ON a scorching afternoon in Los Angeles last month, Victoria Beckham and her sons were excitedly awaiting the premiere of an event that much of America had been anticipating for months.

This was not, however, the soccer debut of her husband, David, who was sitting alongside his family in Disneyland. Rather, the celebrity couple and their kids were the star guests at the premiere of High School Musical 2, the follow-up to the hugely successful Disney made-for-television movie of the same name.

The original film, which premiered in America in January 2006, cost $4m (£2m) to make and tells the story of a group of kids who challenge the unwritten rules of their cliques to star in the school show. The movie became a $100m phenomenon – the soundtrack was America’s best-selling CD last year. The sequel, which airs in Britain on the Disney Channel later this month, has been doing even better.

The follow-up cost $7m and has broken television records in America. It has become the most-watched, basic-cable television show of all time, pulling in 17.2m viewers, and the second-highest rated television show of all time among 9-to14year olds (eclipsed only by the 2004 Superbowl).

High School Musical is well on the way to becoming a huge franchise for the Walt Disney Company, on a par with other hits such as The Lion King, which has spawned a hugely lucrative series of CDs, DVDs and stage shows.

There has already been a platinum-selling soundtrack of the Musical. An ice-show is in the works, while a third film, to be shown in cinemas, is going into production. But is there a danger the series could cease to be fashionable with its mainly 8 to 14-year-old audience?

Rich Ross, president of the Disney Channel, is keen to ensure that does not happen. “When we did the first movie, and it succeeded, people said this is a fad. Then it lived longer, and it became a trend. It’s now 18 months since the original movie and people are saying its legs are in good shape and it’s running very fast.”

He argues that the key to keeping the franchise on track is to keep it fresh. That means innovating, such as by adding new characters, or delivering new instalments in other formats like books.

Disney’s success, and its commitment to original programming, should represent a boon to British producers, who are concerned about a big drop-off in the production of children’s television. ITV, the terrestrial commercial broadcaster, announced it would stop investing in kids’ shows because of a ban on certain types of advertising aimed at children.

Ross, who spent part of his career working in Britain, is bemused, and says talk of the death of children’s television is premature.

“The BBC continues to buy and make programming. I know we do; Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network do. There may be different faces doing it. Britain has more kids’ channels than any other market in the world, so it’s hard to see it going away,” he said.

With High School Musical becoming the biggest brand in the Disney Channel portfolio, Ross is keen to ensure it does not become the tail wagging the Disney dog. “The temptation could be that it overwhelms everything,” he said.

But Ross stressed the channel has other hits, including a show called Hannah Montana and a film called Jump In.

He declined to disclose the size of his production budget, but as an indication of the scale of the operation, the current television season will have 605 new episodes of fresh and returning series, six new movies and 805 “short-form” episodes like cartoons.

In common with a handful of the big Hollywood movie studios – Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal – the Disney Channel is also starting to deliver more local content targeted at the markets in which it broadcasts.

In some cases, this has meant producing overseas versions of tried-and-tested American programmes. Increasingly, Ross says that shows developed by overseas branches of the channel are being reworked. A kids’ sitcom developed by the Italian Disney Channel called Quelli dell’intervallo is being remade for Britain under the title As The Bell Rings.

For parents tiring of the relentlessly upbeat tunes and bubblegum mood of High School Musical, the bad news is that this is just the beginning.

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