Disney, AOL Sign Movie Content Deal

Walt Disney Co. said Friday that it would provide America Online with exclusive movie content as part of an effort to find new audiences.

AOL’s websites, such as Moviefone.com, will offer a first look at photos, artwork, behind-the-scenes video and footage from Disney’s “The Chronicles of Narnia,” set for release this holiday season, the companies said.

AOL is a unit of New York-based Time Warner Inc.

The deal extends Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger’s push to open distribution channels for Disney content. Iger and Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steven Jobs announced this month that Burbank-based Disney would sell five ABC television and Disney Channel shows through Apple’s iTunes online store.

“It’s in our best interest to put some of the old rules aside and create new ones and follow the consumer -- what the consumer wants and where the consumer wants to go,” Iger said.

Iger wants to ensure that Disney products are put before the public as often as possible: “It’s vital for a company such as ours to be incredibly vigilant in terms of the consumer. Consumers today, using great technological tools, have many more choices in terms of how they spend their time, what they consume in terms of media and they do so in many different places on many different devices.”

Shares of Disney rose 2 cents Friday to $22.98. Time Warner fell 15 cents to $17.23.