Just finished listening to Bob Iger’s keynote at the Sanford C. Bernstein Media Symposium, closed to the press but open virtually through the magic of Reg FD. (Scratchy audio, though, and no audio at all for questions from the audience; I’ll add a link when it’s available.) The q-and-a session gave the Disney (NYSE: DIS) CEO the chance to touch on many of the company’s new media initiatives—and to get a few laughs along the way. Some of the highlights:

Virtual worlds: Iger said the Cars virtual world due within the next year will cost millions, not hundreds of millions, to launch, in part, because it uses the infrastructure Disney already has in place: “My guess” is it should be profitable “fairly soon after launch because the investment isn’t tremendous.” He said recent acquisition Club Penguin is already profitable. “We’re growing subscribers nicely since the acquisition and we haven’t even begun to market it aggressively.” (CP launched in the UK today.)

Beyond ABC.com: Asked about ABC’s syndication deal with AOL, (NYSE: TWX) Iger said it boiled down to the need for “more reach than it will get at ABC.com.” They’re being very selective about partnerships, with “fair share of revenue” and “user interface” as criterion.

DVDs vs. downloadsThree aspects in particular still give the DVD an edge: hard-drive capacity, ease of TV hookup, kid-friendly. He mentioned the ability to store only a few movies or shows on iPods and the need to delete to make room for new ones: “If you had bought the DVD and liked the movie you wouldn’t want to throw it out.” Also, ” until you can really connect a computer to the television set, you won’t see mass consumption (of movies).” Television is a different equation from movies. 

Searching online vs. multichannel universe: Saying he was being critical in a productive sense and that he’s told Glenn Britt and Brian Roberts as much, Iger explained how search makes a difference the online entertainment more attractive. Type in “Rat DVD” and you’ll quickly find one of Disney’s hit videos but looking for VOD or a channel in the multichannel world using a remote cab be frustrating. Iger said he winds up going to Time Warner Cable’s (NYSE: TWC) web site to find certain digital channels when he’s at his New York apartment; “it’s a little clunky.. and if I want to find something VOD-related, oh my god.” Iger: “They have to understand that the consumer today is not going to tolerate a poor user interface. It will get in the way of consumption .. which is one of the reasons why we’re doing the things we’re doing. ... Now that they have all these channels it makes it harder to find. They’ve got to have convenient search ... Now I have to go to page 3, a-b-c, yellow-green-purple, backspace three times, then I had to do a cartwheel and wash
my face.”
User-gen content: Asked about the value of user-gen comment, Iger got to remind people that broadcasters were user-gen before the term existed: “I’m the one who put America’s Funniest Home Videos” on ABC in 1999. ... I was stupid though—I should have created YouTube.” (The late Brandan Tartikoff used to tell him that’s what he would be remembered for but given the chance now he might well pick putting ABC and Disney on iTunes.)