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Disney has boy trouble

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The Associated Press

Published: September 3, 2009

BURBANK, Calif. - A funny thing happened on the way to remaking the Toon Disney channel into one that catered to "tween" boys: It got a lot more popular with girls.

Perhaps it's because teenagers Hutch Dano and Adam Hicks, the stars of the channel's most popular new show, "Zeke and Luther," exude a goofy innocence in a scrubbed-clean environment.

Whatever the reason, the slightly off-kilter rebranding effort at the channel now called Disney XD highlights a larger problem at The Walt Disney Co.: It has had difficulty winning over young males.

Disney this week announced what it hopes is part of the solution, agreeing to buy comic book giant Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.

A closer look at Disney's ongoing efforts with the XD channel - where prime-time ratings this summer nearly doubled among boys ages 9 to 14 but tripled among girls the same age - helps explain why the company wanted Marvel's outside firepower in its quest for boy-focused content.

Marvel is expected to bring more superhero power to Disney XD, adding to the 20 hours per week of Marvel content that already runs on the network.

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