Disney Interactive and YouTube team to create family-friendly video destinations

Disney Interactive and YouTube are joining forces to bring family-friendly video entertainment to the web. The alliance will bring together the leading provider of family-friendly entertainment with the Internet’s most popular destination for video programming.Complementary online video destinations tailored to Disney audiences will be made available on both {Disney.com} and YouTube in early 2012, furthering Disney Interactive’s strategy to deliver the most relevant and immersive online experiences to its guests wherever they are. Disney Interactive will produce and program the co-branded video destinations for both Disney.com and YouTube, providing a family-friendly experience for viewers across both platforms. Programming will include video drawn from relevant family-friendly content currently available across YouTube, original video produced by Disney, as well as a blend of current Disney Interactive original series, select Disney Channel programming and Disney user created content. An original video series based on Disney’s hit mobile game Where’s My Water? and its main character Swampy will be the first project to launch in February and will be followed by other similarly short-form, family-oriented programming. “With online video consumption exploding and YouTube at the center of that trend, we see an opportunity for Disney Interactive and YouTube to bring Disney’s legacy of storytelling to a new generation of families and Disney enthusiasts on the platforms they prefer. As we prepare to re-launch Disney.com in fall 2012, the Disney/YouTube destination will play a critical part in our next generation platform,” said Jimmy Pitaro, co-president of Disney Interactive.