AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

TV Week

NBC Latest to Test a Realm Ruled by Upstarts

When NBC debuts the Rosario Dawson science fiction Web series “Gemini Division” online next month, it will mark a return to a programming genre that broadcasters haven’t had much success with—the online original series.

Broadcast and cable networks are building hearty businesses streaming their TV shows on the Internet, but their track record in producing original scripted content for the Web is poor. Most of their efforts to replicate the success of smaller, scrappier Web series, such as “Ask a Ninja” or “Zaproot,” have fallen short.

Most recently, Turner Animation, Young Adults & Kids folded its comedy Web site Superdeluxe.com into Adult Swim.com, a fellow Turner company. In the past year HBO shut down This JustIn.com and NBC migrated Dotcomedy.com into NBC.com after Dotcomedy failed to reach 500,000 monthly unique visitors. Also, NBC’s online-only soap opera “Coastal Dreams” peaked last fall with a few hundred thousand unique visitors.

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