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Web television

History

1994 to 2000: Early Pioneers

In 1995, New York advertising creative Scott Zakarin convinced his employers Fattal and Collins to create a website television drama along the lines of the contemporary television drama Melrose Place. The Spot became the first episodic fiction website, the first web soap. It was also the first such site financed by advertising banners and product placements from such companies as Sony and Apple Computer. It featured beautiful actors in a Santa Monica beach house called “The Spot”. The characters kept what would be later termed blogs, with movie clips and photos of their current activities. Viewers could post to the site and email the cast to offer advice and became part of the storyline. Audience opinion was used by the writers to shift the plot-lines around.

According to Zakarin, at its height the site received over 100,000 hits a day, a tremendous response for its time. The site earned one of the original Webby Awards. However, the site was still unable to generate sufficient revenue to support the series and three sister series, each of which attracted a significant following as well as outside competitors such as The East Village. Zakarin sold his interest in 1996 to investors who formed American Cybercast and was later fired. (Zakarin produced another comic soap, Grape Jam before returning to broadcast media and film (notably producing the Shatner-Nimoy dialogue Mind Meld) before returning to the Internet with Soup of the Day and Roommates.) The Spot continued alongside other American Cybercast web series, notably the firct sci-fi series Eon-4 and The Pyramid, until the company fell into bankruptcy in 1997.

Another early series, Homicide: Second Shift was a pioneering web series that tied into the broadcast television series Homicide: Life on the Street. The web series started in 1997 and was ultimately canceled due to financial constraints and technological restrictions.

In 1999, Santa Monica based Television Internet premiered the eight-minute weekly series Muscle Beach. It was sitcom, news and fitness program in one, viewable for free with the then brand new Microsoft Windows Media Player. The series lasted three seasons.

Other early web television pioneers included Icebox.com, Digital Entertainment Network, Shockwave, and Pop.com.

2000 to 2005: The birth of the networks

As broadband bandwidth began to increase, the reality of high quality video being delivered over the Internet became a reality. On the content delivery front, important players such as YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion launched their services. On the content production front, shows such as Rocket Boom make their first appearance, and post-dot-com bust video networks such as ManiaTV! and Ripe TV launch.

2006: The birth of the web series

In mid-2006, several independent Web series began to achieve popularity, most notably lonelygirl15 (created by Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders and Greg Goodfried) and Sam Has 7 Friends (created by production company Big Fantastic). Both series were distributed independently using online portals YouTube and Revver. Both series acquired audiences in the millions, with lonelygirl15 receiving over 100 Million views during its 26-month run. The series was so successful that it secured a sponsorship with Neutrogena, while Sam Has 7 Friends was nominated for an Emmy and temporarily removed from the Internet when it was acquired by Michael Eisner.

2007: Expansion, interactivity and social networking

In 2007, Beckett and Goodfried followed up their lonelygirl15 success with KateModern, a series which debuted on social networking website Bebo, and took place in the same fictional universe as lonelygirl15. Meanwhile, Big Fantastic created and produced Prom Queen, which was financed and distributed by Michael Eisner's nascent online studio Vuguru, and debuted on social networking site MySpace. Both web serials highlighted interactivity with the audience in addition to the narrative story, and were again produced on relatively low budgets. In contrast, the web series Sanctuary, starring actress/producer Amanda Tapping, cost $4.3 Million to produce. Both Sanctuary and Prom Queen were nominated for an Emmy. Award-winning producer/director Marshall Herskovitz created the web series Quarterlife, which debuted on MySpace and was later distributed on NBC. Felicia Day created and stars in the independent comedy web series The Guild, which won the 2007 YouTube Video Award for Best Series.

2008: Legitimacy of the Medium & The rise of Hollywood

2008 saw the Internet grow as a marketing tool and outlet for independent creators to display their works. Web television series continued to improve in quality, rivaling shows on network television. The concept of watching programming online was becoming less foreign to viewers, and creativity boomed. Series produced by Independent producers gained popularity and ushered in a new age of programming, proving that web television was a legitimate medium, and that web series would be more than a passing fad. The major networks and studios took notice of the trend, and began to debut their own original series. ABC started the year with the comedy web series "Squeegies," created by Handsome Donkey and produced by digital studio Stage 9. NBC debuted Gemini Division, a science fiction series starring Rosario Dawson, produced and created by Electric Farm Entertainment (the creators of the cult web series Afterworld). Warner Brothers relaunched The WB as an online network with the debut of their first original web series, "Sorority Forever", created and produced by Big Fantastic and executive produced by McG. With the rise of studio based web series, MTV announced a new original series created by renowned filmmaker Craig Brewer to combine the indie music world and new media expansion.

Pre-established creative talents also started producing high profile original web series in 2008. Joss Whedon created, produced and self-financed Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day. Big Fantastic wrote and produced Foreign Body, a mystery web series that served as a prequel to Robin Cook's novel of the same name. Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried founded a new Internet studio, EQAL, and produced a spin-off from "lonelygirl15" entitled "LG15: The Resistance".. 2008 also saw the birth of dedicated media coverage of the web television space with organizations like GigaOm's NewTeeVee and Tubefilter News profiling content, creators, and personalities. Mainstream press and their digital shingles got into the game as well. In the UK, KateModern came to an end on Bebo, with the website also hosting a six month long reality/travel show, The Gap Year. This was produced by Endemol UK, who also made Kirill, a drama for MSN.

2008 also saw Australia emerge as a leading territory for online series. Most notable was the made for MySpace series the MySpace Road Tour produced by FremantleMedia Australia. The first series ran from July to October 2008 proved immensely popular with the MySpace audience and the show received a great deal of positive press. During MipCom in October 2008 MySpace announced plans for a second series and indicated that it was in talks with cable network Foxtel to distribute series 1 on television. Additionally MySpace has spoken of their plans to produce other versions of the MySpace Road Tour in other countries., Digital Media Australia, Natalie Apostolou, Friday 17 October 2008.

2009: New Hollywood and the Rise of Web television

2008 saw the rise of web television as vibrant medium distinct from traditional television programming. The 2009 formation of the International Academy of Web Television was followed by creation of the first awards program for the web television industry, called the Streamy Awards.

The emerging potential for success in web video has caught the eye of some of the top entertainment executives in America, including former Disney executive and current head of the Tornante Company, Michael Eisner. Eisner's Vuguru subdivision of Tornante partnered with Canadian media conglomerate Rogers Media on October 26, 2009, securing plans to produce upwards of 30 new web shows a year. Rogers Media will help fund and distribute Vuguru's upcoming productions, thereby solidifying a direct connection between old and new media.

Production and distribution

The rise in the popularity of the Internet and improvements in streaming video technology mean that producing and distributing a web series is relatively cheap by traditional standards and allows producers to reach a potentially global audience who can access the shows 24 hours a day.