Disney Focuses on Boys

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'Walt Disney Co. is making a push to crack a market that few media companies have been able to conquer -- boys aged 6-14.

Next month, the company will launch a boy-focused entertainment brand called Disney XD, consisting of a new cable television channel, a comprehensive Web site with games, music, videos and social networking.

For Disney, the move marks a new push designed to replicate some of the success it has scored in recent years with its largely girl-targeted entertainment franchises such as Hannah Montana, High School Musical and the Jonas Brothers.

"We looked at the landscape and feel that girls are being served -- if not super-served, and preschoolers are also well served, but boys really haven't been," says Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide. "If boys have been served, it's been mostly in animation, which [is] only a narrow portion of what boys are interested in."

Using both television and a new Web portal, Disney hopes to introduce boys to a host of new live-action and animated shows, original movies, new music acts and games. And Disney executives also hope to leverage boys' love of sports, using the company's ESPN brand, which will likely collaborate on original programming and other sports-themed topics for Disney XD. (Disney says the letters don't refer to anything.)'