Blackburn joins the broadcaster from Nickelodeon, where he spent the last 10 years and was most recently senior director of kids and family audience research.

Earlier in his career he had spells as a senior analyst at Cartoon Network and held other roles with MTV Networks, Turner Classic Movies and Turner network Television.

At Disney Blackburn will work under senior vice president of research Kelly Pena and will lead a team of TV and digital researchers.

Pena said: “Jimmy brings a wealth of knowledge and credibility in the kids TV and digital media research arena, and adds a competitive dimension to our team as we continue to grow our business.”