Homework for Babies
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Former Walt Disney Co. chairman Michael Eisner has announced plans to buy a company that makes educational DVDs that teach math and spelling concepts to preschoolers using imagery from college athletics.
The company is Team Baby Entertainment. The business idea is to introduce the child to its parents' favorite athletic team. They offer half-hour DVDs tied to various college sports at name colleges. Each DVD shows video of the featured school's sports teams, interspersed with video clips of campus attractions, traditions, stadiums and mascots and kids playing with a variety of school-specific products. The idea is that preschoolers learn counting and spelling by using words, numbers and images related to the school.
The educational part sounds plausible. It would presumably draw on the methods of Sesame street and Children’s Television Workshop. The DVD’s are currently offered for prices of $13 to $20. That’s a bit pricy. But not for a gift, which might be the main market.
The question in my mind is: Why is there a market at all? Why aren’t the universities already offering this kind of thing to their alumni? Free. Or they could use the meaning of Free as redefined by public television (Free with your gift of $180). After all, these DVD’s are really half-hour infomercials for the schools. And the schools have all the resources they need to do this:
A direct mailing list to the market.
A school of business with students who could work out the business plan a class project.
A school of education that could advise on the educational aspects.
Departments or schools that teach marketing, TV production, and related skills.
The teams and the related rights for commercialization.
Servers and plenty of bandwidth to the internet. They would not have to spend money making DVD’s. They would just offer it for download. Of course, for that $180 contribution the school’s general fund, you would get a DVD in a beautiful gift package.
Looks to me as if some enterprising, entrepreneurial university could come in, undercut, and pull the market out form under his business. Is Michael Eisner worried about competition from enterprising, entrepreneurial universities? I guess not.
The company is Team Baby Entertainment. The business idea is to introduce the child to its parents' favorite athletic team. They offer half-hour DVDs tied to various college sports at name colleges. Each DVD shows video of the featured school's sports teams, interspersed with video clips of campus attractions, traditions, stadiums and mascots and kids playing with a variety of school-specific products. The idea is that preschoolers learn counting and spelling by using words, numbers and images related to the school.
The educational part sounds plausible. It would presumably draw on the methods of Sesame street and Children’s Television Workshop. The DVD’s are currently offered for prices of $13 to $20. That’s a bit pricy. But not for a gift, which might be the main market.
The question in my mind is: Why is there a market at all? Why aren’t the universities already offering this kind of thing to their alumni? Free. Or they could use the meaning of Free as redefined by public television (Free with your gift of $180). After all, these DVD’s are really half-hour infomercials for the schools. And the schools have all the resources they need to do this:
A direct mailing list to the market.
A school of business with students who could work out the business plan a class project.
A school of education that could advise on the educational aspects.
Departments or schools that teach marketing, TV production, and related skills.
The teams and the related rights for commercialization.
Servers and plenty of bandwidth to the internet. They would not have to spend money making DVD’s. They would just offer it for download. Of course, for that $180 contribution the school’s general fund, you would get a DVD in a beautiful gift package.
Looks to me as if some enterprising, entrepreneurial university could come in, undercut, and pull the market out form under his business. Is Michael Eisner worried about competition from enterprising, entrepreneurial universities? I guess not.
posted by Selby Evans at 1:37 PM
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