LPWire: Comcast, Disney Sign Landmark Broadbank Distribution Deal

This agreement makes ABC News on demand video and ABC News Live, 24/7 live streaming news programming, immediately and easily accessible to Comcast's 5.7+ million High-Speed Internet customers, at no additional cost.

Comcast also announced today that it plans to launch an online Kids Channel. Disney will provide Disney Connection, its broadband entertainment destination for kids ages 3-11, to support Comcast's launch planned for later this year. This will mark the first North American launch of the internationally popular Disney Connection.

ABC News on Comcast.net
Reports from across all ABC News broadcasts are now available on Comcast.net's Internet News Channel - the site's most popular channel. Comcast High-Speed Internet customers can now watch Nightline in its entirety, as well as on demand news reports from World News Tonight, Good Morning America, This Week, 20/20 and Primetime Live.

In addition to this expansive offering of on demand programming, ABC News Live also launches today on Comcast.net. ABC News Live, a built-for-broadband streaming application, delivers live breaking news events, hourly news briefs, and reports from ABC News correspondents. Beginning July 26, ABC News Live will provide unprecedented coverage of the national conventions, with Peter Jennings anchoring nightly gavel-to-gavel programming from Boston and New York. Regularly scheduled programming includes a daily political newscast, Politics Live, airing at 1:00 p.m. ET and a one-hour special, Vote 2004, at 7:00 p.m. ET during the conventions.

Comcast's Kids Channel with Disney Connection
Comcast will leverage the premier content of Disney Connection for its upcoming online Kids Channel, a safe interactive environment designed for today's broadband family. This channel is designed to further extend Comcast's broadband offering, with content that parents trust to educate and entertain their children. Forty percent of Comcast High-Speed Internet households include kids.

Disney Connection includes a regularly updated slate of games, activities and video from Disney, as well as select access to premium Disney offerings: Disney's Blast (http://www.disneyblast.com), and Disney's Toontown Online (http://www.toontown.com). Disney Connection basic and premium content will evolve over time. A premium, interactive educational service for preschoolers, in development now and slated for launch in 2005, will be added to Disney Connection.

"Delivering content from well-known and well-trusted brands over a true broadband network is key to providing our customers the best possible broadband Internet experience. This agreement with Disney and ABC News enables us to add significant value to our customers' lives - specifically in areas of high interest including, kids, news, and entertainment. Furthermore, by providing our customers with a dedicated kids channel and offering built- for-broadband services such as ABC News Live, we can continue to provide an unparalleled broadband Internet experience," said Greg Butz, senior vice president, marketing and business development for Comcast's online business.

"Our agreement with Disney marks one of the most comprehensive broadband agreements in our industry to date. The power of combining best-in-class content with built-for-broadband applications cannot be underestimated," Butz concluded.

"Broadband offers exciting new opportunities for us to bring quality news programming to our audiences in new ways at a time when the interest in news and politics couldn't be greater. We're delighted to team with Comcast, the number one broadband provider, and to introduce Comcast's more than 5.7 million current customers to ABC News Live and our video on-demand programming," said David Westin, President of ABC News.

"We are very happy to extend our Company's relationship with Comcast from cable television content to broadband Internet," said Steve Wadsworth, president, Walt Disney Internet Group. "With the rapid growth in broadband to the home, families are now enjoying appropriate rich-media content, and we are pleased to be working with Comcast to answer this need. The consumer wins through access to advanced content from brands they know and love, which can both help attract new broadband access subscribers and provide existing subscribers with a premier broadband experience."

-- Posted July 21, 2004