- Court Ruling Could Mean Trouble for TiVo
- Another Music Lawsuit, but with an Unexpected Target
- Will Newspaper Readers Pay For Digital Content?
- Is Google Hurting Book Publishers?
- Supreme Court's Ruling A Blow To Big Media
- The "New" Michael Jackson Fortune
- Hollywood Cashing In On Financial Crisis
- GM Gives Hope To Ad Industry
- "Revenge of the Fallen's" Transforming Effect On Viacom, Hasbro And ...GM?
- Time Warner And Comcast Partner To Save Cable
More Videos
|
CNBC'S MOST SHARED
- 'We're in the Middle of a Crash': Black Swan
- The Rising Mountain of Debt May Be the Next Crisis
- Latvian Banker Taking Souls as Collateral
- SEC May Reinstate Rules for Short-Selling Stocks
- Your First Move For Monday July 6th
- Malaysia PM Speaks to CNBC
- Cuddle Parties Heat Up
- NY City Apartment Sales Down More Than 50%
- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Will Resign
- The Worst Expected 2010 State Budget Gaps
- Fireworks At Pharma's Market
- Value of Warren Buffett's Annual Gift to Gates Foundation Falls Along With Berkshire's Stock
- Michael Jackson: The Music And The Money
- Five Stock Picks for This Market
- Realities of the New Obama Refis
- Weak Dollar Means Gold at $1,040: Strategist
- Court Ruling Could Mean Trouble for TiVo
- Lance, Please Back Out Of Tour
- TeleMedicine Gets An Apple App Store Facelift
- The Rising Mountain of Debt May Be the Next Crisis
- North Korea Fires 7 Missiles Off East Coast
- Palin's Resignation May Hurt Her Future
- For Banks, Wads of Cash and Loads of Trouble
- SEC May Reinstate Rules for Short-Selling Stocks
- For Australian Winemakers, More Turns Out to Be Less
- Vatican Runs Deficit Amid Economic Crisis
- Earnings Season: A Likely Game-Changer
- Slideshow: Best-Selling Fourth of July Fireworks
Text Size 
 |
The digital studio is teaming up with a division of ad giant Omnicom, OMG Digital, to create episodic content around certain products for distribution online.
And today, the company announced two new web-based series, "Gemini Division", a science fiction series starring Rosario Dawson, that Intel [INTC
Loading...
()
] , Cisco Systems [CSCO
Loading...
()
] , and Microsoft [MSFT
Loading...
()
] are involved with developing. "Woke Up Dead," is a comedy about a college-aged zombie. I haven't heard which companies are on board there.
The company has said that thanks to the product integration deals, the series are profitable from the start. Expect the segments to be distributed to NBC.com, as well as Hulu.com, which NBC Universal co-owns with News Corp [NWS
Loading...
()
] , as well as to mobile content providers.
NBC is taking a fresh approach to the series of 50 three-minute episodes. It'll actually preview the first several episodes of the series on TV, using television to drive people online--the opposite of how these things usually work.
Another interesting angle: In acquiring the digital rights to these shows, NBC has also snagged the right to develop them into TV series if it works. Now taking web series "Quarterlife" to NBC's primetime didn't work at all as it bombed on TV. But this wouldn't be a direct transplant, it would be a totally new show, based on the webisodes.
Nearly all the media companies seem to be investing in original digital programming. ABC's Stage 9 Digital Media, its in-house digital media studio released an original series, "Squeegees" to ABC.com and YouTube in February. CBC TV Distribution just last week unveiled its branded-integration studio, for adding sponsorships and brand presence to game shows and entertainment news.
What distinguishes NBC's studio is its partnership with an outside media agency--OMG digital. Now we'll see if sponsorships are the ticket to online content profitability.
Disclosure: CNBC is owned by NBC Universal, which is a unit of GE [GE
Loading...
()
].
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes