Mobile TV will be a huge factor in the future according to Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney-ABC TV, who said ABC’s experiments with streaming TV programming online are also promising.

Speaking at international audiovisual content trade show Mipcom this week, Sweeney detailed some of Disney’s new media initiatives. “Industry analysts predict that mobile television could be a global market worth as much as $27 billion by 2010,” she pointed out. Disney already has deals in place with Vodafone Italy and Orange Mobile in the U.K. and just finalized a deal to stream Disney Channel via France Telecom’s Orange service.

Part of Disney’s drive to go mobile is being fueled by the rise of piracy. “We now understand that piracy is a business model. It exists to serve a need in the market - specifically consumers who want TV content on demand. And piracy competes for consumers the same way we do - through quality, price and availability,” Sweeney explained.

Sweeney also revealed positive results from ABC.com’s latest program streaming initiative. The promotion has garnered 2.5 million requests for shows in the past two weeks, compared with 5.7 million requests over a two-month test period in the spring - the first time ABC streamed its top shows online.