World: Medium of the week - Walt Disney Television targets Asia's pre-schoolers.

Lack of audience data and coverage may limit Disney's venture.

Side-stepping any polemics about the ethics of advertising to children, the Mouse has set its sights on the potentially lucrative, if under-served, market segment of three- to five-year-olds in Asia.

Walt Disney Television International (Asia-Pacific), the regional TV arm of the entertainment giant, last month launched its 24-hour Playhouse Disney Channel in Indonesia and Hong Kong. The pay-TV channel is also slated to hit Singapore TV screens soon.

The launches are part of a regional roll-out of Asia-Pacific's first dedicated pre-school learning channel. Unlike in the West, there is little debate in the region about the ethics of targeting children, so the channels are likely to encounter little public opposition.

Why 24 hours? 'Besides children two to five years old, the channel is also for parents and caregivers of pre-schoolers who may only have time to watch after the primetime viewing for pre-schoolers has passed,' Raymund Miranda, the vice-president and managing director of Walt Disney Television International (Southeast Asia/Korea), explains.

Indonesia and Hong Kong are the fourth and fifth markets to receive the commercial-free channel after the UK, Spain and France. The company plans to extend the distribution of Playhouse Disney across Southeast Asia and Korea.

Disney claims the new channel features 'award-winning pre-school programmes, locally produced hosted-activity segments and customised short-form programming that engages and stimulates pre-schoolers' imagination and learning in a seamlessly fun and creative environment'.