Television's most powerful female executive sat staring at her computer, perplexed.
Anne Sweeney had just received an e-mail from her 16-year-old daughter, Rosemary. The two swap facts from bottle caps of Snapple and Sweeney asked her daughter if she e-mails these tidbits to her friends.
Rosemary typed back: "Nobody e-mails anymore. We text message."
The married mother of two laughs when admitting the challenges of keeping up with her kids and their new technologies. But when it comes to the emerging platforms affecting her business, Sweeney is at the forefront of bringing the TV industry into the digital age.
Advancing new content models in the ever-changing tide of 21st century media was one of Sweeney's mandates three years ago when she was elevated to co-chairwoman of Disney Media Networks and president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, which includes oversight of ABC, Touchstone Television studio and 24 international Disney-owned cable channels.
Having helped resuscitate a lifeless ABC with "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" in the fall of 2004, the 49-year-old Sweeney revolutionized the TV business the following year by selling episodes of hit TV series on iTunes, Apple's online music store. Later, she shook things up again by streaming shows online at ABC.com.
Then last year, she brokered a deal with Verizon Communications to deliver content from ABC's daytime soaps on the Internet. And Disney Channel phenomenon "High School Musical" _ with its successes on cable, iTunes, online and now the stage _ have furthered bolstered Disney-ABC's multiplatform initiative.
"It's a far better world for the television viewer than it was 18 months ago because we're providing more access," says Sweeney in her penthouse office suite at ABC's West Coast headquarters. "We are all about our viewers and finding new and better and different ways to be more a part of their lives."
Considering her vast responsibilities, Sweeney is notably "the creme de la creme" of women in the TV business, says Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, president and CEO of Women in Cable Telecommunications. "There has been no one else like her in terms of the sheer scope of the industry she oversees."
Disney Media Networks Co-chairman George Bodenheimer agrees: "Anne has a very good view of the big picture. Success in entertainment has a lot of parents, but she clearly has a big hand in the creative development at ABC and Disney and they've been successful. That doesn't happen by accident."
But for Sweeney, getting into television did.
Originally setting her sights on a career in teaching, Sweeney's career path changed course after she got her master's in education at Harvard. An internship at Children's Television Workshop, the people who created "Sesame Street," lured her toward the idea of using television as an instructional tool for kids.
Then her work as an ABC page in New York _ watching productions of shows like "The $10,000 Pyramid" and "Good Morning America" _ solidified her decision to work in TV.
"I was just hooked," says Sweeney, her demeanor quiet and easygoing. "What struck me was that it was constantly being created ... no two days were ever the same, and I loved how that translated into the work."
In 1981, she joined a then little-known children's cable channel called Nickelodeon. Starting as an administrative assistant, Sweeney rose through the ranks under Geraldine Laybourne, eventually becoming a senior vice president overseeing the channel's international expansions
"She is a very deal-oriented executive," noted Laybourne, now chairman and CEO of Oxygen Media. "In the early days, she would wear pleated skirts and loafers into negotiation meetings. People would so completely underestimate her. I'm sure no one underestimates her today."
Sweeney moved to News Corp.'s startup FX in 1993. It became one of the largest basic cable launches in history, based on the number of homes reached. Three years later, she left to take over the reins at Disney Channel _ and transformed it from a languishing premium channel to a basic-cable children's programming powerhouse.
"I'm attracted to the difficult. I'm attracted to the challenge," Sweeney says, adding: "I love figuring out: What do we create next? How do we put our assets together to grow our business?"
Insiders offer some suggestions: boost the prime-time content on ABC and leverage the presence of ABC Family Channel.
"ABC Family still has a ways to go, but ABC prime time is their biggest challenge," notes MediaWeek columnist Marc Berman. "ABC hasn't been able to do what CBS has done in building a really solid schedule six nights a week."
And even though CBS had plenty of failures this season, "they still have a strong schedule," Berman says. "ABC has a lot of potholes. They need to get back in the business of half-hour sitcoms ... more than any other genre, that's the key ingredient to any schedule."
With ABC's pilot season under way, Sweeney is keeping an eye out for unique shows and exploring new ways to further broadcast and cable franchises.
"Right now, I'm looking at this digital space ... there are a number of things I want to experiment with this year," she says. "A year from now, I know it's going to look totally different than it does today."
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