sense aired tonight.

All these films can't be connected to Disney, are they? I'll look it up.

Nelson

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Sixth Sense was distributed by Buena Vista (Disney). So was Unbreakable, which was also produced by another Disney company, Touchstone. And so is The Village. And it's not a coincidence that Unbreakable will be on ABC next Monday. For all this M. Night Shyamalan publicity you would think that The Village will be in theaters next week, but isn't it scheduled for July 30?

13 Going On 30 is distributed by Columbia Pictures. If ABC was plugging it then I think they were just doing it to promote Jennifer Garner.

Harry Potter is Warner Bros. ABC's use of sneak peaks at the new film is just to attract as many people as possible to tune in on May 9th. The May sweeps period begins on May 6th and Harry Potter is going to be one of ABC's heavyweights to get ratings because they don't have anything better. In any case, I'm sure ABC paid dearly for the broadcast rights, being the highest bidder, and I hope they get their money's worth from it.

 

[Ivan Lindenfeld]

Anyone that is surprised about Disney's expertise with cross/self promotion has never spent an hour watching The Disney Channel or listening to Disney Radio.

They do not advertise products on Disney Channel, just other Disney properties.

Disney Radio is all Disney artists or Disney artists remaking older (mostly 80's) songs.

It's brilliant, although a bit annoying to an adult. My kids love it.