Tuned In: Netflix, Hulu to unveil original shows for Web
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Steven Van Zandt stars as a New York mobster who joins the federal witness protection program and moves to Lillehammer, Norway, in Netflix's original series "Lilyhammer."
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Original online TV programming gets a boost this month as several big-name tech companies make a push into territory that historically has been the realm of TV programmers.
These new series look like traditional TV shows, but you won't find them on a broadcast or cable network. They're shows made to be viewed online and via broadband streaming.
Next week, Netflix debuts its first original series, "Lilyhammer," which will be followed next year by a fourth season of the former Fox comedy "Arrested Development." YouTube.com already has launched several new niche content "channels" dedicated to original programming, and on Feb. 14 Hulu.com debuts its first original scripted series, "Battleground," about a political campaign in Wisconsin.
While these series represent new steps for their content providers, they do not mark the first attempts at original online programming. Sony's Crackle.com and Warner Bros.' TheWB.com have tried to get Web surfers to watch their original series since August 2008 with limited success. "Children's Hospital" began on TheWB.com before its migration to TV's Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, but WB.com series "Blue Water High" and "Sorority Forever" didn't attract much notice.
Blame it on a lack of marketing but also because TheWB.com is not the sort of destination Netflix and Hulu have become. Hulu averages 30 million monthly users; Netflix streamed 2 billion hours of video in the last three months of 2011, according to the Associated Press.
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said his company's programs will be high quality and indistinguishable from programs made for TV networks. Netflix also will use customers' ratings of past TV shows and movies as a guide to steer them toward original programs, like "Lilyhammer."
"We don't have to cast a huge net across our subscriber base," he said. "In personalizing it's a way to present the show to the most likely audience."
If a Netflix customer likes "Lilyhammer," he or she will give it a good rating and that will "expand the viewership of the show in a way that doesn't require excessive external marketing." Mr. Sarandos said. He's confident Netflix customers will appreciate "Lilyhammer" because it's the kind of serialized one-hour drama Netflix viewers are particularly interested in watching at a time when broadcast networks often develop more procedural shows.
First Published February 3, 2012 12:00 am
