Source: News 3

Governor Sonny Perdue announced today that Savannah will be the filming location for the upcoming Disney film, The Last Song. The movie is expected to bring approximately 250 jobs to the state.

“I signed the 2008 Entertainment Industry Investment Act in support of our efforts to recruit film, music and digital entertainment projects to Georgia,” said Governor Perdue. “These industries are thriving and growing, boosting the state’s economy and employing thousands of Georgians.”

The script was written by noted author Nicholas Sparks. The production of the film will take place in Savannah and other nearby coastal locales. Julie Anne Robinson will direct The Last Song which is expected to start production in Georgia in mid-June and be completed by mid-August, 2009. Producer Dara Weintraub also produced another film in Savannah called The Clearing, which starred Robert Redford, Willem Dafoe and Helen Mirren.

Georgia’s new, more competitive incentives offer a 20 percent tax credit for qualified productions, which are then eligible for an additional 10 percent tax credit if they include an animated Georgia promotional logo within the finished product. The incentive covers more than just the film and television industries. The program also offers credits for commercials and music videos, as well as the first incentive in the nation to cover other areas of development including animation, interactive entertainment and video game development.

Nine feature films, two television series and one television pilot were produced in Georgia in the first quarter of 2009. A Sony Pictures produced television series began production in Georgia in April and three feature films are currently in production. Seven more feature films are slated for the state in the coming months.

The Film, Music and Digital Entertainment office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, assists local, national and international entertainment industries with expertise and resources. The staff points movie production companies to Georgia’s highly-trained crews, state-of-the-art facilities, and diverse locations. Georgia’s temperate climate and easy access afforded by Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, are also factors that attract the industry’s interest.

Since the inception of the office in 1973, more than 600 major motion pictures, independent films, television series and pilots, and TV movies have filmed on location in the state. As a result, over $5 billion dollars has been generated for the state’s economy.

Well, I think I’ll see how Miley’s HM movie does first, then I’ll coment on the new project.

The annual meeting of shareholders of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), including remarks by management regarding the Company, will be available live via audio webcast at www.disney.com/investors beginning at 10:00 a.m. PDT / 1:00 p.m. EDT on March 10, 2009. A re-play will be provided through March 24, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. PDT.

I hope you all listen in!

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I know very few of you will read the entire 2008 Disney Annual report. If you can make the time, I recommend it, but if not I’ve extracted the part relating to Disney Channel:

In 2008, Disney Channels Worldwide continued the momentum of the previous two years, building on the success of existing franchises High School Musical and Hannah Montana while introducing new animated and live-action series and original movies that captured the attention and imagination of kids around the world.

The Hannah Montana franchise was an important part of Disney Channels’ success in 2008. In the U.S. alone, the sophomore season of the hit series achieved an increase of 16 percent in total viewers over the previous year, while kids and their parents flocked to Hannah Montana concerts and fans around the world purchased soundtracks, DVDs and other merchandise to make the show a part of their daily lives.

In June, the Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock, starring teen sensations Jonas Brothers and rising star Demi Lovato, debuted in the United States as one of Disney Channel’s highest-rated original movies of all time, second only to High School Musical 2. The Camp Rock premiere was supported by a coordinated strategy of featuring content and marketing on air, online and on mobile phones. Camp Rock delivered the No. 1 entertainment telecast among cable networks for the 2007-08 season and was the No. 1 cable telecast of the year among Tweens (ages 9-14). Since its U.S. debut, Camp Rock has been introduced to enthusiastic audiences around the world.

Disney Channel continued to build on the popularity of the Jonas Brothers with the launch of the series Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream. The original short-form reality series not only gave the band’s fans a new way to watch them in action, it also created new opportunities for advertisers with premium online sponsorships.

Disney Channel scored additional success with the launch of the new animated hit series Phineas and Ferb and the live-action series Wizards of Waverly Place. Phineas and Ferb emerged as the year’s No. 1 animated series among both Kids (ages 6-11) and tweens, while Wizards took top honors as the summer’s No. 1 series among tween viewers.

Animated series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny continued to be hits among the preschool set. Each show delivered solid year-over-year increases in their young target audience (ages 2-5) as well as in total viewers.

The global success of burgeoning franchises like Hannah Montana and newer hits such as Camp Rock, Wizards of Waverly Place, Phineas and Ferb and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse drives revenue across the Company’s businesses, including Disney Media Networks, Disney Consumer Products, The Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Music Publishing Worldwide, Walt Disney Records, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Disney Theatrical Productions and the Company’s international distribution businesses.

Music from Disney Channel content is also featured in heavy rotation on Radio Disney, the only 24-hour kids and family radio network, now available nationwide in the U.S. on broadcast, satellite and cable platforms via live streaming feed from RadioDisney.com and on the iTunes Radio Tuner.

Source: Multichannel News

Disney Channel Tuesday said it has ordered additional episodes for the third season of Hannah Montana and a second season of The Suite Life on Deck—the network’s hit live-action series.

In the fourth quarter, Hannah Montana was basic cable’s top-rated series among kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14 and the No. 1 scripted series in total viewers. The Suite Life on Deck is currently ranks second among kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14 and is the third most-watched scripted series on basic cable in total viewers.

“The talent behind Hannah Montana has made it a true global sensation and cultural icon not just on television, where it topped the ratings on Disney Channels around the globe, but as a chart-topping music act and beyond,” Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channels Worldwide, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled with the extraordinary performance of our newest series, The Suite Life on Deck, in the U.S. and globally, and we look forward to telling more great stories with this talented cast and production team.”

Since its premiere in September, The Suite Life on Deck has reached 27 million unduplicated viewers worldwide. Set aboard a luxury cruise liner, the series tells the story of teenage twins Zack and Cody Martin and hotel heiress London Tipton as they spend a semester at sea aboard the SS Tipton.

Why would they extend the third season if they where planning on making a fourth? I therefore theorize that DC is planning on ending HM with season three. But it’s just a theory.

Source: Yahoo TV

Hannah Montana’s latest checkup resulted in a troubling diagnosis.

The Disney Channel confirmed to E! News that the network scrapped the episode it had intended to open the hit series’ third season—an episode titled “No Sugar, Sugar” that features a character (Hannah’s pal Oliver) dealing with diabetes—after some initial concerns as to how the disease was portrayed.

According to a network executive, the Disney Channel’s Standards and Practices team consulted with medical experts during the script-writing process “to inform the story and be sure it was told responsibly.”

“Notwithstanding the measures we took, and based on the episode’s preview and early feedback from parents, we removed the episode from Sunday’s schedule and are now reevaluating it,” the Disney rep said.

“We will await the results of the episode review by a variety of experts and then will make a determination on the episode’s future. Most importantly, we listened to those who expressed their concerns and consulted with the creative team (programmers and producers).”

It was then that they chose to pull the Nov. 2 episode, opting to make “He Ain’t a Hottie, He’s My Brother” the sitcom’s season-three premiere instead. Episode No. 2, “Ready, Set, Don’t Drive” (Billy Ray’s message to the almost-16-year-old Miley, perhaps?) premieres Sunday.

“Still, there is great interest, especially from parents, in seeing the subject of living with diabetes somehow incorporated into our storytelling for kids and families, so we’re hopeful we’ll do so in the future,” added the Disney Channel exec.

And it’s not as if the Mouse House doesn’t have a handle on the subject matter already. Also on Nov. 2, the Disney Channel aired an installment of Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream that explored how Nick Jonas manages his diabetes both at home and on tour. The 16-year-old JoBro appeared in a PSA afterward in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

What the heck? I only saw one prono for “No Sugar, Sugar”but I didn’t see anything objectionable.

Halloween is by far the best recruiting day of the year. All year long we spend a lot of time encouraging everyone to get out there and find more people who don’t yet know about our movements. This might be by posting flyers around town, wearing SDS merchandise, and/or by posting about us online. But on Halloween, kids and their parents come right to your door. What could be easier?

But we need you all to help!

Download and print out the new flyer and post one one your front door, gate, where ever people can read it. If you’re trick-or-treating leave a few flyers with you parents and take a few with you. Give them to anyone who seems interested. If you’re too old for trick-or-treating, you can still give flyers to anyone interested who comes begging for candy.

Download the new flyer here

You can also find many more flyers and handouts here. Or feel free to make your own!

And if you happen to dress up like a DC star or chracter this year, we’d love to see it! And we’d love to see how you make use of our flyers. Send us any photos you’d like to share at webmaster@savedisneyshows.org.

Webmaster Greg recently re-did the How to Help section of SDS to hopefully make it much more user friendly.

http://help.savedisneyshows.org/

Please give it a look and let us know what you think.

Please be critical – we can only make improvements when we know what users find good and bad.

Hannah Montana is coming to DVD, with a complete first season boxset!

Acording to tvshowsondvd.com, “This 4-disc set will contain all 26 episodes from the show’s opening year, including 17 episodes which have never been released on DVD before!”

I’m quite excited about this release, as it shows that Disney has lost it’s resistance to releasing current shows in DVD sets. Hopefully we’ll see more sets follow, although how quickly and what comes next will likely depend on how well this first set sells.

And you can preorder the set from Amazon right now!

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For the first time in ages, Disney Channel suffered a ratings decrease.

Hannah Montana’s ratings are down ever sense Miley’s Vanity Fair photos. The original Suite Life series is ending. KP and ADJL are over. And the only new show getting any decent promotion is Phineas and Ferb. And I doubt few would disagree with the statement that Camp Rock was no High School Musical.

My hope is that now Disney realizes that they cannot endlessly manufacture hits. At some point the fans really will begin to walk away in noticeable amounts.

Article Source: Animation Insider

Disney Channel lacked stability in Second Quarter of this year, with an uneven stream of weekly performances throughout much of the Quarter. Although select growth could be found following the launch of key episode premieres or following various television specials, Disney Channel saw a plethora of audience losses, with demographic losses in each month of analysis. April saw a decline with Kids 6-11 of roughly -08%, recorded through the Total Program Day, which although much, was the children’s channel’s smallest decline of the Quarter.

The Tweens 9-14 audience showed a consistent decline (Total Program Day), throughout April 2008 for the Disney Channel. Although the cartoon and live-action kid sitcom network has previously helped guide the tween audience, in a year-to-year comparison, the Tweens 9-14 demographic dropped -11% (down to 375,000) on average for this month.

Moving on to the month of May, Disney Channel, with Kids 6-11, similarly declined another -08% (Total Program Day). May 2008 was a difficult month on some level for almost all kids cable networks, but Disney Channel, for its loss, showed modest growth in Total Program Day with Kids 2-11 as the weeks continued; and likewise, in Primetime, Kids 6-11 viewers grew from week to week, if not every so slightly, while other kid networks showed a decline viewers at least one week in said month.

Disney Channel’s June saw double-digit declines in every notable kids demographic. The network saw a decline with the Kids 2-11 audience, when compared to the previous year, of -10% (TPD) and -14% (Primetime), and a similar drop in viewer delivery of -11% (TPD) and -15% (Primetime) with Kids 6-11. From a larger perspective, Disney Channel lost more viewers in Primetime than throughout the entire day of programming, in each demographic. The largest of such losses, in June 2008, were with Tweens. Tweens 9-14 viewership decreased -16% (TPD) and down another -21% (Primetime).

Regardless of Disney Channel’s multi-media dominance among all kid’s entertainment channels due to household reach — Disney Channel averaged a 1.55 Primetime rating in June as based on total U.S. household projection — Second Quarter 2008 saw a decrease of -09% (K6-11, TPD) overall. One key highlight though, specific to the network’s animated programming, was an episode of Phineas and Ferb in Q2 2008, which pulled in a commendable 1.29 million Kids 6-11.

Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS) fiscal third-quarter net income 9% as growth in its media networks and theme-park operations more than offset a decline in studio entertainment.

In the quarter ended June 28, the media and entertainment giant reported net income of $1.28 billion, or 66 cents a share, compared with $1.18 billion, or 57 cents a share, a year earlier. Unusual items added 4 cents a share to the latest quarter’s earnings.

Revenue climbed 2% to $9.24 billion.

The breakdown per division was:

Media Networks Oper Rev $4.12B Vs $3.83B
Media Networks Oper Net $1.47B Vs $1.36B
Parks And Resorts Oper Rev $3.04B Vs $2.90B
Parks And Resorts Oper Net $641M Vs $621M
Studio Entertainment Oper Rev $1.43B Vs $1.78B
Studio Entertainment Oper Net $97M Vs $190M
Consumer Pdts Oper Rev $642M Vs $537M
Consumer Pdts Oper Net $113M Vs $118M