AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Sites Cast a Net Over Striking Writers - Wall Street Journal

With No Restraints Under Guild Rules, Upstarts Lure Talent

As the television world tries to stave off the effects of a writers’ strike, upstart Internet entertainment sites are waiting in the wings hoping to steal viewers — and, possibly, writers.

A new crop of Web entertainment sites has popped up in recent months, many of them featuring scripted, episodic short-form content known as “webisodes.” The online offerings include Web sites that feature video shorts, such as Break.com; scripted original series such as “quarterlife,” a 36-episode series from top TV producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, known for the series “thirtysomething”; and “Prom Queen,” the Web-only drama produced by former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner.

Still more are coming down the pike, such as 60Frames.com, a site promising material from luminaries like Joel and Ethan Coen, who directed “No Country for Old Men” and “Fargo.” Former United Talent Agency executive Brent Weinstein heads up the company; his old employer incubated it. “Quarterlife” is part of a new wave of short-form, online scripted series.

Some of these ventures see the current strike as a way to attract attention, much the way cable TV’s prominence rose during a writers’ strike in the late 1980s. Because the sites generally aren’t parties to Writers Guild of America agreements, the guild’s strike against film and TV studios is seen as an opportunity to attract talent.