Web Series

SPOTLIGHT: Kutcher's Blah Blah web video series

Pete Wylie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:36:43 -0400

Ashton Kutcher débuted his new interactive online video production, BlahGirls, at TechCrunch50 in San Francisco Tuesday, as more and more Hollywood players turn their attention to the burgeoning online video market.

Kutcher's show, which he described as a "dynamic interactive pop culture celebrity environment," focuses on three preteen girls who make off-color references about celebrities (sounds eerily similar to a certain show about potty-mouthed preteens hailing from a small Colorado town...). The show is interactive; users can send in comments that the girls will respond to in kind with positive comments drawing positive responses while negative comments draw negative responses. The site also features a celebrity news blog, which Kutcher should know a thing or two about, considering the considerable amount of space he has occupied in print over the past few years.

"Blah Girls" is just one of five web series in production at Katalyst Media, Kutcher's production company, as the actor joins the migration of Hollywood stars to the web.

For more:
- check out gigaom.com's extensive coverage of all things Tech Crunch

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"The Resistance" for EQAL

Doug Mohney — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:38:31 -0400

The web video producers who gave us "lonelygirl15," presents their latest offering, "LG15: The Resistance."

"The Resistance" is being shot in Los Angeles and is being syndicated through a number of top U.S. video sites, including YouTube, MySpaceTV, Hulu, imeem and Veoh. EQAL is producing 12 installments for season one, which launches online on September 20, and will air a new episode every Saturday. Fans can choose to watch the weekly episodes only, or they can immerse themselves in the broader LG15.com website which has "daily snippets" of content, including blog postings, polls and characters' video blogs.

Part soap opera, part deep conspiracy, the new series features teen characters (no surprise there; "lonelygirl15" was also allegedly a teen) facing their daily lives and a mysterious group seeking out young girls with a rare blood type.

Creators of the series fess up and say Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog," was their muse.

Advertising will include some display ads and overlays, but no preroll video, says EQAL. The company is also seeking to interest brands in product integration (placement) deals within the story if the products fit.

For more:
- AdWeek talks about "The Resistance." Article
- And so does CNet. Blog

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Strike.tv premiere

Pete Wylie — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:39:06 -0400

Want to see what your favorite T.V. writes and actors were up to during the writers' strike? The "strike.tv" beta version goes online next week, offering over 40 original web series from cast members of shows including The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live and The Office. The shows were created and filmed while actors and writers were striking, in part, to negotiate better compensation for the use of online content.

Most of the offerings are comedies (what do you expect from the The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live?), but there will be some dramatic series as well, such as With the Angels, a 36-part series about an Arkansas native who learns about herself and life when she makes the move to Venice Beach, California.

All profits generated in the first three months on air will be donated to a fund for broadcast T.V. crew members who suffered financial hardship during the strike.

For more:
- strike.tv's website.

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Dr. Horrible's Quick Return (Or I Feel Used)

Doug Mohney — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:10:52 -0400

The "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" web-isode by Joss Whedon was cold barely a week before it suddenly reappeared on Hulu and MySpace. So much for "ad free" and "exclusive."

Whedon's initial telegraphed business plan was to run the three-part web series across a week without commercials and then pull it off the air, er servers, forcing people to either buy the iTunes now to catch up with what happened or buy the forthcoming DVD with guest commentary. If viewers caught it on line during its limited run, they would feel, well, special.

Instead, "Dr. Horrible" quickly returns online with ads (sponsored by Hungry Man and some cat food maker during this reporter's viewing) and is being syndicated across multiple sites; Hulu has Dr. H. for a four-month run.

Don't worry, the "Dr. Horrible" DVD with plenty of extras is still coming and a sequel is in the works. There's even speculation Dr H. may appear as a holiday special on "classic" TV (but more likely a cable run on VH-1, M-TV, or Sci-Fi Channel).

Dr. Evil, er, Joss Whedon does, alas, have good green reasons to shuffle up his online viewing plans. The first run of Dr. H clocked nearly 450,000 streams a day and a mind-boggling 2.25 million streams (actually more, due to some Hulu accounting tricks) across its five-day run. And that's before adding on iTunes sales.

If you are really a "Dr. Horrible" fan-person, Whedon is reportedly going to take 3 minute video submissions if you want to be in the "Evil League of Evil." Think Survivor. Sort of. Top 10 will end up on the DVD.

For more:
- LA Times announces the rapid return of Dr. Horrible
- Dr. Horrible sequel news from Paste

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Veoh Launches Behavioral Ad Targeting

Doug Mohney — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:41:54 -0400

Veoh Network has announced a new behavioral targeting system for online video ads. The new system, currently in beta, combines video consumption, searching, browsing and community activity data from Veoh's 28 million plus viewers to deliver branded ads and content to viewers across multiple lifestyle and interest categories.

With more than a billion video views every quarter (and growing), Veoh is able to observe viewer behavior and patterns across various forms and sources of content, so they can provide marketers with targeted tools to reach groups of viewers looking at everything from network TV shows to made-for-web series and independently produced short form video. For example, an advertiser wanting to target tech and gaming junkies can use Veoh's tools to deliver ads when they're watching related video and when they're watching other types of programming on Veoh.

Veoh's new system will initially target ads and branded content to "more than" nine interest-based audience segments, and the company can build custom audience categories around an advertiser's specific marketing needs. Once out of the beta, Veoh plans to identify additional audience segments and add improvements for even more customized ad targeting offerings. Initial tests of the new system before the beta launch yielded performance lifts of more than twice the standard ads on Veoh.

For more:
- Veoh announces online video behavioral targeting

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