Disney launches UK kids portal, Europe to follow

By Gavin Haycock

LONDON (Reuters) - Entertainment group Walt Disney's Internet arm said on Thursday it was about to launch a UK portal aimed at young adults showcasing its games, films, music and social networking assets in one British Web site.

The Disney.co.uk Web site will launch on Monday and follows the launch of the concept in the United States earlier this year. Similar Web portal offerings will be launched in Europe.

"We are looking to the continent not surprisingly so we will be looking to France, Italy, Germany and Spain for our next rollouts," said Cindy Rose, who heads Disney's Internet arm in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as the group unveiled details of the new Web offering on Thursday at a briefing in London.

The Disney site, like its U.S. predecessor, has at its heart a feature called Disney Extreme Digital, aimed at children that allows them to customise multi-media content simultaneously while watching and sharing videos, messages, music and games.

Online parental protection measures are wrapped into the site as well as functionality that prompts children to use Disney-proposed online chat phrases that have an emphasis on being polite while also using language that can reflect whether the user is looking at content focused on pirates or princesses.

The UK Web site will include what Disney describes as "snack-size" movie and television clips, podcasts and locally produced content alongside archived and new material.

This is part of a strategy to focus developing online communities of fan bases, said Rose.

Disney did not disclose how much it has spent on the portal.